Soft skills are characteristic traits and interpersonal skills that characterize a person’s relationships with other people. They are also often known as ‘Transferable Skills’, ‘People skills’ or ‘Social Skills’. Students’ work ethic, attitude, communication skills, emotional intelligence and a host of other personal attributes are the soft skills that are crucial for career success. Nowadays soft skills are a priority while hiring, as they are often essential for workers to succeed in modern organizations. One is expected to have not only good speaking abilities, but also good at listening to other people’s point of view in any field. A lack of soft skills can limit students’ potential, or even be the downfall of their career. By developing strong leadership, teamwork, and communication abilities, they can run projects smoothly, deliver results that please everyone, and even positively influence their personal life by improving how they interact with others.
Virtual Soft Skill Training 2020-2021
Corporate Relations Committee (CRC) at Pillai Institute of Management Studies and Research conducts soft skill training for all the students of MMS online on Zoom platform. Swati Ghosh, Balashankar Ramdas, Shailendra Pawaskar and Mamta Nair are the members of the CRC committee.
Beginning of semester III is the right time to start active preparations for final placements. Keeping this in view, the CRC committee has prepared a pre-placement training program schedule for second year students of MMS program. It was decided that personal interview sessions will be conducted batch wise. Students were advised to attend the personal interview sessions regularly and be present in formals. Attendance was made compulsory for all these sessions.
Various activities are organized by the committee are listed below as follows:
| Topic covered | Date |
|---|---|
| Session 1: Introductory Session | 18th July, 2020 |
| Session 2 : Grooming | 8th August, 2020 |
| Session 3 : Personal Interview Techniques | 22nd August, 2020 |
| Session 4 : Group discussion | 12th September, 2020 |
Session 1: Introductory Session
Date: 18th July, 2020 Time : 3:00 p.m. to 4 p.m.
In this session second year students of all the specializations were briefed about the detailed soft skill training workshop and later on feedback and suggestions were solicited from them. Afterwards, students were asked to speak for at least three minutes about any general topic or their specialization or any topic of interest and at last feedback was given to them for further improvement. In this session, placement policy was also discussed in detail.
Participants:
There were 126 students who attended the first session. Specialization wise attendance details are attached separately.
Suggestion given by the students:
- Involving students in the placement process keeping in mind the representation from each of the specializations.
- There should be regular meetings for smooth functioning of the committee.
Session 2 : Grooming
Date: 8th August, 2020 Time: 3:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.
In this session students were asked to search and complete following details:
- Researching the profile and company
- HR questions asked frequently in the interview
- Formal dressing
Students were advised to prepare one page CV and submit it to the placement cell for correction within a week’s time. It was decided in the session that students will wear formals all day.
Participants:
There were 137 students who attended the Second Session Grooming – I. Specialization wise attendance details are attached separately.
Session 3: Personal Interview Techniques
Date: 22nd August, 2020 Time: 3:00 to 4:45 p.m.
In this session, students were trained on how to answer tricky questions such as-
- How to deal with difficult questions (salary expectation, break in studies etc.)
- How to answer – What are your weaknesses?
- Mock interviews (general) were also conducted for a few students.
Participants:
There were 128 participants who attended the session.
Session 4 : Group Discussion
Date: 12th September, 2020 Time: 3:00 p.m. to 4:45 p.m.
GD was conducted for students to test general awareness of students along with body language and gestures.Students were divided in the groups of 15 to 16 each.
Following topics were selected for GD:
- Should celebrities be allowed to join politics
- Social Media- Curse or Boon
- Scams in Indian banks
- For or Against Modi Government
- Stone pelting is a stumbling block to the pride of Indian Army
- Books Have Become Irrelevant In IOT Present.
- Creating more states will disintegrate India
- Digital payments are secure and India is ready to go cashless.
- Chinese goods are a threat to Indian businessmen and the economy.
- Modi’s ‘Make in India’ campaign is better than the old ‘Made in India’ campaign.
- Demonetization is a successful and effective move.
- Govt. can easily control the rising petrol prices.
- India needs bullet trains
Participants:
Session was attended by 160 students and it was liked by them. After every GD session, there was lots of discussion among faculty and students about dos and don’ts of the GD. Students requested for some such sessions.
