Workshop on Skills Upgradation : Produce globally accepted, market-ready graduates

Anantapur: AP State Council of Higher Education (APSCHE) Chairman K Hemachandra Reddy has called upon stakeholders including educational institutions and faculty members to apply their minds on how to inculcate English language learning to make themselves employable as part of personality and skills upgradation.

The state government, he said was strategically planning to prepare globally accepted graduates, who will be highly skilled and employable by any country by giving top priority to English speaking.

He said that a country like China also has realised the importance of English as a global link language and have of late zeroed in on 1 lakh students to learn English language for the benefit of carrying out international dealings for Chinese government.

Tens of such batches will be prepared by the government for global exposure and increasing their knowledge base as most of the intellectual knowledge bank is confined in English literature.

Participating in the workshop on 'Strategies for enhancing communication skills of students' at the JNTU campus here on Saturday, Hemachandra Reddy recalled his days as engineering student and pointed out that only 15 per cent of students spoke English language while 85 per cent had no knowledge of the language.

In post liberalisation India, suddenly industry bodies and institutions began to sing the English song by insisting on having communication skills which meant speaking in English language.

The APSCHE chairman said that only 11 per cent of Japan's population were youngsters and the remaining are older generation while 27 per cent of Europeans are younger generation and the remaining are older generation. India, China and Brazil have 55 per cent of their population young generation.

There is a great demand for English speaking job seekers world over and it is against this background, the AP government was preparing globally accepted graduates with emphasis on English speaking and skills upgradation for absorption by global market.

Vice Chancellor G.Ranga Janardhana called for innovative ideas for boosting communication skills of students and increasing employability of engineering graduates. Rector M Vijay Kumar said only 10-20 per cent of engineering graduates were employable and industry-ready.

Registrar C Sasidhar said English teachers should not scare students with their apt pronounciation and flowery language but teach simple English language so that those who are new to apt Anglican pronounciation do not suffer from inferiority and fear complex. Prof Vasundara, director for placements proposed vote of thanks.