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 (email, 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