A Critical Analysis of the Soft Skills Requirements of the IT industry and the Soft Skills Training Provided in Select

Engineering Colleges of Andhra Pradesh

THESIS

Submitted in partial fulfilmentof the requirements for the degree of

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

by

ANJANI SRIKANTH KOKA

Under the Supervision of

Prof. Meenakshi Raman

BIRLA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND SCIENCE, PILANI

2016

ii

BIRLA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND SCIENCE, PILANI

CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that the thesis entitled “A Critical Analysis of the Soft Skills Requirements

of the IT industry and the Soft Skills Training Provided in Select Engineering Colleges of

Andhra Pradesh” and submitted by Anjani Srikanth Koka, ID. No. 2010PHXF804G for

award of Ph.D. of the Institute embodies original work done by him under my supervision.

Signature of the Supervisor: ____________________

Name: MEENAKSHI RAMAN

Designation: Professor

Date: Nov 23 2016

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to express my deep sense of gratitude to Prof. Souvik Bhattacharyya, Vice

Chancellor, BITS Pilani for providing me an opportunity to work in an area of my choice and

for making available all the necessary facilities for the successful completion of this study. I

am highly grateful to Prof. K. E. Raman and Prof. V.S. Rao, former Directors, BITS Pilani, K

K Birla Goa Campus and BITS Pilani, Hyderabad Campus for their inspiration. I express my

sincere gratitude to Prof. G Sundar, Director, Off-Campus programmes and Industry

Engagement and Director, BITS Pilani, Hyderabad Campus for his continuous encouragement

throughout the course of this work.

I express my gratitude to Prof. S.K.Verma, Dean, Academic Research Division (ARD), BITS

Pilani, Prof. Prasanta Kumar Das, Associate Dean, Academic Research Division (ARD), BITS

Pilani, K K Birla Goa Campus, Prof. S Gurunarayanan, Dean, Work Integrated Learning

Programmes Division (WILPD), BITS Pilani and Prof. Niranjan Swain, Dean, Practice School

Division (PSD), BITS Pilani for their constant encouragement.

Special mention goes to my respected supervisor Prof. Meenakshi Raman. My PhD has been

an amazing experience and I thank my supervisor wholeheartedly for her tremendous academic

support. It has been an honor to be her PhD student. She was and remains my best role model

for a mentor and teacher. I still think fondly of my time as an undergraduate student in her

Spoken English and Business Communication classes. I extend my heartfelt appreciation to her

for sparing her valuable time and for patiently listening to me whenever I approached her.

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I would like to thank Mr. M S Udaya Kumar, Librarian, BITS Pilani, Hyderabad Campus for

enabling me to identify the appropriate resources for my literature study.

I deeply acknowledge the valuable support extended by the Doctoral Advisory Committee

(DAC) members Prof. Basavadatta Mitra & Dr. Shalini Upadhyay and Departmental Research

Committee (DRC) Convener Dr. Reena Cheruvalath. I also thank my colleagues Prof.

Krishnamurthy Bindumadhavan, Dr. YVK Ravi Kumar, Dr. Omvir Chaudhry, Prof. M G

Prasuna and Dr. C H Yaganti for their encouragement. I extend my thanks to Dr. Joy Anuradha

and Mr. Vijay Kumar for providing me helpful suggestions.

I extend special thanks to my wife Lakshmi Sowmya for her unconditional and unstinting

support. I owe a very special thanks to my children Srivyshnavi and Paavanasiri for allowing

me to burn the midnight oil at home for many days and for being a source of great motivation

to wind up my thesis. I am at loss of words to express my profound thanks to my parents and

in-laws who have been a constant source of inspiration throughout the course of my research.

I also express my gratitude to the office staff of ARD whose secretarial assistance helped me in

submitting the various evaluation documents in time and give pre-submission seminar

smoothly. I thank the supporting staff of the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences –

Mr. Vijay Lamani. I also thank the reprography section of the institute for their help.

Anjani Srikanth Koka

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Contents

Page

Certificate ii

Acknowledgements iii

1. Introduction 1-17

1.1.Engineering Education and Employability 5

1.2.Soft Skills for IT professionals 7

1.3.Research Objectives 10

1.4.Methodology 11

1.5.Thesis Structure 15

2. Soft Skills: An Overview 18-51

2.1.Soft Skills: Definition 19

2.2.Hard Skills and Soft Skills 23

2.3.Types of Job-Specific Soft Skills 25

2.3.1 Communication Skills 26

2.3.2 Interpersonal Skills 30

2.3.3 Decision Making Skills 32

2.3.4 Leadership Skills 34

2.3.5 Emotional Intelligence 36

2.3.6 Time Management 39

2.3.7 Conflict Management 41

2.3.8 Business Etiquette 43

2.3.9 Group Dynamics and Team Building 45

2.4.Importance of Soft Skills 47

2.5.Conclusions 51

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3. Entry Level Jobs in IT MNCs and the Engineering Curriculum in Andhra

Pradesh Colleges 52-88

3.1.IT Companies: Emergence and Growth 53

3.1.1. Major IT Hubs in India 54

3.1.2. Reasons behind success of Indian IT MNCs 55

3.1.3. Striking facts about IT MNCs 55

3.1.4. Services offered by IT MNCs in India 56

3.1.5. Types of Businesses in IT sectors 57

3.1.6. Top 5 IT MNCs in India 58

3.1.7. Relevance of Soft Skills in IT MNCs 62

3.1.8. Summary 65

3.2.Engineering Education in India 67

3.2.1. The Growth of Technical Education in India 68

3.2.2. Historical Background 69

3.2.3. List of universities in Andhra Pradesh 72

3.2.3.1 JNTU syllabus 73

3.2.3.2 OU syllabus 77

3.2.3.3 ANU syllabus 80

3.2.3.4 AU syllabus 84

3.2.4. Summary 87

3.3.Conclusions 87

4. Views of Industry Professionals: Survey Analysis 89-127

4.1.Soft Skills and IT industry 92

4.2.Key Soft Skills Required by IT MNCs 94

4.3.Views of Industry Executives on Soft Skills 99

4.4.Research Methodology 101

4.5.Population and Sample 102

4.6.Research Rationale 102

4.7.Survey Analysis 103

4.8.Summary 125

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5. Views of Academia: Survey Analysis 128-176

