In all likelihood, Sunandha, a B.Tech graduate, hopes to get into the corporate world shortly. Although she is good at her academic performance, the girl feels that she is lagging in soft skills and appropriate exposure to work culture.
D. Satya Anusha, a III year engineering student, feels that keeping pace with the present competitive scenario is the biggest challenge. “Irrespective of one’s qualification, the way you present yourself and the way you communicate matter a lot at any workplace,” she says.
As a student, the concentration is always on individual performance whereas at workplace the teamwork counts. The transition is difficult to cope with, says R. Siva Shankar, an engineering student.
“Most of the problems can be addressed if the educational institutions take soft skills training programme seriously and give it as much importance as other academic scores,” says K. Dinesh, a B.Tech graduate.
At the three-day free soft skill training programme titled ‘Jayam’, the combined initiative of Gateforum and Corporate Fokus, students felt that such sessions help boost their self-confidence.
Roping in 10 resource persons to cover topics like communication skills and team building skills among other heads, the programme aimed at creating the much needed awareness on a range of skill sets among students.
Post-bifurcation, the expectations appear to be high from the newly formed Andhra Pradesh State, chief consultant of Corporate Fokus K.S. Rao and director of Gateforum Ranjeet Kumar Sah said. “Earlier, students used to go to Hyderabad to get trained in soft skills. Sensing the pulse of the students and to narrow down the gap between academic and work domains, we plan to offer customised soft skill training programmes in the future and thus contribute to the development of the State through youth empowerment,” they said.
