Indore (Madhya Pradesh): Only 3.84% of engineers are employable in software-related jobs at start-ups, according to the latest National Employability Report. Citing the same, the former vice-chancellor of RGPV and adviser of the institute, professor Piyush Trivedi, addressed first-year students of the Bachelor of Technology of various technical institutes on Saturday. He said a major reason for the employability ratio being so low was a lack of communication skills.
“It doesn’t matter in which medium you’ve studied, Hindi or English—what matters is that you speak confidently and are able to put your point through,” Trivedi said.
For students struggling with language, he suggested reading, speaking and writing exercises using English newspapers. “Work daily to improve your language and communication skills,” Trivedi said. He emphasised the need to understand the practicality of language grammar and practice every day by reading good books instead of memorising language grammar by sight.
Dr Ashok Kumat, Dr Sanjay T Purkar and Dr Nirmal Dagdhi had taken the initiative for the event and said, “In the present scenario, where budding engineers usually talk about unemployment, lower packages or fewer gover jobs, they should focus on the skills and hands-on experience in at least the initial stages of professional life.”
The students, in their presentations, spoke about nuances of English grammar, linguistics, communication skills and presentation skills, which were well-expressed through their colourful posters.
Giving information regarding the programme, professor Manoj Mishra said the students gave solitary presentations keeping in mind verbal and non-verbal communication through more than 30 beautiful posters.
Sakshi Chaurasia and Saloni Sharma presented their ideas and concept on the Process of Communication.
Hardik Bakhtiya spoke about the seven ‘C’s of Communication.
Aman Gupta and Avani Purohit gave a presentation on figure of speeches.
Improving communication skills
The event focused on discussion and improvement of communication skills with focus on five aspects of communication skills as follows:
• Pay attention; give the speaker your undivided attention
• Show that you are listening. It is important that you are ‘seen’ to be listening
• Keep an open mind; try not to interrupt
• Respond appropriately; active listening encourages respect and creates a good bond between speaker and listener
• Engineering leaders must write extensively for their jobs, and their writing needs to be professional, reader-focused, and error-free. What leaders write in particular can affect productivity and the bottomline, so the written communication that leaders create must be clear and concise