5.1.Objectives 130

5.2.Methodology 130

5.3.Sample 131

5.4.List of Engineering Colleges 131

5.5.Faculty Survey: Analysis and Findings 133

5.6.Student Survey Analysis 159

5.6.1. Methodology 161

5.6.2. Population Sample 161

5.6.3. Analysis and Findings 162

5.7.Excerpts from Student Interviews 173

5.8.Summary 174

6. Conclusions 177-192

Bibliography 193

Appendix A: Questionnaire 1 (Students) 217

Appendix B: Questionnaire 2 (Faculty) 221

Appendix C: Questionnaire 3 (HR Professionals) 225

1

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

The unprecedented growth in the nation’s economy, along with the boom in engineering and

technology based services has given birth to certain demands from workplaces in terms of

employability skills. Employability presumes the need for both technical (hard) skills and

soft skills considering the ever increasing competition for employment in today’s job market

dominated by the IT (Information Technology) industries. According to Smith and Comyn

(2003) employability skills are “skills required not only to gain employment but also to

progress within an enterprise so as to achieve one’s potential and contribute successfully to

enterprise strategic directions”. In other words, employability skills refer to those skills

needed both to get a job and also to do well in that job and imply positive outcomes for

individuals as well as for the organizations they are employed in. Besides their technical

skills, the job seekers are required to possess a range of other skills together known as Soft

Skills in order to ace their interviews and also to progress in their professional life once they

are employed. Soft skills, alternatively known as life skills, survival skills or people skills,

though essential for all, are extremely important for the fresh graduates who wish to get a job

of their choice and who aim to climb the ladder of success in their professional life.

Soft skills which encompass a number of skills pertaining to communication, motivation,

time management, emotional intelligence, empathy, manners, decision making, problem

solving, team playing, leadership, etc., are considered to be very important by the employers

today. Andreas and Hiroshi (2010) observes that employers perceive soft skills (core

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employability skills and communication skills) more important than professional skills.

Moreover, studies by Stanford Research Institute and the Carnegie Mellon Foundation

among Fortune 500 CEOs found that 75% of long term job success depended on people skills

and only 25% on technical skills (Rao, 2010, p5).

As IT services have become increasingly global, communication, the most important

component of soft skills, is touted to be the life and blood of any organization and a

prerequisite to effective management. Effective communication not only enables work place

interactions but also routes the flow of information and knowledge for the guidance of

employees in different levels in their organizational activities. It also ensures free flow and

exchange of information, opinions and ideas and promotes maintenance of professional

relations. With the Information Technology revolution and socio-economic changes in

today’s competitive world, it is no exaggeration that the importance of efficacious

communication skills has increased than ever before.

In addition, the changes that have taken place in the IT sector reflect several developments in

the way the communication skills are viewed. In fact, there has been a paradigm shift in the

employers’ perspectives so that communication skills take priority over technical and

professional skills (Padhi, 2014). Unquestionably, good writing and speaking skills are

essential in securing a job. It is also true that some technical skills are as important as

communication skills but knowledge of technical skills will be of less use if one does not

know how to communicate the information and the yields that result from the use and

applicability of these technical skills. Similarly, skills in team playing, problem solving,

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adopting appropriate business etiquette, understanding one’s own emotions and those of

others, etc., have become essential in today’s globalized work places.

However, despite realizing the importance of soft skills, graduating students in India have not

been able to equip themselves adequately with such skills. The reasons behind such

inadequacies may partly lie with the students themselves and partly with the colleges from

which they graduate. Students who enter the IT industry are mostly engineering graduates. If

we look at the engineering education, over the recent past, high demands for engineering

education have led to serious issues and concerns for the engineering colleges. The IT MNCs

(Multi National Corporations) are of the view that such concerns emerge chiefly because the

fresh graduates lack technical skills, English proficiency, communication skills, presentation

skills, soft skills and the ability to work as part of a team

(https://www.salesforce.com/blog/2014/08/business-soft-skills.html). According to Pawar

(2006), Chairman of NIIT Technologies, “Every year, 300,000 engineering graduates and

approximately 2 million students graduate from colleges across India. But only 10-15% of

graduates are suitable for employment in offshore IT and BPO industries. Nearly two-thirds

of the 300,000 engineering graduates need to be re skilled, so that they can get jobs in the IT

industry”. Unfortunately, IT companies have been confronted with real challenges in

employing the youth who, in spite of being technically fit, are not proficient in English while

English communication is a necessary perquisite for employment in the employers’ views.

According to Madan Padaki (2010), co-founder and CEO, MeritTrac Services, if 100

engineering students apply for a job today, only 20 of them are employable. MeritTrac runs

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an industry standard assessment and certification programme, NAC Tech (NASSCOM

Assessment of Competence for Technology professionals). According to a NASSCOM’s

perspective 2020 study, industry is already facing a shortage of employable talent. An

average company invests 16 weeks to train one employee in areas such as technical skills,

soft skills and company orientation. The training provided to employees includes not only

technical but also those focused on imparting soft skills like leadership, etc. Padaki, however

believes the industry can help bridge the employability gap (http://www.business-

standard.com/article/economy-policy/engineering-graduates-could-become-more-

unemployable-110060200055_1.html). But, here the point of concern is “Can the employees

grasp soft skills during the short training period?” This question really plagues the employers

with apprehensions.

India's asset, that is, its young population - is in danger of becoming a liability. A survey

conducted for 303 employers across the country by the Federation of Indian Chambers of

Commerce and Industry (FICCI) in 2010 found that a majority of graduates lacked adequate

“soft skills” necessary for their employment in the industry (Kavita, 2011). Despite

producing more engineers than the US and China combined, by a conservative estimate,

more than one-third of the millions that graduate each year are unemployable and hence,

there is an urgent and growing need for social skills, leadership skills, team playing skills and

multi tasking skills in the field of engineering. There is a growing mismatch between the

required labor force and the available skill set.

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1.1 Engineering Education and Employability

Engineering Education in India has witnessed huge growth during the past decade. This

sudden expansion has led to the problem of maintenance of desired quality in the budding

engineers. Bhattacharya (2011) feels, “Internal motivation only can lead to achievement and

maintenance of quality. While TQM techniques can be tried in education by taking holistic

view of the system, the critical components of the system, viz., faculty development and the

student evaluation system need to be given priority. Factors which would influence internal

motivation have also to be looked into”. Engineering graduates need communicative skills in

their professional career. After graduating with an engineering degree some of them pursue

higher education (management or technical), some look for and take up a job and some

others venture into their own business. However, it is an undeniable fact that they can’t

succeed in any of these endeavors without possessing the necessary English language

proficiency and communication skills.

