Abstract

                                The study aims to assess and evaluate the course's effectiveness and its impact on various stakeholders. An impact study seeks to understand how well a program or course, achieves its intended objectives and how it affects the participants, the institution, and the broader community. Sericulture, the art, and science of making silk, has played a significant role in human culture for many years as a source of luxury, wealth, and employment in rural areas. In response to this demand, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University is offering Sericulture certificate programmes in distance mode. It has arisen as a potential way to educate and enable people from every aspect of life, particularly those living in rural regions, to engage in this lucrative industry. Sericulture course was chosen among 41 certificate courses and responses were collected from the successfully completed learners. This paper attempts to explain the impact of the course concerning eight various dimensions that describes the level of impact attained by Sericulture certificate course among learners. As, the study investigates the impact obtained by past learners, the research design Ex post facto design was utilized to conduct the study. The sample for the study was successful learners who had completed their certificate course during the year of 2019 (55) and 2020 (32) as total 87 successful learners were taken for the study from various districts in Tamil Nadu. Chi square test revealed that there is significant association between Geographical distance (0.016), Job aspiration (0.057*), Experience in Sericulture (0.009), Attitude towards Entrepreneurship (0.007) and Motivation (0.056*) with Impact of Sericulture certificate course. The study shows that majority of the learners benefited by completing the Sericulture certificate course and it created good impact among learners.

Key words : Certificate course; Impact; Sericulture; Entrepreneurship; Distance Education; Standard of Living