STRATEGIES TO IMPROVE ENGLISH COMMUNICATION FOR ENHANCING EMPLOYABILITY FOR ENGINEERING GRADUATES

Abstract

Communication skills and soft skills is one of the prerequisite needs for employment and placements in present day scenario and mastery over the language prompts visibility, leading to better job opportunities. For advancement in career and academics, English language skills, fluency, vocabulary and the art of narration whether oral or written play a pivotal role. Exposure and access to English language leads to acceptance, recognition and better opportunities. For Engineering students, courses like Professional communication or communication skillsarea skill based and value addition course usually taught by Humanities and social sciences department to inculcate and nurture good communication competency among the technical students. Although technical students primarily focus more on their technical expertise, the need for improvising their communication to foster employability during placements is inadvertently realized. However, although Indian students spend almost twelve years of learning English before entering higher education, yet it is observed by recruitment bodies that students fail to articulate their thoughts in the right manner, thus failing to fetch the right jobs. There is some lacuna in our teaching learning methodologies which needs to be seriously addressed. Hence this article analyses these lacunas and explores newer methods and strategies which would be potentially beneficial to achieve communicative competency to seek better employment and thereby bridge the gap between industry and academia.