An engineer's competence can be presented as the aggregate of knowledge, skills and know-

how (Shakhgildian et al, 2002). Factors such as changing population demographics,

globalization of economies, accelerated growth of technology, and increasing business

demands are contributing to the growing shortage of technical managers. According to Vieth

and Smith (2008) engineering managers will need to be replaced annually at a rate of 20

percent in 2014 as compared to 6.2 percent in 2003 and this increase in demand will create

about 15,000 engineering management vacancies. Within the next 10 years, we will

experience a greater than threefold increase in leadership turnover in engineering and

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technical organizations, increasing the competition for an increasingly scarce resource. To

remain competitive globally, technical enterprises will have to develop leaders internally

(Vieth and Smith, 2008). This is a challenging task for any company. In India, the number of

engineering colleges is on increase. However it does not translate in to employability.

Studies have shown that 33 per cent of Indian graduates are unemployable. Engineering

colleges in India now have seats for 1.5 million students, nearly four times the number

(39,000) available in 2000. But 75 per cent of technical graduates and more than 85 per cent

of general students are unemployable. Even after employment only about one-third

employers were satisfied with the communication ability of their employees and about 26 per

cent with their employees' writing ability. If this trend continues, the prospects for the 1.4

billion youth estimated to enter the work force by 2020, and consequently for the economy,

look bleak (Kavita, 2011).

MNCs and even Indian industries are far from satisfied. The FICCI survey found that only 26

per cent employers are satisfied with their employees' ability to communicate in English.

There is a need to focus on the university-teaching as the quality of teaching in many of our

universities appears to be outdated. They do not seem to be aware of the latest market

demands. This study focuses the gaps between the skills taught at engineering colleges and

the skills required in the engineering profession.

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1.2 Soft Skills for IT professionals

A career in the field of Information Technology (IT) is one of the most sought after careers

these days and most engineering graduates land up in the IT industry. While a job as a

software engineer looks very lucrative at first glance, once the graduates get into the industry,

they realize that it is not just their technical skills that will keep them in the race. In fact, they

need something more to ensure that they are able to perform well in their jobs. In other

words, they need some extra skills to ensure that they are able to keep the job after fetching

it. These extra skills are none other than soft skills. Different kinds of industries require

different components of soft skills though some components such as communication, team

work, leadership, multitasking, etc., are common for all professions.

Soft skills decide how fast and well people climb the ladder of success. Here are some of the

advantages that they can draw from soft skills:

• Career progress

• Competence to discern and create opportunities

• Potential to develop relationships with colleagues and clients

• Ability to develop good communication and leadership qualities.

• Positive attitude to think beyond money.

IT professionals are required to work with their colleagues and clients of various nationalities

and backgrounds and so the very importance of the communication can’t be ignored.

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According to a survey conducted in a top blue chip company in India on how members spent

their time communicating, 63% of their time was spent in listening to one another, while

reading took 4%, writing 11%, and speaking 22% of their time (Raman and Singh, 2006). In

fact, all aspects of communication, namely, listening, speaking, reading and writing are

important for any profession.

Today’s IT companies have become more and more team-oriented, the teams comprising of

employees from within a company or from its various branches across nations. When

companies like Volvo and Kraft Foods introduced teams into their work processes, it made

news because no one else was doing it at that time. But today, it’s just the opposite. It’s

estimated that some 80 percent of Fortune 500 companies have at least half of their

employees on teams. And 83 percent of respondents in a Center for Creative Leadership

study said that teams are a key ingredient to organizational success (Robbins and Coulter,

2011, p357). Team-based work is a core feature of today’s organizations. Research suggests

that teams typically outperform individuals when the tasks being done require multiple skills,

judgment, and experience.

The success of any organization is based on the revenue it is able to generate and to do so

targets have to be achieved and new ideas for growth have to be generated. In this endeavor,

teams are found to be more effective and fast than one individual. This trend has endorsed

collaborative work and collective thinking, but if not handled carefully team work can lead to

chaos, confusion and loss of time and money (Urvashi, 2014). Bovee et. al, (2008) has

opined that “Whatever the purpose and function of the team, … team members must be able

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to communicate effectively with each other and with people outside their team…this ability

often required taking on additional responsibility for communication: sharing information

with team members, listening carefully to their inputs and crafting messages that reflect the

team’s collective ideas and opinions”.

Zig Zigler, an American motivational speaker said that 97% people live in comfort zone and

only 3% of the people live in effective zone. The leaders always live in the effective zone.

They love to face challenges continuously. They experiment a lot and make mistakes and

learn lessons. Leaders know that higher the fall, higher the rise. Majority of the organizations

are emphasizing on leadership development programs and several companies are conducting

workshops on leadership in order to enhance productivity and performance in this cut-throat

competitive world. For example, Fed Express Corporation, an American multinational

courier delivery services company and the world’s largest express transportation company

believes in nurturing the leadership skills in its employees. For this the employees have to

undergo Leadership Evaluation and Assessment Process (LEAP) test.

In the present day's workplace, an employee is expected to be able to shuttle among several

different assignments and projects at once. Any organization’s management always strives

for effectiveness and efficiency. In the process of gaining efficiency, companies strive to

maximize productivity within the limited resources available. Therefore, it has become

increasingly important for the employees to handle several responsibilities simultaneously.

As employees grow up the career ladder, they need to handle work from different

departments. For example, they may have to interact with their technical team on project

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related work, with the HR department for team appraisal and recruitment, with clients on

project requirements or problems.

1.3 Research Objectives

Reacting to the demands of job providers, several engineering colleges have been attempting

to develop soft skills in their students by adopting certain strategies. However, the gap

between what is expected by the industry and what is provided at the engineering institutions

in India is yet to be bridged. The main purpose of this research is to understand this gap

clearly so as to enhance the employability opportunities of fresh engineering graduates.

