Career Preferences of Home Science Graduates and Post Graduates of Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana

Home Science (now known as Community Science) is an academic discipline extremely popular among girl students and recently even amongst the boys also. In home science profession, there are numerous career options and the selection of right option would help the home scientist to deliver maximum with true spirit. Lack of clear perception of the realities of a career in home science profession could adversely affect young student’s satisfaction and their long term commitment to it. Therefore, it was planned to study career preferences of graduates and post graduates of College of Home Science, Punjab Agricultural University, and Ludhiana. The study was carried on graduates and postgraduates of College of Home Science, Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), Ludhiana, who had completed their B.Sc./M.Sc./PhD. in field of Home Science during the year 2011-2014. The results of the study showed that the enrolment in the year 2008-09 and 2009-10 was 100 per cent i.e. fifty two students were enrolled. Out of which 61.54 per cent and 53.85 per cent completed their degree in the year 2012-13 and 2013-14 respectively. Findings further revealed that higher the degree level, larger is the proportion of students who preferred public sector employment (63.04% at bachelor, 73.53 per cent at Master’s and cent per cent at the PhD level), whereas, majority (74.06%) of the respondents had no intention to start an enterprise. Further, large percentage of the students from all the degree levels utilized faculty members as a source of career information (74.05%).