Bengaluru: Communication skills a major barrier for rural engineering students

In 2017-18, 1,819 students were placed from 113 placement drives, an VTU officials said.

Update: 2018-10-22 21:35 GMT
Visvesvaraya Technological University

Bengaluru: Rahul (name changed) has been a consistent performer across all semesters in his Mechanical Engineering course, but he chose to stay away from the recent centralised placements. “I have been scoring an average of 75 per cent marks across all semesters and am confident of my skills in my core subjects. But I chose not to skip the placement sessions. Last year, I attended it, but it left a big dent in my confidence as communicative English was tedious for me,” the final year student from a college in Gadag said.

The Visvesvaraya Technological University, which oversees all engineering colleges in the state, organises centralised placement sessions to get jobs for students  from rural engineering colleges.

Surya Varchasvi, a former engineering lecturer at a city college who is now a doctoral student at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IITB), said, “I have seen students who aren’t technically well-versed get through placements because of their felicity with English. Recruiters often pick candidates who can voice and present their views well in a group discussion,” he said.

Mock interviews, knowledge transfer sessions and exposure to placement process, which are offered at premier institutions like IITB, should be adopted at other colleges too to help students get jobs, he said.

Mr S.J. Amalan, Director, VTU Skill Development Centre (SDC), said that a comprehensive soft skills training module should be included in the curriculum. “The SDC has submitted such modules, which include language skills, communication, decision-making (both individual and group), business etiquette and others to ensure a better chance of employability for our students. We are waiting for the final nod from higher authorities,” he said

VTU officials said that no student from rural engineering colleges took part in the last 120 of the 165 placement sessions organised since 2016-17. “Last year, the university could get job offers for 1,120 students in 52 sessions. In 2017-18, 1,819 students were placed from 113 placement drives,” an official said.

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