The following objectives have been formulated to accomplish the purpose of this study:

• Identifying the IT organizations’ expectations in fresh engineering graduates in terms

of their soft skills

• Analyzing the existing practices in Indian engineering colleges to inculcate soft skills

in their students

• Understanding the gaps between the needs and the existing skills/practices

• Identifying the specific inadequacies of the current system of higher education in

equipping the students of engineering and technology in engineering educational

institutions with the required skills

• Suggesting some easily implementable solutions to the universities to enhance the job

prospects of the students of engineering and technology by empowering them with

necessary soft skills during their engineering education

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1.4 Methodology

This study begins with an extensive literature survey to understand the term soft skills in its

entirety, the curriculum adopted in engineering education and the requirements of soft skills

in the entry level jobs in the IT industry. In fact, there are not many books available to study

the features, importance and development of soft skills and hence the researcher had to take

recourse to a number of websites, reports, articles, etc., for the study. With the available

resources, a detailed literature review has been carried out to gauge the extent of work done

in the field of soft skills and the industry readiness of the engineering professionals. Different

types of soft skills and the current trends in engineering education were particularly studied

to figure out the existing practices in the engineering institutions.

Limiting itself to the Indian engineering education and the IT MNCs in India, the study has

chosen 34 engineering colleges from Andhra Pradesh (AP) and understood the types of

courses offered by them during the course of four years of engineering education. As Andhra

Pradesh has the third highest number of engineering colleges but ranks very low in

employability of its engineering graduates, colleges in AP have been considered for the

survey. Based on the research survey conducted by Aspiring Minds, The Hindu (2014) says,

“Andhra Pradesh figures among the bottom 25 percentile of States as far as employability of

engineering students for IT jobs goes”. It also quotes Himanshu Aggarwal, CEO, Aspiring

Minds: States like A.P. and Tamil Nadu, which have the highest number of engineering

colleges, continue to have lowest employability. States need to be conscious towards better

education quality rather than building more capacity.

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Over the past decades, India has been one of the biggest IT capitals of the modern world and

a considerable majority of engineering graduates take up IT jobs irrespective of the specific

engineering discipline they have graduated from. As IT industry involving ITES (IT Enabled

Services) is a service sector and caters to outsourcing services as well, it looks for

engineering graduates with adequate soft skills. Hence the study has decided to analyze the

demands of IT companies in terms of soft skills of their employees.

The IT revolution and globalization of business have brought the concept of

“communication” to the fore front of academia and industry. With the entire globe becoming

the global market and businesses expanding rapidly thereby becoming diverse and result

oriented, working professionals are facing new challenges every hour. In the current

scenario, most of the IT MNCs and IT Enabled Services are in the pursuit of right and

suitable young graduates with better communication skills. People in organizations usually

spend three-fourths of their daily time on communication through writing and reading mails,

listening to ones’ concerns, grievances etc., speaking, meetings, negotiations etc.

At a gathering of vice-chancellors during the 82nd annual meeting of the Association of

Indian Universities, former President of India, Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, asserted that only 25

per cent of graduating students were employable, and that students were lacking in areas such

as technical knowledge, English proficiency and critical thinking (Padhi, 2014). Be it any

workplace situation - whether face to face or telephonic interaction, sending office memos or

emails, a person has to constantly express his ideas, opinions and decisions.

13

With respect to IT MNCs, in particular, service oriented companies like TCS, Wipro, Tech

Mahindra, CTS, Accenture, Infosys, they make the newly recruited employees work on

technical training for five to six months (as the case may be) and then they will be assigned

with projects. In that training duration, 80% of the training would be vested for learning

technical modules and 20% of the training would be vested for Soft Skills training.

The IT MNCs feel that the freshers can be made tech savvy through technical training and

not soft skill oriented through their in-house training. Therefore, it is needless to say that

majority of the IT MNCs concentrate on soft skills rather hard skills because they believe

that hard skills can be acquired through technical training and OJT (On-the-job-training) and

soft skills cannot be acquired during the training period.

The Indian IT industry employs 3 million people directly and provides employment to

another 9 million indirectly (Thimmaya, 2015). It has been one of the biggest job generators

for the economy, absorbing fresh engineering graduates. It is no exaggeration to say that 95%

of the students who gets selected in campus interviews are absorbed into IT MNCs only. The

6-billion, $146-billion IT industry has constantly spoken about the need for skill upgradation,

considering the wide variety of work profiles which the industry has got in store for the

engineering students.

It has been decided to take up the survey method to collect data for the research analysis. As

the topic involves two major sectors, namely, industry and academia, it has been decided to

collect data from the hiring managers of select IT companies and the faculty & students of

14

select engineering colleges in Andhra Pradesh.

A two pronged approach has been adopted to collect data for the study. Survey questionnaire

has been used to gather data from the HR managers and the concerned engineering faculty

and students while personal interviews have been conducted for gauging the live responses in

person. Overall 500 responses from faculty and 200 responses from the engineering students

were collected across 34 engineering colleges from A.P. 200 responses were collected from

the IT MNCs’ HR professionals from 30 IT MNCs across Delhi, Chennai, Bangalore,

Mumbai, Pune, and Hyderabad.

The questionnaire has been used primarily to know the responses of the soft skills

requirements in IT industry and the soft skills training provided in engineering institutions,

thereby understanding the gap between both. Respondents (HR professionals, faculty and

students) are required to answer (tick mark) all questions for the above discussed two

contexts (Refer to Appendix A, B & C).

Prior to undertaking the complete study, a pilot study was done to check the efficiency of the

questionnaire by collecting the responses from 30 respondents each from HR professionals

and academicians. Analysis of these 30 responses was also done under the pilot study. The

entire process of compiling and analyzing of data was undertaken to foresee any problems.

The responses collected through the surveys conducted among both the industry and

academia were summarized and then used for analysis.

15

While the surveys and interviews serve as the primary sources of data collection, the

secondary sources consulted include books, print and electronic journals, online data bases,

conference/seminar proceedings, papers presented at various avenues such as

conference/seminar proceedings, online content available in public domain and newspapers.

In a nutshell, the surveys and interviews focus on (i) needs analysis of the IT industry’s

expectations as far as the soft skills of the fresh engineering graduates are concerned and (ii)

on the existing practices adopted in engineering colleges to enhance the soft skills of their

students.

1.5 Thesis Structure

The thesis contains six chapters including this introductory chapter and the concluding

chapter. With a view to give adequate background to the main topics of the theme - soft

skills, IT companies and engineering education, the second and third chapters are exclusively

dedicated to them.

The second chapter embodies the literature review of the work done in the field of soft skills.

