View of “A STUDY ON COMMUNICATION SKILLS ENHANCING THE EMPLOYABILITY AMONG THE MANAGEMENT AND ENGINEERING STUDENTS”

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Vol.04,Special Issue 02, 13 Conference (ICOSD) February 2019, Available Online: www.ajeee.co.in/index.php/AJEEE

“A STUDY ON COMMUNICATION SKILLS ENHANCING THE EMPLOYABILITY AMONG THE MANAGEMENT AND ENGINEERING STUDENTS”

Mr. Om Prakash Sharma (Research Scholar)

Abstract- Nowadays in India all the institutes are focused on developing the communication skills of the students and it is believed that communication skills is essential for enhancing employability for them. The communication skills in most of the students are not found good and they remain unemployable after passing their degree course. Recent developments in higher education have seen a strong emphasis placed on making graduates ‗job ready‘ for their work in the professions. A driver of this agenda has been the many mass-scale surveys conducted with institutes, business and industry about the communication abilities and general employability of graduates. The Universities are regularly updating the curriculum as per the industry needs but the objectives of the course are not yet achieved. The communication skills are an essential part of ones personality. The communication skills include verbal and non-verbal expressions not only this but it envisages the overall behavior of one well being with others. Good communication is a key to success for an individual as well as for an organization. This not only creates harmony in the organization but also helps it to achieve its objective more efficiently and effectively. Individual communication skills depends on its habits, sincerity and desire to learn that results in making him more employable. Employers are looking for the candidates who posses good communication skills both verbal and non-verbal for which they conduct aptitude test at the time of selecting them, hence communication skills is a primary criteria for selecting a student. Therefore this article is written with the purpose to understand the scenario of rising expectation of employer on the part of communication skills from their prospective employees who are studying in the management and engineering institutes of the hadoti region of Rajasthan.

Keywords: Communication skills, Employability, Verbal Communication, Non-Verbal Communication , Curriculum.

1 INTRODUCTION

Indian higher education is in need of radical reforms. A focus on enforcing higher standards of transparency, strengthening of the vocational and doctoral education pipeline, and professionalization of the sector through stronger institutional responsibility would help in reprioritizing efforts and working around the complexities. Recent developments in higher education have seen a strong emphasis placed on making graduates ‗job ready‘ for their work in the professions. A driver of this agenda has been the many mass-scale surveys conducted with business and industry about the abilities and general employability of graduates.

When it comes to demonstrating good communication skills, managers and others in leadership positions face a high bar. Nearly every part of a manager‘s job involves communication. Engineering managers communicate with clients and their own supervisors about new projects.

They also relay project parameters and deadlines to their reports, while providing updates to their managers and clients.

Good managers invest significant

amounts of time in setting their engineers up for success. Moreover, regular communication builds trust and makes it easier for all team members to do their jobs well.

For engineers to be successful over the course of their careers, communication skills are just as important as technical knowledge. This is certainly the case in engineering firms, where collaboration is key. One of the best ways for engineering managers to bring value to their companies and help their own careers is by learning and practicing good communication skills.

2 LITERATURE REVIEW

A. V. Bharathi Tolani⁽¹⁾ in his research on

―Communication Skills–Core of Employability Skills: Issues and Concerns‖ The requirements of the job market focus on the need to develop skills and competencies, which include the enhancement of oral skills, life skills, problem-solving skills, In short, today, we need a curriculum that develops the overall development of a learner‘s whole personality. The entire language

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teaching/learning process must aim at sharpening the problem solving capabilities of the learner. The system should be reformed so as to devote more of their resources for developing a pool of talented human capital having dynamic leadership ability. Though the first aim of education is to enlighten the human mind by way of providing knowledge, its ultimate goal is to ensure successful career placement. Hence, that education that develops all the aspects—such as the theoretical acquisition of knowledge and practical usage of the acquired skills and competencies—should be designed.

The National Employability Report by Aspiring Minds ⁽²⁾, an employability solutions company, revealed that inadequate English and computer skills are the key factors that make graduates unemployable. It stated that out of 60,000 Indian graduates, about 16% and 14% of the graduates were employable in sales and customer service operations. These jobs require communication, cognitive skills, and personality traits such as friendliness and agreeableness and in the latter numerical ability too. Over one third of the graduates (36%) were suitable for employment in clerical/secretarial jobs, which require relatively low skills. Only 2% of graduates are employable in corporate communication or content development, as the primary requirements are an exceptional command over English and basic analytical skills. Only 3% are employable as analysts and a mere 2% as accountants. In teaching, the employability was only 15%, as all jobs require high competence in cognitive skills and English. It was found that the higher the skill requirement for a job, the greater the gap in employability. The cognitive skills remain the same, but the maximum difference between them is English communication skills. So, we cannot deny the fact that ―Poor English, Computer Skills Make Graduates Unemployable‖ (Nagarajan, 2013)⁽²⁾.

National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM)⁽³⁾ data that appeared in The Economic Times article ―Only 25% IT Graduates Readily Employable: NASSCOM‖ (ET Bureau, 2011) justifies why when big IT companies and organizations like NASSCOM say that only 25% of the technical graduates are employable, what

they mean is that most of them have not been able to communicate their skills and thought processes effectively due to a gap between industry and academia (Singh, 2013)⁽³⁾ .

A study conducted by Paulrajan (2011)⁽⁴⁾ concluded that a mix of academic qualifications, important vocational skills, and personal skills were selling points for entry-level jobs. Employers in the retail industry look for people for their managerial jobs with different skill sets, such as academic qualifications, communication skills, leadership skills, teamwork skills, and prior work experience.

