The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Soft skills and the job market

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Apr 13, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Soft skills and the job market

By Our Staff Reporter

CHENNAI, APRIL 11. The private sector has abdicated its responsibility towards education, said K. Pandia Rajan, managing director of Ma Foi Management Consultants, at a round table discussion on `Challenges of communication within the organisation' organised by Prime Point Foundation, a public relations trust, on Saturday.

"There is no point letting someone be educated for 21 years, and then blame him for not having communication skills when he comes in for a job," said Mr. Pandia Rajan. "We cannot talk of human resources development for adults without speaking about children's education," he added.

The participants at the session included HR professionals, teachers, corporate representatives and students from leading institutions such as Anna University, Tata Consultancy Services and Allsec Technologies.

Suggestions of propping up the assertiveness of students and strengthening the English language skills were key facets that came up during the course of the talks. K. R. Ramamoorthy, financial consultant, moderated the discussions.

"It is important to nurture educational institutions. We want a symbiotic rather than a parasitic relationship between educational institutions and the corporate sector," said Thomas Simon, senior general manager, HR, Tata Consultancy Services.

At the corporate level, human resources is presently being confined to recruitment and administrative activities, but Prime Point will soon offer its expertise for students to learn `soft skills at the college level,' said K. Srinivasan of the trust.

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