IGNOU invites Applications for Online Food Safety & Agriculture Programmes for 2012

The Indira Gandhi National Open University's (IGNOU), School of Agriculture (SOA) strives for a flagship role in turning the rural unemployed youth to first rate agricultural entrepreneurs and agri-business managers of tomorrow. The impact of agricultural education through distance mode will soon be discernible in development of new breeds of entrepreneurs, increased employment opportunities, higher earnings and better work environment.

The Indira Gandhi National Open University’s (IGNOU’s) School of Agriculture (SOA) invites applications for its two programmes:

Post Graduate Diploma in Food Safety and Quality Management (PGDFSQM)
and
Post Graduate Certificate in Agriculture Policy (PGCAP)

These two programmes will also be offered online for July 2012 session.

Post Graduate Diploma in Food Safety and Quality Management (PGDFSQM) 

The PGDFSQM programme aims to develop professionals for development, implementation and auditing of food safety and quality management in the country. It shall enable the learners to ensure the food safety as per mandatory legal requirements and voluntary standards including export regulations. It shall help them design and implement good hygienic and manufacturing practices, hazard analysis and critical control point. After completing the programme, the learners shall be able to effectively plan, conduct and audit as per the guidelines of the ISO 19011-2002 and undertake microbiological and chemical analysis of food products.

Eligibility Criteria for PGDFSQM:

Learners with science, arts or commerce background with relevant experience are eligible to apply for the PG diploma programme whose minimum duration is one year and maximum duration is four years.

Career Prospects after PGDFSQM

After the completion of this programme, learners can enter into the job market and can become quality control officer or quality assurance/ management professionals in food/ hospitality/ retail industry and laboratories, food safety officer in the regulatory bodies, food auditor in certification and inspection bodies, trainer/ counselors in food safety and quality management systems and self-employment as food certifying/ auditing professionals for the food safety and quality management systems. The details are available at www.ignouonline.ac.in/safe

Post Graduate Certificate in Agriculture Policy (PGCAP)

The PGCAP programme is meant for learners interested to learn about developing human resource for planning, development and implementation of national policies in agriculture. The specific objectives of this certificate programme are to create understanding of the salient features of the agriculture policy framework among policy makers, implementers and other stakeholders of the system for its effective implementation and develop human resource for identification of strategic issues with reference to national policies in agriculture.


Eligibility Criteria for PGCAP:

The eligibility for this six months programme is graduation in any discipline.


Career Prospects after PGCAP:

The certificate programme will be helpful to those who want to pursue their career as agriculture officers/ planning officers in ministries and central and state agriculture departments, project managers/ programme officers/ project coordinators in government and non-governmental organizations, research officers in ministries/ development departments and extension/ information officers in agriculture universities and departments marketing officers in marketing boards and departments.

Source: Official Website of IGNOU