Pandey (2012)⁽⁵⁾ identified the important factors affecting employability of master of business administration students, and the study concluded with the need for developing critical thinking skills among the youth. Shukla (2012) ⁽⁶⁾ attempted to identify the level of employability skills among students. The study revealed that the university curriculum should be redesigned with more apprenticeship and live industry projects, which will facilitate pre job training and enhance the employability among graduates.

A study by Chithra (2013)⁽⁷⁾ revealed that the students with prior work experience have a better awareness of the employability skills than students with no work experience. The current need is to enhance the skills and application of knowledge through specific training that will enable the workers to perform their jobs in the best possible manner.

According to the National Employability Report (2016) ⁽⁸⁾ , more than 80% of the engineering graduates

are unemployable

(http://www.aspiringminds.com/research ). Rao (2010) ⁽⁸⁾ , in his book Soft Skills – Enhancing Employability: Connecting Campus With Corporate, states that

―Currently Indian Education System focuses on too much on facts and figures which does not support creativity, analytical and reasoning power among the children‖ (p. 129). The communicative skill therefore seems to be the most important component in deciding students‘ career.

2.1 Objectives of the Study

 To identify the growing need of communication skills to enhance

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employability of Management and Engineering students.

 To find the curriculum input in enhancing communication skills and in turn enhancing employability of Management and Engineering students.

3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Data Collection: The data is collected from the students of the institutes located in hadoti region. A close ended questionnaire has been designed to collect the views of the students on the communication skills and the curriculum inputs. In total 280 students are interviewed for the purpose.

3.1 First Hypothesis:

H01: ―There is no significance difference between views of management students from different institutions‖.

Ha1: ―There is significance difference between views of management students from different institutions‖.

3.2 Second Hypothesis:

H02: ―There is no significance difference between views of engineering students from different institutions‖.

Ha2: ―There is significance difference between views of engineering students from different institutions‖.

3.3 First Hypothesis

Groups Count Sum Average Variance

OKIMR 10 436 43.6 93.37778

RTU 24 1143 47.625 23.63587

MIMT 23 1140 49.56522 7.620553

CPU 23 1112 48.34783 39.50988

ANOVA Source of

Variation SS df MS F P-value F crit

Between

Groups 255.0929 3 85.03098 2.669408 0.053511 2.724944 Within Groups 2420.895 76 31.85388

Total 2675.988 79

Interpretation

The p-value is greater than .05. Therefore the Ho1 is accepted.

Second Hypothesis

Groups Count Sum Average Variance

CPU 34 1612 47.41176 35.21925

RTU 45 2091 46.46667 31.89091

GEC 43 2017 46.90698 23.80066

VEC 40 1829 45.725 26.05064

JEC 38 1740 45.78947 34.49502

ANOVA Source of

Variation SS df MS F P-value F crit

Between Groups 78.04101 4 19.51025 0.649525 0.627863 2.417963 Within Groups 5857.354 195 30.03771

Total 5935.395 199

Interpretation

The p-value is greater than .05. Therefore the Ho2 is accepted.

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4 CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION On the basis of this study it has been concluded that the communication skills is the primary criteria to get a good job. It enhances the employability of the students. In India most of the students do not posses the communication skills as per the industry needs. Therefore the following suggestions are made for the improvement of the communication skills of the management and the engineering students.

Educators, Teachers and Students all believe that the communication skills are essential and it enhances the employability of the students. Therefore the excellent communication skills is the primary need for enhancing the employability of the students. As per the employer response only a few are employable and most of the students are unemployable. The reason of being student not employable is their poor communication skills. The reason includes poor routine, poor concentration, lack of vision, insincere attitude, lack of guidance, poor surrounding and family background.

Besides the above reasons there are several factors that need to be improved for the purpose of the improving students communication skills.

1. Communication skills includes writing as well as verbal skills. The communication process means the process of sharing ideas between two or more persons. The communication objective is to understand one another in the same sense as it communicated.

So one should develop the higher degree of understanding of the language and the meaning of the message communicated to one another.

2. Seminar, expert lecture and workshop on the communication skills should be conducted for the students to improve their communication skills. Professional trainers should be invited for the same.

3. The mock interviews, aptitude test and small assignments should be given to the students for improving their skills. The aptitude test should be designed according to the industry needs.

4. Student having poor communication skills are poor in presenting the things so presentation by the students should be scheduled. Teachers should properly guide the students in designing and making the presentation.

5. With the purpose to improve writing skills. The formal letter, message and articles writing assignment should be given to the students. Teacher should assist them in their work and critical evaluation should be done at the end.

6. Though the curriculum is being updated by the university regularly but in order to make it upto the mark and as per present requirement, industry experts should be made member of such academic councils.

7. The communication lab should be kept updated by the institute and regular lab session should be conducted for the students by the faculty who is expert in it. The computer lab and internet facility should be provided to the students. Therefore the proper infrastructural facility should be provided to the students for improving their skills.

8. The management should regularly interact with the students to understand their process and to find their expectation from the institute. This will remove the gap between the overall delivery process.

Therefore lots of improvements need to be made in the existing educational system. Student, Teacher and Educators are the key stake holders of this system and the changes are demanded from each of them to improve the entire educational system. The communication skills of a student can be improved to enhance their employability by incorporating the suggestions given in this report.

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