The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Soft skills improvement programme launched

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Apr 19, 2006

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Soft skills improvement programme launched

Staff Reporter

CHENNAI: A soft skills improvement programme to make students more employable was launched here on Saturday by CareersUniverse, a company that trains and tests jobseekers.

The programme, CareerSmart, is a self-learning course with a web-enabled curriculum. Online tests to assess skills, and personal tutors, who would offer coaching on the Internet, are the programme's features, said R. Kannan, Chief Executive Officer of CareersUniverse.

Each CD would cost Rs.499 plus taxes.

A user identity and password would be supplied along with the CD to access the web-based modules.

Mr. Kannan said his team had based the modules on skills that companies were looking for in prospective employees.

CareerSmart also offers a speaking skills module.

Personal tutors will listen to an audio file of a student's voice that can be sent through e-mail and comment on the diction and clarity and suggest ways to improve them.

Similarly, listening skills testing is offered online, where the tutor reads a passage aloud.

Alternatively, the user can also take the programme to Reliance WebWorld and Sify outlets with which the company has tied-up.

"There is a huge demand for people with good communication skills. We hope to bridge this demand-supply gap," Mr. Kannan said.

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