Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

Technopark to host training facilities

Thiruvananthapuram: Technopark here is all set to host two modern training facilities for bettering the business communication and technical skills of professionals, including fresh recruits, working in the knowledge and service industries.

N. Radhakrishnan Nair, chief executive officer of Technopark, told mediapersons that Governor R.L. Bhatia would inaugurate the first such facility, the Afras Academy for Business Communication (AABC) promoted by Shashi Tharoor (former Under Secretary General of the United Nations and acclaimed writer), on Wednesday. Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan and Education Minister M.A. Baby will be present.

CMC Limited, an IT solutions provider, will open the second such facility, a technical school for improving the soft skills of young graduates freshly-recruited by global businesses, in September this year. Mr. Nair said Technopark would sign an agreement with CMC Limited this week concerning this. The government will invest Rs.2 crore in the technical school.

Mr. Nair said Technopark was focusing more on developing the State’s human resource. He said both the institutions would help young professionals become effective from day one of their job. Mr. Tharoor, who was at the press conference, said Kerala’s youth need to express themselves better in English if they were to do the kind of work the 21st century world needed. Most global employers rated employees with good communication skills higher than those with just professional abilities.

Quoting heads of Technopark-based firms with whom he had interacted recently, Mr. Tharoor said most young employees had a “book knowledge of English.” They could write a paper, but could not speak their ideas confidently in English. Hence, such employees, even though highly talented, could not be presented before foreign clients.

He said his academy had hired the services of eminent U.S.-based speech language pathologist Tina L. Parson as executive director (training). She had designed a course which used the latest computer-based interactive voice recognition software for training students. Mr. Tharoor said the idea was not to make Malayalis sound like Americans but to help them communicate clearly.

The academy will offer a limited number of scholarships for trainees from poor families. The two-month course will cost a student approximately Rs.30,000. A batch will consist of 20 students. Application forms can be downloaded from the academy’s website ( www.aabc.in).

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