G. Anand

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Technopark here will 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, Technopark, told journalists that Governor R. L. Bhatia will 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, at Technopark in September this year. Mr. Nair said Technopark will sign an agreement with CMC Ltd this week. The Government will invest Rs 2 crores in the technical school.

Mr. Nair said the Technopark was focusing more on developing the State's human resources. He said both the institutions will help young professionals to become effective from "day one" of their job. The institutions will also rid interested employers the burden of improving the communication and technical skills of their workforce.

Mr. Tharoor, who was at the press conference, said Kerala's youth need to express themselves better in English if they are to do the kind of work the 21st century world needs. Young graduates from Kerala (the main recruitment pool for global businesses) were "very good in science but not so good in expressing themselves in English."

Quoting heads of Technopark-based firms with whom he interacted recently, Mr. Tharoor said most young employees "had a book knowledge of English." They could write a paper, but could not articulate their ideas confidently in English. Their accent was incomprehensible to most non-Keralites. Hence, such employees, even though highly talented, could not be presented before foreign clients.

Kerala's future lies in the serious development of its knowledge and service industries. Most global employers rated employees with good communication skills higher than those with just professional abilities.

He said his academy has hired the services of eminent U.S.-based speech language pathologist Tina L. Parson as executive director (training). She has designed the course which uses the latest computer-based interactive voice recognition software for training students.

Mr. Tharoor said the idea was not to make Malayalis sound like Americans. The objective is to help them communicate clearly. It does not matter if this clarity comes with a particular sort of word pronunciation. 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).