It includes the study of various constituents of soft skills such as business etiquette,

emotional intelligence, leadership skills, time management, communication skills,

interpersonal skills, decision making skills, conflict management, group dynamics and team

building.

16

The third chapter includes the study of general trend in engineering education in India and

analyzes the curriculum adopted in Andhra Pradesh engineering colleges. It then moves on to

discuss in some detail the growth of IT industry in India, significance of soft skills in IT

MNCs, requirements of entry level jobs in IT MNCs.

The fourth and fifth chapters are entirely devoted to the two analyses which form the heart of

this research. While the fourth chapter presents and discusses the analysis pertaining to the

views of IT industry HR professionals, the fifth chapter clearly elaborates on the analysis and

discussion of data collected from the faculty and students of the 34 colleges of AP selected

for this study.

The last chapter draws inferences from the two analyses presented in the previous chapters

and concludes the thesis by highlighting the major findings of the study along with providing

certain future directions of research in the field of soft skills.

This study is significant in terms of gauging and bridging the gap between IT MNCs and the

higher educational institutions of engineering in terms of the need for soft skills in students.

The data collected and the analyses presented are expected to provide an insight to the

academic community in understanding the requirements of soft skills with respect to the

demands or expectations of IT MNCs. With study material and research being scarce in the

area of soft skills, this research would certainly serve as a valuable reference to the

academicians to pursue further research in this domain. With the ever increasing importance

of employability skills in today’s job scenario and given the dearth of these skills in majority

17

of the engineering youth, this research is expected not only to provide directions to the

stakeholders but also to enrich the existing body of knowledge in the domain of soft skills.

The study would also pave way for applying the research methodology to other regions in

India which stand very low as far as the employability skills are concerned.

18

CHAPTER 2

Soft Skills: An Overview

Compared to yester years, the number of career options for Indian youth has increased and

diversified over the recent past. However, certain professions such as medical and

engineering still occupy the prime positions in various societies and hence the number of

students desirous of pursuing these professions has been on the rise. In India, engineering as

a profession has often attracted the student group in a larger way. The growing number of

students taking different competitive examinations to qualify for their choice of engineering

disciplines testifies this fact. Throughout the course of their engineering education over four

or five years, they learn and specialize in a particular discipline of engineering. They also

believe that their engineering degree would fetch them an attractive position in the job

market. However, they fail to realize that acquiring just technical skills is not enough as most

companies during their recruitment process are interested to know: “Beyond hard skills,

domain experience and knowledge, what value addition do the aspirants give to the

employer?”. Therefore, soft skills are vital to make a student employable.

The need to equip graduating students with skills essential for the workplace has become

increasingly important. Many governments worldwide have set up committees to examine

this problem and have come up with recommendations. The Secretary’s Commission on

Achieving Necessary Skills (SCANS) report in the US, for example, is one of many reports,

which emphasizes the need to develop essential employability skills such as communication,

listening, willingness to learn, teamwork and so on (Dhanavel, 2010).

19

As one of the objectives of this research deals with the understanding and importance of soft

skills and also tries to focus on the students of engineering and technology, it would be

appropriate to define the term Soft Skills, the types of job-specific skills that are included

under this umbrella term and its importance to the students of engineering and technology.

2.1 Soft Skills

Definition

Variously known as People Skills, Life Skills, Survival Skills, Employability Skills, etc., the

term Soft Skills refers to a cluster of personality traits such as, effective communication,

leadership, team playing, time management, emotional intelligence, motivation, positive

attitude, problem solving, decision making, negotiation, conflict management, empathy,

adaptability, etc., that play a crucial role in students’ personal, academic and professional

lives. Though the term is relatively new, the skills encompassed in it are not. It stands as a

contrast to another term Hard Skills referring to the technical skills of students. In other

words, hard skills include the subject knowledge and skills of the students of engineering.

For instance, students of mechanical engineering are expected to acquire adequate knowledge

in various areas such as fluid mechanics, design, acoustics, etc., of this discipline. Such

domain knowledge will be different for different engineering disciplines. However,

irrespective of the disciplines of engineering they pursue, all students need to acquire,

develop and practice soft skills in order to succeed in their academic and professional life.

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Firm handshakes, warm smiles, cheerful disposition, infectious enthusiasm, meticulous time

management, robust optimism, clear thinking, courteous behavior, influential team playing,

impeccable English, effective communication - all are essential ingredients of students’

academic and professional success and would enable them to develop and sustain enduring

relationships. These attributes and other similar qualities put together can be grouped under

one umbrella term called Soft Skills.

Defined by many scholars, soft skills generally include personal, social, communication and

self-management behaviors. “Soft skills cover a wide spectrum of abilities and traits: being

self-aware, trust worthiness, conscientiousness, adaptability, critical thinking, attitude,

initiative, empathy, confidence, integrity, self-control, organizational awareness, likability,

influencing, risk taking, problem solving, leadership, time management and then some”

(Klaus, 2007).

“Soft skills is an abstract (and somewhat nebulous) concept, which is, in fact a compendium

of several components like attitudes, abilities, habits and practices that are combined aptly to

maximize one’s work effectiveness”, says Ramesh and Ramesh (2010).

According to Moss and Tilly (1996), soft skills are skills, abilities and traits that pertain to

personality, attitude and behavior rather than to formal or technical knowledge. They include

interaction and motivation which are valued highly by employers.

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Heather (2014) includes dependability, presentation skills, problem solving, ability to coach,

adaptability to organizational culture, confidence in voicing opinions, flexibility and focus,

creativity and innovation, ability to develop new processes, taking initiative as the ten soft

skills the employers desire in new hires.

Finally, Wikipedia associates the term soft skills with a person's EQ (Emotional intelligence

Quotient), which is the cluster of personality traits that can include social graces,

communication abilities, language skills, personal habits, cognitive or emotional empathy,

and leadership traits.

Taking into account all the aforementioned and similar other definitions, we can arrive at a

possible explanation of the term soft skills as depicted in the figure and presented in the box

that follow:

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Soft skills are skills that encompass people’s personal skills or life skills such as self

awareness, confidence, adaptability, resilience, emotional intelligence, etc.; interpersonal

skills or employment skills such as active listening, empathy, effective communication,

appropriate use of social networks; and corporate skills or organizational skills such as team

playing, leadership, motivation, time management, negotiation, cultural understanding, etc.

Dharmarajan et. al (2012) have identified a non-exhaustive list of soft skills that are accepted

worldwide. The following table provides the list:

Table1: Examples of Soft skills

Soft Skills have two parts: one involves developing attitudes and attributes, while the other

involves fine-tuning communication skills to express attitudes, ideas and thoughts well (Rani,

2010). Literature suggests that hard skills contribute to only 15% of one's skills success while

remaining 85% is attributed to soft skills (Verma, 2013). Majority of the employers would

like to recruit, retain and promote persons who possess effective communication skills,

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willingness to work and positive attitude. Since the Indian market is going global, the

attributes of soft skills are to be adapted by Indian youth to showcase their true potential to

handle international assignments. Rani (2010) feels that the soft skills equip the students with

adequate ammunition to face corporate battles and challenges.

‘Soft Skills’ are non-technical skills and represent the psychological phenomena which cover

personality traits, social interaction abilities, communication and personal habits (Ahmed

et.al, 2013). According to Mitra (2011), hard skills reflect what you know while soft skills

indicate who you really are.

2.2 Hard skills and Soft skills

Hard Skills include conceptual and theoretical foundation in various subjects such as,

engineering, medicine, sciences, arts, humanities, etc., and the ability or skills to apply them

in appropriate contexts. Doyle (2016) believes that these skills are acquired through formal

education and training programs offered by colleges or online; apprenticeships; internships;

on-the-job training. They are job-specific and are typically listed in job postings and job

descriptions.

According to Han (2016), a software engineer, soft skills usually rely on EQ or Emotional

Quotient (our right brain-the emotional center) while hard skills usually take IQ or

Intelligence Quotient (our left brain-the logical center). Examples of hard skills include

maths, physics, accounting, programming, finance, biology, chemistry, statistics, etc.

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Hard Skills refers to the ability to understand and discuss concepts and theories learnt under

various branches of knowledge and to apply them as and when the situations warrant for

performing the requirements of a job. These skills reflect the intelligence quotient of people.

Soft skills are the traits that are much needed in the organization for professional career push.

Hard skills comprise technical competencies and domain knowledge. MNCs search for a

combination of both soft and hard skills in their employees to ensure that the deliverables

reach their clients effectively. It is rightly said that the employees go up the career ladder in

MNCs because of their hard skills and fall due to lack of soft skills (Rao, 2010, p6).

Referring to the relationship between hard skills and soft skills, Penelope Tobin, Founder

and CEO, Barrier Breakers, London, says, "hard skills - knowledge and technical aptitude -

are now highly dependent on soft skills capabilities, such as adaptability, self-motivation,

communication, resilience and innovation” (http://innovationleadershipforum.org).

Hard skills can’t exist in isolation. For instance, let’s consider the job profile of IT engineers.

They need to be adept in software coding and testing to code, test and integrate the support

for the solutions developed by them. However, to do that effectively, they need to work in a

team and interact with team members to extract the best results. Any miscommunication

among the team members would result in low standard products. C programming in many

languages is considered as a hard skill, whereas problem solving and communication skills

come under the umbrella of soft skills. So a perfect fusion of soft skills and hard skills can

shape the students’ or professionals’ personality better (Schulz, 2008).

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Although both hard and soft skills are frequently used these days, the literature to this effect

was already mentioned differently by Robert Katz way back in 1974. Katz outlined three

skills needed at each level of management such as lower, middle and top level management:

technical skills, human skills, and conceptual skills. According to Robbins and Coulter

(2012, p12), at the lower level of management, people need high degree of technical skills

and low degree of conceptual skills and required human (soft) skills. At the middle level

management, people need to possess equal level of technical and conceptual skills and

required human (soft) skills. Finally, at the top level management, people need to display low

degree of technical skills and high degree of conceptual skills and required human (soft)

skills. Thus it can be seen that the requirement of soft skills remains constant irrespective of

the level of management.

To sum up this discussion on hard skills and soft skills, we can say that they complement

each other and students who ignore one at the cost of the other would find it difficult to

realize their professional goals.

2.3 Types of Job-specific Soft Skills

Depending upon the job descriptions, MNCs look for a combination of skills from the

graduating students they wish to hire. Here is a list of the most desirable soft skills that HR

Heads of various companies look for:

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1. Interpersonal skills such as communication (both verbal and written communication,

e-mail etiquette etc.), presentation skills, listening skills etc.

2. Positive and can-do attitude towards job/work given.

3. Passion to learn NEW things in the workplace

4. Problem solving ability and decision making

5. Honesty and integrity

6. Good time management and stress management (varies from work to work)

7. Good team playing skills

Based on the above requirements, the present study explores nine major areas of soft skills

which are considered to be essential for budding engineers. They are: communication skills,

interpersonal skills, decision making skills, leadership skills, group dynamics & team

building, conflict management, business etiquette, emotional intelligence and time

management. The first and foremost among these is communication skills.

2.3.1 Communication Skills

Communication is defined as the ‘transfer’ and ‘understanding’ of meaning (Robbins and

Coulter, 2012, p404). The transfer of meaning ensures that the information or idea has

reached the receiver. The orator who isn’t heard or the author whose materials aren’t read is

not communicated. However, communication involves the understanding of meaning. For

communication to be successful, the meaning must be bestowed and understood.

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For example, a script written in German to a person who doesn’t read or understand German

can’t be considered communication until it’s translated into a language the person does read

and understand. Therefore, the complete communication between the sender and receiver is

said to exist, when a conveyed idea is received and understood by the receiver exactly as it is

pictured by the sender.

Communication skills are all about the ability to transfer one’s thoughts, ideas and

information from sender to receiver with feedback. It is considered as the heart of soft skills

(Rao, 2010, p9). It is the life and blood of all the organizations. Even though communication

skills are vital to succeed in the workplace, there are many individuals who find these skills

to be a stumbling block to their progress. Organizations give immense value to graduates

who possess diverse mix of skills in different work settings. Besides analytical and problem

solving skills, domain knowledge, effective decision making skills, understanding of other

culture, competence to work in international environment are considered the most required

qualities for IT engineers.

The studies conducted in this area reflect the increasing importance placed on

communication skills by industry professionals. Dearing (1997) regarded communication

skills as the foremost among the four key skills to be developed at undergraduate level, apart

from arithmetic, IT and willingness to learn. In fact, oral skills and presentation skills are

considered one of the best career boosters in determining a student’s career rise or fall (Patil,

2013).

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The advantages and worth of written and oral communication cannot be gauged. The power

of words has changed nations, built civilizations, preserved traditions, freed masses, and

prevented destruction (Sherfield et. al, 2009). Think of the words written or spoken by

Mahatma Gandhi, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Washington, Franklin Roosevelt, Swami

Vivekananda, J.R.D Tata, Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, Nelson Mandela and Princess Diana. Good or

bad, right or wrong, appropriate or inappropriate, their words have changed many lives.

Sherfield et al. (2009) list the following skills that rank among the top ten preferred skills

which the employers seek:

RANK TYPE OF PREFERRED SKILL

1 Communication skills

2 Honesty/Integrity

3 Interpersonal Skills

4 Motivation/Initiative

5 Strong work ethic

6 Teamwork skills

7 Computer Skills

8 Analytical Skills

9 Flexibility/adaptability

10 Attention to detail

When we talk about communication, we can’t simply ignore or set aside English language.

We see Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru’s saying that English is India’s window to the modern world

and is unfolding almost in all fields of human endeavor. English is the only window through

which we can appreciate the progress being made around the world in different domains such

as science and technology, economics, etc. Although English is an official language in India,

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not everyone speaks it well enough. There are strong variances and heavy bias of local

accents that don’t facilitate effective communication at work places. Even HR managers of

IT firms rank lack of speaking skills as one of the top three handicaps of engineering

applicants (Mitra, 2011).

Here is an excerpt from McKinsey Quarterly (2005):

(http://www.psychologydiscussion.net/essays/personality-development/communication-

skills/communication-skills-meaning-code-and-content/1240)

‘As a result, proficiency in spoken English has come to be a must for every aspirant for a

bright career in industry. Today, those at the helm of industries want their young colleagues

to be proficient not only in spoken English but also in all aspects of communication skills.

And the crunch is felt by young graduates coming out of the engineering colleges. At least to

some of them spoken English tends to become a bugbear. The main question is how to solve

the problem. Only right effort in the right direction with determination can be of help in

acquiring proficiency in spoken English’.

Therefore, all attempts must be made to intensify the quality of communication skills in the

students from time to time with new approaches. It is not an exaggeration to say that

communication skills are the heart of soft skills without which soft skills are incomplete. It is

imperative for all those who wish to succeed in their careers to possess good communication

skills.

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2.3.2 Interpersonal Skills

A number of studies (Appleby, 2000; Johnson & Fried, 2002; Yancey, 2001) have shown

that the most important job skill a new employee needs to possess is effective interpersonal

skills. Interpersonal skills are essential for survival and success in any organization. Effective

communication, ability to accurately interpret others’ emotions, being sensitive to others’

feelings, sound conflict resolution skills and politeness are certain important interpersonal

skills which embrace both verbal and non-verbal aspects. According to Robbins and

Hunsaker (2009), interpersonal skills include self-awareness, communicating, motivating,

leading, team concepts, and problem solving.

Good interpersonal skills are essential to a successful engineering career. Regardless of the

role in which one will be working, there are number of intangible skills that employers look

for across all engineering disciplines. Interpersonal skills are one such skill. The work of an

engineer is not just technical; engineers frequently liaise with customers and work in

multidisciplinary teams and hence strong interpersonal skills are necessary. They may help

students stand out from other candidates with similar technical expertise when they appear

for employment interviews.

In the traditional classroom teaching method, students are expected to work individually on

their assigned tasks without interrupting others. Verbal exchanges between them are usually

discouraged and interactions with teachers are generally confined to asking and answering

questions. Opportunities to work cooperatively are minimal (Gillies, 2006). Transforming the

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learning process into an interactive and collaborative experience would result in clear

pedagogical benefits (Wood and Malley, 1996). Once students are permitted to work in small

groups, they are able to develop a common understanding as well as verbal and social

abilities (Gillies, 2006). Therefore, it is possible that engineers can acquire basic

interpersonal skills at college level.

In the business domain, the term interpersonal skill generally refers to an employee's ability

to get along with others while getting the job done. Interpersonal skills include everything

from communication and listening skills to attitude and deportment. Good interpersonal skills

are a prerequisite for many positions in an organization. Within an organization, employees

with good interpersonal skills are likely to be more productive than those with poor

interpersonal skills, because of their propensity to project a positive attitude and look for

solutions to problems. The present workforce is continuously facing numerous challenges

from work pressure of collaborating with groups/teams/stakeholders and catering to the

demands of dynamic work environment. It is essential to be technically sound, but at the

same time, employees should also possess the ability to convey the idea to the others in the

simplest possible manner. Individuals with excellent interpersonal skills rise to the top in

their personal effectiveness as well as contribute towards the organizational growth.

In general, employers often seek to hire employees who possess strong interpersonal skills.

They want employees who gel well within a team and foster communication effectively

among colleagues, customers and clients. All organizations’ business teamwork requires

professionalism and effective interpersonal skills. Poor interpersonal skills may lead to

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conflicts among team members and when left unchecked, could even pollute the team

atmosphere.

The real assets of any organization are its employees and interpersonal skills act as the grease

which helps in its smooth running. Showcasing positive interpersonal skills not only

enhances the all-round productivity of an organization, but also creates a positive ambience

in the organization. People with this skill know the way to connect with others easily.

According to Mitra (2011), interpersonal skills enable organizations to save time and help in

creating a congenial work atmosphere. They minimize conflicts and build an appropriate

work ambience. In addition, they ease the implementation plans and help solve problems.

Interpersonal skills also generate enthusiasm among the employees thereby boosting their

confidence.

2.3.3 Decision Making Skills

Decision-making involves the act of making a choice between different alternatives. It entails

a step-by-step process involving a starting point, that is, the setting of objectives; this is

followed by the rigorous collection of information so that the problem requiring a solution

can be fully understood; then different options are generated and systematically evaluated to

enable a choice that meets the objectives to be made (Robbins and Coulter, 2012, p178).

