10 key skills to enhance employability K V Sarma Jonnavithula

Theoretical Base  Most students entering industry today have weak theoretical base  Emphasis in education sector till Std X is rarely on sturdy theoretical foundation  Teacher – student interaction in class room is limited mostly to class work and examinations  There are two reasons for this – 1) too much syllabus to teach in too little time and 2) lack of interest among students  An effective way of turning this around is to train teachers to be interactive with students in school. Students shouldn’t just study Archemedes’ principle, they should understand the theoretical basis behind it

Practical Knowledge  Students today get little practical knowledge during education, especially in engineering and technology segment  Most students who enter professional sphere start to learn on-the- job, making it that much more difficult for them to be productive  Students spend less than 30% of a calendar week in labs and libraries during education. Emphasis must be to spend considerable amount of time in labs  Make the lab as the classroom. There should be a compulsory component of a project in all kinds of higher education – history to chemistry!  Schools should encourage students to get hands on experience of what they learn  Special credits at school for such an effort allowing students to turn these credits into scholarships or fee reimbursement could help

Literature Study  Students are not being encouraged to research on topics  Curiosity of the student has to be nurtured to do literature study on topic of interest  An annual project for higher secondary students to create poster presentations about topics of interest would help nurture literature study  Most of modern industry relies heavily on available literature to find newer and efficient ways to handle systems  Students entering higher education find themselves lacking skill and interest to do literature study, which continues further into their jobs

Writing Skills  Students entering industry find themselves with little or no composition skills  Writing is a very important part of all transactions in modern industry  Most students do not develop producing a comprehensive and precise document of the work they do  Writing skills can only be developed by writing as often as possible  Special sessions should be taken at school level to encourage students to practice writing good articles

Listening Skills  Listening forms an important part of development of leadership qualities in modern industry  Lack of listening skills leads to unqualified assumptions, thereby lowering productivity  Even during interviews many students show their impatience and get the question wrong  Employability in many modern institutions depends more on listening skills than on technical skills  Schools should be encouraged to develop methodologies to teach students how to listen  Teachers in turn should be trained to teach how to listen

Speaking Skills  In today’s industry, communication happens in both written ( , reports etc.) as well as in presentations and team discussions  Presentations and Discussions require exceptional skills  Both in simple presentations and team discussions, the emphasis is always on precision in communication  Be it in English or in vernacular language, our students seem to always be off the mark while speaking about the topic  Communication in school is extremely different from that in industry  Our students need to be trained properly in this regard

Innovation  One of the most important factors in industry today is innovation  Our schooling doesn’t differentiate between Innovation and Invention  Industry places more emphasis on innovation compared to invention  Innovation is about doing same thing in a different and an efficient way  Invention is about doing something new  This basic differentiation has to be taught right from schooling to improve our students’ work culture  Most industry mentors struggle to motivate their mentees to think differently. Such a skill is much needed in a growing country like India

Planning  Most of the technical education concentrates only on teaching technical aspects whereas industry looks for not only technical but exceptional managerial skills  Most students entering industry do not have a methodology at work. Aspects like planning an approach to an assignment have to be practiced by students  To help students develop proper experience in managing their affairs, teachers have to work closely with students and help them plan their daily activities  Industry in India today needs good engineers/technicians who can manage situations well, especially since every company is experience surge in customer base

Methodology  Industry has had a radical shift since automation became an important facet of its functioning  Automation is in turn dependant on methodology  Indian engineers and technicians need to understand methodology of various industries – assembly lines to software  Such an understanding will in turn help them improve their work environment and therefore improve their employability  Thrust on methodology should start from degree education through workshops and project collaborations with industry

Efficiency  Defining characteristic of good engineers and technicians is efficiency  Industry seeks people who have a keen eye for efficiency  This skill is difficult to inculcate in early stages of education because it takes considerable experience to understand what exactly is efficient and what is not  However, students should be taught to inculcate an eye for efficiency  For instance, if a teacher manages to enthuse student to find better approach to a given problem to reduce number of steps involved, it teaches the student about efficiency  Students must be encouraged to think in this direction to make them improve their own efficiency, there by improving their employability