Bengaluru: If the dean in the famous Aamir Khan movie ‘3 Idiots’ believed that sons must become engineers and daughters doctors, the panel discussion on ‘Beyond Engineering: Hottest Specialised Courses for Future-Ready Careers’ would’ve been an eye-opener for him. The session focused on multiple streams, including liberal arts, design, political science, and BBA, and the prospects they hold.“Traditionally, engineering has been the go-to career for all students. However, if you look at the current context, things have changed drastically. We saw the industrial revolution, computer revolution, and now the AI revolution. Each revolution displaced many jobs and created new ones. It’s about how we adapt. The biggest currency isn’t employment; it’s employability. If you build your employability quotient, it doesn’t matter what’s happening,” said Sunil C, country manager, Adecco India.Latha Krishnan, professor and dean, school of liberal studies, CMR University, explained how liberal arts is interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary in nature, making it extremely employable. “Suppose you take psychology as your major. You can have science like applied mathematics or data science as your minor. If you have philosophy, you can become a social scientist and have data science as your minor. Such combinations will help you become tech-fluent,” she said.Julian Paret, director at Alliance Centre of Eurasian Studies at Alliance University, agreed and explained how political science is also multidisciplinary. “Political science is a very holistic discipline. Data science and political science is a very popular combination. For example, if you want to lead any kind of electoral campaign, you need to be able to manage data. The same goes for psychology, because you need to be able to anticipate what the trends of tomorrow are. And it is a subject open to almost everyone,” he said.Abhinav Srivastava, assistant professor and HOD, Presidency School of Design, explained how design is everywhere. “Anyone who comes from an engineering background when designing something will try to understand what the man actually wants. And that is where the entire concept of user-centric designing and human-centric design came in. In the last decade, there has been an upsurge in the kind of products we use. This has given way to something called UX and UI,” he said.Anirrban Ghosh, associate dean and admission chair, JAGSoM (Jagdish Sheth School of Management), described why BBA is vital before getting an MBA. “BBA is the foundation of management. A BBA teaches you how to be professional from day one. If you do a BBA, your career acceleration happens. Also, with a BBA, you get to do internships and can even convert them into pre-placement offers. Also, the industry connections you make will be another advantage.“— Raksha Hosur Pradeep & Prathikaa V Shastry