CIR has been conducting training in the three major areas of Life skills – Quantitative Aptitude, Verbal and Communication Skills and Soft Skills. A major milestone for Learning and Development department was the introduction of the credit system for the undergraduates in the Life Skills course which has been in effect from the academic year 2010 – 2011. Life Skills has also been made a credit course for the MBA students from the academic year 2013 – 2014 onwards. In addition to the Life Skills training, industry-specific core competency training is also provided to students in their domain areas, enabling them to integrate theoretical knowledge with practical applications.
Training programmes for various competitive examinations like GRE, CAT, GATE, etc. are facilitated by CIR with the help of experts in the respective areas. Courses in foreign languages like German, French and Japanese are provided in order to empower students to take up global careers. In addition, Business English Certification (BEC) is awarded by Cambridge University under the aegis of British Council.
The central theme of training is the overall development of the students’ personalities, with necessary emphasis on communication skills and reasoning abilities. To have a real-life experience, mock interviews and group discussions are conducted with internal and external experts on the panel. Tests are administered frequently to simulate corporate testing processes in terms of its intensity, variety and content. This ensures that there are no surprises when the students undergo the company placement processes. The efficacy of this approach has been borne out by the placement record and subsequent feedback from the employers.
Training in the area of Soft Skills is offered to students of Engineering, Management, as well as other disciplines like Computer Applications, Social Work, and Arts & Sciences. The process is enabled through classroom sessions such as group discussions, case studies, management games and quizzes. These sessions are intended to enable students to enhance their interpersonal skills, leadership qualities, conflict management abilities, decision-making and problem-solving skills. The sessions on Soft Skills also focus on team work, negotiations, mutual consent and evolving synergy. Learning and unlearning, constant upgradation of core competencies, handling stress and developing emotional intelligence are a vital part of the training process.
Soft Skills training covers a whole range of aspects. This includes:
Body language and its significance in interpersonal context have considerable importance in Soft Skills training. The concepts pertaining to non-verbal communications are dealt with in the class through briefing sessions, and functional feedbacks are given through constant intervention.
Students are trained to face interviews, deal with issues, both from a subjective and objective perspective, updated with the frequently asked questions and prepared to expect the unexpected. This is further enabled through a series of mock interviews, thus helping the participant by giving feedback and inputs for improvement.
The students are taught the nuances of a good presentation – the opening, the closing, creating the presentation, understanding the audience, preparing the visuals, getting mentally ready with memory tips and notes, bringing in the right touch of humour and answering questions.
Greetings, good manners, social etiquettes, resume-writing, positive attitude, career orientation and planning, training and performance management, telephone and email etiquettes are the other areas dealt with extensively in these sessions.
Students are oriented in niche areas, especially HR, which they are supposed to be aware of while entering the actual work environment.
Apart from analyzing training needs and ensuring effective execution of training, Soft Skills involves mentoring and counselling students through constant interactions, as well as giving feedback and support to enable them to develop and progress in the right direction.
CIR approaches learning by: