Coursing through with flying colours

NIIT, Aptech, New Horizons, Tata Infotech and some local institutes, have short-term courses this summer. For languages, rush to Alliance Francaise, Max Mueller Bhavan and British Council.

Says NIIT’s head of Corporate Communications, Sanjiv Kataria, ‘‘The one-month course, Swift Smart, is targeted at 9-15 year old students and costs only Rs 1,499.’’ Whizkit, a CD-based edutainment product for 8-13 year-old kids has 40 hours of absolutely enriching content. CareerEdge takes high school students through a 4-month application-oriented programme.

Aptech’s Vidya Junior is great fun. Called Whiz Kids, Wonder Teen, and Web Wizard, courses are designed as per IQs. ‘‘Vidya Junior forms the fundamental link between a child’s need for basic and IT education, and introduces them to computers in a highly interactive manner,’’ says Anuj Kacker, marketing head (Global IT), Aptech.

For 6-12 year olds, Whiz Kids introduces children to computer basics, all for Rs 2,249. Wonder Teens, a 40-hour long programme, is designed for 13-14 year olds. Web Wizards is designed for 15-16 year olds and includes MS Office, Internet, Fundamentals of HTML, Front Page, and Animation. The fees for Wonder Teens and Web Wizards cost between Rs 2,499-4,799.

One can also email to support@bestwebonline.com, whose system administrator Subrato Kumar Biswal says, ‘‘Our packages on latest computer elements cost anything between Rs 1,000-2,000.

A subsidiary of New Horizons Worldwide Inc, New Horizons’ India offers courses with a fees range between Rs 1,800-34,000. The courses offered are: Networking, Operating Systems, Security, Database, Internet and Multimedia.

Tata Infotech’s course Wings exposes students to basic concepts in computers, costing the parent only Rs 1,920. Computer Concepts and Paradigm costs only Rs 1,550 only. Internet Technologies concentrate mainly on the theory aspect of networking, for just Rs 1,440.

This summer impress your friends with your panache for the languages. TalkSmart, a spoken English and personality improvement course from NIIT Planetworkz, is designed for children of Classes III-VI. An 18-hour course, it is delivered over 3 weeks, 6 days a week, an hour a day, and costs Rs 2,000.

Alliance Francaise also has courses for children(8-12) and adolescents(13-16), this vacation. The course fees are Rs 1,850 and Rs 2,950, respectively. Alliance Francaise has a course called A La Carte, tailor-made to suit your pocket as well as temperament. The fee is decided once the venue, number of students, course duration and type is decided by you.

Classes at Max Mueller Bhavan are conducted in German and instructions follow the communicative approach. There is a standard, intensive and weekend course for anything between Rs 5,800-Rs 6,300, but for students over 18.

British Council’s general English and other specialised courses are for 8 to 15 year old children. It offers General English, Spoken English and Creative Writing skill courses. Its video-based courses for 8 to 15 year olds are for kids not only with a high standard of English, but also the need to increase confidence and creativity to use the language effectively and expand vocabulary. The course would cost Rs 3,300 and classes would be for 16 hours once a week for two hours.

Book-based courses for 8-15 year olds are communicative and interactive and costs Rs 5,900 (8-week duration, twice a week for two hours).

Academic writing for 13 to 15 year olds helps them write essays and articles. The course covers writing and study skills, including organising ideas logically, planning, structuring an argument, learning and using vocabulary, and critical evaluation, with cost to the parent being Rs 3,300 (16 hours, once a week for two hours).