Objectives of the Practice

Owing to the large number of learners hailing from disadvantaged backgrounds, many students have been found to be poor in communication skills and lack overall abilities to face the challenges of society. It has been deemed a great responsibility on the part of the institution to provide Communication Skills and Soft Skills training as a foundation course. The programme aimed at

• Provision of training in job-oriented soft skills which transform students into employable entities.
• Training in Communicative English language which enables students to face the needs of the job market and to be able to carry out entrepreneurial ventures with greater ease.
• Training in interview skills, public speaking skills, presentation skills and sustained soft skills to facilitate success in facing the rigors of placement drives and future careers.

The Context

In order to make students who hail from rural backgrounds ready to face the job market the academic committee of the institution resolved to offer Communication Skills and Soft Skills module to the I and II degree students as part of the Foundation courses. Initially communication skills and soft skills was offered as a certificate course. However, owing to the results that were encouraging the academic committee proposed that the course should be offered as an embedded course with two credits since 2016-20 for the undergraduate students of all streams. Specially designed course material with thrust in training in oral communication was developed and implemented after ratification in the boards of studies and academic council meets. Preparation of material and implementation of instructional material was undertaken under the ages of the department of English (U.G).

The Practice

The Communication Skills and Soft Skills programme has modules on Effective communication, Dialogues & everyday speech, Public Speaking, Role Play, Interview Skills, soft skills, netiquette and Group discussion. The modules are clubbed with training in the English language lab where on-line teaching is made a possibility. Around 9 trained faculty mostly belonging to the English department were allotted two classes per week each for each group namely the sciences, arts and commerce, vocational and BBA. The two classes comprise of one lab hour and one contact hour. The timetable was set in such a manner that all the I year and II year comprising of 22 batches (sciences) and 12 batches (Arts and Commerce) 4 batches comprising the vocational and management studies groups are offered this course.

In 2016-2017, academic year a communication skills programme had been launched under the auspices of the APSHE. This programme lay thrust on on-line mode of teaching with an end semester exam. However gradually this course was widened to cover soft skills training through experiential learning modules through the inclusion of skits, role play, mock sessions, seminars, use of videos, audio clippings and live demonstrations. The end semester examination comprised of a practical examination for 50 marks with 2 credits being allotted for a successful completion of the programme.

Participate learning, interactive mode of activities and experiential learning have been the techniques used to impart these essential skills for students to be able to communicate with confidence in real life situations created in the classrooms. Course material Fluency I for semester II, Fluency II for semester III, Fluency III for semester IV have been generated and developed comprising of activity based learning with necessary inputs. The whole programme is designed for 30 sessions per semester.

Evidence of success

The success of the programme is evident in the confidence levels that are increased in students in the use of English as a mode of communication.

• Students have shown better performance in campus drives after this foundation course has been introduced.
• Increased confidence levels have been observed in the performance of the students at various seminars, conferences and competitions according to feedback and surveys
• Feedback obtained from parents and prospective employees has been positive about the usefulness of the programme.
• Students themselves have been extremely satisfied and have stated that this programme has enabled them to speak with confidence in English in various situations.
• Nearly 2800 students of the undergraduate programmes have benefited from this programme.
• The practical examinations conducted at the end of the programme give ample scope to list generation learners to train in oral skills which is a crucial part of the testing pattern.
• Students are trained by faculty who serve as facilitators in developing confidence, proper body language, necessary soft skills and vibrant communication skills.

Problems encountered and resources required

• Due to the shortage of trainers, the batch-size could not be reduced to an ideal number of 20-23. Larger groups of 40-50 meant that training could not be optimal.
• Owing to restrictions in time slots, wider use of the language labs was a problem.
• Fixation of classes in the time-table created clashes and co-ordination issues.
• Setting up of a separate training space or halls for such activities with enhanced modern equipment would be a boon to learners.
• Owing to limited time per session not all students should be trained optimally.