Consultants, recruiters and non-bank lenders have seen a five-fold rise in education loan applications from students and young professionals in Punjab looking to migrate to Australia, Europe, and Canada, Mint reported on Monday.

       Experts told Mint that the difficult job market in Punjab has led to young individuals seeking opportunities abroad.

       Ankit Mehra, co-founder and chief executive of the non-banking financial company (NBFC) GyanDhan, was quoted as saying that the firm has seen a threefold rise in loan applications between 2021 and 2023. Punjab has been an outlier with a fivefold surge in loan applications since 2021.

       Most of these applications originate from cities such as Amritsar, Jalandhar, Patiala and Mohali, as well as towns such as Barnala, Firozpur, Faridkot, Khanna, and Muktsar. Most of these students are pursuing courses in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) and medicine.

       Mehra stated that students from Punjab prefer budget-friendly colleges, resulting in an average loan request of Rs 10 lakh. This contrasts the national average loan request amounting to Rs 33 lakh.

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       Ankur Dhawan, president of upGrad Abroad, told Mint that enrolments from Punjab rose four times higher in the financial year 2023-24 (FY24) compared to the same period in FY23.

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       Youth from Punjab are also increasingly applying for overseas employment. Pranshu Upadhyay, regional director at search firm Michael Page, said there has been a 27 per cent year-on-year rise in job applications from Punjab for international destinations. These applications are spread across Australia, the US and parts of Europe.

       Most of the candidates have applied for entry-level and mid-level positions in retail, business services and manufacturing sectors.

       Aditya Narayan Mishra, the chief executive of recruitment company CIEL HR Services, people from Punjab are also increasingly applying for jobs in the National Capital Region (NCR).

       Nishant Khanna, managing director of Webberz Educomp Ltd, said that student visa applications from Punjab and Haryana in the last year have increased by 20 per cent.

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       Consultants told Mint that selected destinations are no longer restricted to popular countries such as Canada, Australia and the US. With countries like Australia tightening their visa rules, international students are exploring new geographies in search of job opportunities.