Indian students can become employable if they just improve their communication skills. This statement is not more than just a myth. While communication is an important skill, the complete set of employment skills goes much beyond. In a PurpleLeap study across 100 colleges, it was found that more than 80 per cent of the students, who were found to be good in communication skills, did not meet the 'employment-ready' criteria.
Before we go into the details of where students in India lag, let us first understand the importance of different skills across job roles. Here we are going to focus only on 'transferable skills', skills that are applicable across industries. Apart from these transferable skills, industry specific functional and technical skills are also important aspects in improving prospects for a particular role.
The transferable skills can be broadly categorised into the three areas: thinking skills, behavioural skills and interaction skills.
Text: Amit Bansal. The author is the CEO of PurpleLeap an employability skill enhancement initiative of Educomp Solutions Pvt Ltd.
Photographs: Rediff Archives
Also see: Are you employment-ready?