
Colleges train students in soft skills
Apart from basic educational qualification, employers look for certain skill sets while employing people. In India, there is a shortage of skilled personnel and most people possess limited or no skills. To rectify this situation, several colleges are running in-house programmes to train their students in soft skills so that they can contribute to their companies soon after being placed.

Members of the Rotaract Club which was started at the DY Patil College of Engineering in Pimpri.
DY PATIL COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING,PIMPRI In India, there is a shortage of highly skilled personnel. Majority of the people don’t know how to speak fluently in public or about etiquette. So skill and personality development training is a necessity for the youth. Students from vernacular medium schools come to cities for higher education and find it difficult to cope. These students have brilliant technical skills but are unable to communicate their ideas. So, it is really important to bridge the gap between thoughts and practical work. Everyone needs to know how to speak better and present themselves on different occasions. The students of DY Patil College of Engineering have a Rotaract Club DYPVP under which workshops and training sessions on communication skills and etiquette are conducted. About 50 to 60 students have already benefited from this. Students believe that these skills will be useful during the placement period.

Students at an interactive session on soft skills which was held at Abasaheb Garware College on Karve Road.
ABASAHEB GARWARE COLLEGE, KARVE ROAD Softskills are equally necessary for the overall development of a person. It is said that India is a country of the youth and skilled youth will lead the country towards #development. Soft skills is more relevant to a country like India where the education system does not delve into personality development. Abasaheb Garware College had organised a Soft Skill Development workshop for students. A range of topics like communication skills, campus to corporate, psychological fitness and stress management, out-of-the-box thinking, team building, leadership qualities, interview techniques and personality development were covered during the workshop. Interactive sessions made the students realize that by being sharp and having clearly defined goals they can track their success easily. It also raised their self confidence as they were able to recognise their ability and #competence in achieving the goals set by themselves. SAVITRIBAI PHULE PUNE UNIVERSITY For the students from Savitribai Phule Pune University to not miss out on opportunities due to lack of skills, the International Centre conducts a special English proficiency and soft skills development programme for the students studying in various departments. The Remedial English Coaching for University Students (RECUS) was started at SPPU for international students coming to India for higher studies from non-English speaking countries. Later, the programme was extended to Indian students from non-English backgrounds. 350 students from across various departments have been attending the intensive 8-week programme. The students get a thorough grounding in English reading, writing, speaking and listening along with special sessions for grammar and vocabulary. From the five classes for the course, one class is exclusively to train the non-teaching staff. The training enables students to get familiar with the language and gain confidence.