As cut-offs in various streams have reached to the sky, there are many new avenues that a student can make a prosperous career in. Many of these avenues have a decent starting salaries and a lot of adventure and fun. With highly lucrative deals, you can sure move about to some really interesting places. Here are a few streams you can look forward to:

Travel & Tourism Management

Travel and tourism management is a comprehensive study of skills required to manage one of the world's largest and most exciting Industries. Global growth of Tourism in 2006 has been a whooping 4.5 percent and the future trends look even brighter. This suggests that the industry requires a large number of managers in the coming years. In India, tourism earns the largest foreign exchange. Career prospects in tourism and travel are great both in India and abroad.

Tourism Management program should encompass subjects like marketing, human resource, IT and financial management. On-job training is another important aspect your institute should provide. Just as an example, CHAT (College of Hospitality and Tourism) provides the students foreign internships with top international hotels all across the world. This kind of exposure helps the students' hands-on training and become industry ready professionals.

Some institutes providing you a variety of professional programs in Tourism Management are:

* College of Hospitality and Tourism, New Delhi, Mumbai, Gurgaon,     Raipur
* Indian Institute of Travel and Tourism Management, Gwalior
* Indian Institute of Travel and Tourism Management, New Delhi
* Center of Vocational Studies, Indore

There are other programs related to travel and tourism industry that are equally lucrative. You could join the aviation service industry, one of the fastest growing industries in India. Aviation service industry provides starry excitement to the young and enthusiastic. Most airlines, hotels, cruise and tourism offices are looking to an increase in their fleet, staff and personnel, hence the demand for airhostesses, flight stewards, and ground staff with the support of customer care and front office personnel' is increasing rapidly. Further progressive policies like privatization of airports, new jet airliners etc will make this overabundance in job opportunities only multiply. You can be an Airhostess, Flight Steward, Ground Personnel, Ticketing & Reservations Officer, Restaurant Hostess/Host, Cruise and Dock Executive, Front Office Executive, Customer Care Executive, Sales & Marketing Executive, Guest Relations Executive, PR Executive, Tour and Travel Industry Executive after finishing a professional program in this field. A 10+2 pass student, after doing the program, gets a handsome starting salary of not less than 10000 to 50000 plus perks.

Some institutes providing you programs in aviation service industry are:
- FAME Service Training Academy, New Delhi, Raipur, Jammu, Kochi,
  Chennai, Lucknow and Ludhiana
- Indian Aviation Academy, Mumbai
- Air Hostess Academy (AHA), New Delhi
- Frankfinn Institute of Air Hostess Training, Cochin, New Delhi

Forestry & Wildlife

Nature studies have become a very active and lucrative profession in recent times. Doing a professional program in Forestry and Wildlife will put you up-close and personal with Mother Nature. If you love the outdoors and desire an adventurous lifestyle, a course in Forestry and Wildlife is perfect for you. You could opt for a specialization and do research, be a still photographer, filmmaker, wild life journalist or even work as a wild life consultant to carry out an environment impact consultancy. The Indian Forest Service is the biggest employer. Other big employers are voluntary agencies, World Wildlife Federation, Teri, BNHS and many more such voluntary organizations. The starting salary is good and you can earn equal to a Class 1 officer and in private sector not less than Rs. 15000+.

A few Institutes that provide professional programs on Wildlife and Forestry are as follows:
* Forest Research Institute, Dehradun
* Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun ,
* Salim Ali School of Ecology, Pondicherry
* Bombay Natural History Society, Mumbai

Gemology

The study of gems is called gemology. Gems are one of the most precious gifts of nature. India has a rich legacy of fortunes in terms of precious gemstones and precious metals. One-fifth of India's exports are of gems and jewelry. Another feature that adds glitter to this lucrative profession is that astrological science revolves around gems. These two factors make gemology a glittering profession. Many youngsters have taken to gemology to make it big in gems and jewelry sector. The work revolves around casting, molding ornaments to polishing, grinding and even engraving designs on the ornaments. Although Gemology has been here for centuries, the modern version of this profession is more tech-savvy and scientific. The main objective of this course is to impart latest technical know-how in respect to gem cutting, sorting, grading, valuation and identification. There are many institutes teaching gemology. Most of them have programs of short-term duration of two months to a two-year diploma in jewelry design.

A few Institutes you can do a course in gemology:
* National Institute of Fashion Technology, New Delhi
* Indian Institute of Gemology, New Delhi
* Gem and Jewelry Export Promotion Council, New Delhi
* Sindhar Institute of Gemology, Kolkata

Many more exciting professions will be discussed in the upcoming issues…