The logical and comprehensive approach involves rationality. The educational system, the

workplace and society in general, tend to value rationality. This is seen in the way students

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are developed to approach engineering profession. A rational approach to professional

decision-making is also advocated by educators and employers equally. A number of factors

shape the way engineers make decisions. An individual’s personality may, for example,

influence somebody’s approach to decision-making. Therefore, characteristics such as

sociability, confidence, maturity and attitude to risk may influence the way a person makes

decisions. There is, for example, evidence to indicate that people who have confidence in

their ability to determine their destiny (i.e. they have what is referred to as an ‘internal locus

of control’) are more likely to adopt a rational approach to decision-making (Thunholm,

2004). In contrast, those who feel that their destiny depends upon fate (i.e. they have what is

referred to as an ‘external locus of control’) tend to have a dependent style of decision-

making where they rely on the direction of others. It is also suggested that extroverts are

more likely to seek advice from others. (Di Fabio, 2006).

Engineers require critical thinking for practical decisions. Without a critical thinking process

for decision-making in place we may find ourselves stuck in arriving at courses of action or a

recommendation agreeable to stakeholders. The engineers who develop critical thinking

skills to turn data into decision quality information will easily put themselves ahead of those

who rely on ad hoc methods (Knutson, 2012). Throughout their professional lives, engineers

are both decision agents and decision-makers. Decision making environments where

engineers are active quite often involve multiple criteria, imprecise and incomplete data,

multiple actors and pressure groups, etc. Although practically all engineering disciplines aim

at helping engineers to develop good decision making capabilities a conscious effort based

upon the state-of-the-art of the so-called decision sciences must be carried out if one wants to

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simultaneously maximize quality and productivity of engineering decision making.

Emphasizing upon the importance of group decision making in various organizations,

Butterfield (2015) says, “In contrast to authoritarian style, once common in corporations,

group decision making and participatory management have grown in popularity over the past

few decades”. Hence we can say that critical thinking and decision making abilities are very

important for engineering students to succeed in the job market.

2.3.4 Leadership Skills

A leader is someone who can influence others and who has managerial authority. Leadership

is the process of leading a group and influencing that group to achieve its goals. Robbins and

Coulter (2012, p461) mentions seven traits associated with leadership. They are: drive, desire

to lead, honesty and integrity, self-confidence, intelligence, job-relevant knowledge and

extroversion. According to him, leaders possess high desire for achievement and tirelessly

pursue their activities. They demonstrate the willingness to take responsibility and build

trusting relationships with their followers. With their self-confidence they convince followers

of the rightness of their goals and decisions and with their intelligence, they gather,

synthesize and interpret large amounts of information. Effective leaders have a high degree

of knowledge about the company, industry and technical matters. So they not only form well-

informed decisions but also understand the implications of those decisions. In addition to all

these attributes, they are also lively people who are sociable, assertive and rarely silent or

withdrawn.

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Referring to the leaders’ responsibilities, Hamm (2006) mentions that they need to manage

the organizational hierarchy, financial results, sense of their own job, time management and

corporate culture. They should be able not only to bring in changes when required but also

facilitate others to adapt to such changes. Successful leaders no doubt, expect profitable

results from their employees but along with that they train them to achieve that target.

Effective leaders understand that their job is bringing out the answer from others. They also

need to set realistic deadlines and inspire their followers to sync with the organizational

culture.

Leadership skills can be developed in schools and colleges so that students can pick up the

leadership traits at an early age. Indian schools are no exception to this fact. Our country has

seen great freedom fighters, stalwarts, rational leaders, business leaders, etc., most of whom

had humble origins but had emerged as successful leaders. We can say that the schools in

India are the natural spring beds for the growth of leadership development among the

students. India has produced excellent leadership in engineering front as well. The famous

business leaders who have emerged from engineering field have built and led their empire to

success with their grit and determination. Today also, we see that many engineering leaders

are nurtured in colleges themselves. Yet, the quality of engineers as said earlier is not

meeting the required standards. So, there is a need to focus on and nurture leadership skills at

the engineering level. For instance, adequate entrepreneurship skills are required if an

engineer wants to start a business. Though some colleges in India are moving in the right

direction of developing leadership skills in their students, there is still a lot of scope for

development as far as entrepreneurial skills are concerned.

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Though Indian engineering colleges are turning out a large number of engineering graduates

every year, only a few among them are able to take up key leadership positions. Lack of soft

skills is one among the various factors responsible for such a trend and it can be traced to

lack of leadership focus among the Indian institutes. Their focus is employment centric and

innovation centric. Hence there is a definite need for the engineering institutions to focus

more on inculcating leadership skills in their students. Also the leadership styles across the

globe are converging into American style. And it is a positive sign that most of the Indian

origin business leaders are accepted in American firms. However, Indian engineers are not in

this great number in other parts of the world. This is also an area of concern which suggests

that Indian engineers should adapt to other leadership styles.

2.3.5 Emotional Intelligence

Over time, scientists have begun to study why standard intelligence alone isn't enough to

predict performance in an individual (McPheat, 2010). They have realized that there is

another type of intelligence that isn't related to the standard cognitive intelligence - it's called

emotional intelligence (EI) or Emotional Intelligence Quotient (EQ).

We might have come across several instances in our life in which someone that is incredibly

bright and yet cannot seem to pull his/her life together. Likewise, a brilliant student could

have failed in his/her university exam or an intelligent worker could not have got ahead in

his/her company. Despite portraying good intelligence level, that doesn't seem to be enough

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for them to ensure success. In addition, certain traits or behaviors other than intelligence may

prove instrumental in deciding an individual’s success or failure.

Emotional intelligence refers to one's ability to be aware of one's own feelings, be aware of

others' feelings, to differentiate among them, and to use the information to guide one's

thinking and behavior (Salovey and Mayer, 1993). This definition consists of three categories

of abilities: evaluation and expression of emotion, regulation of emotion, and using emotions

in decision making. Goleman (1995) also reiterated the meaning of the term EQ saying , “the

capacity for organizing our own feelings and those of others, for motivating ourselves, and

for managing emotions well in ourselves and in our relationships" (p. 317). It appears that

EQ relates to a number of non-cognitive skills, abilities, or competencies that influence an

individual's capacity to deal with environmental demands and pressures. Although Goleman

(1995) is the progenitor of the EQ construct, it was first discussed by Salovey and Mayer and

had its roots in Thorndike's (1920) concept of social intelligence.

MNCs have realized that students’ IQ alone is not a proper yardstick to predict his/her

performance or success (McPheat, 2010). The way they express themselves and interact with

others is also equally important, if not more important than the person’s marks on an

intelligent based test. In Gottman’s (1997) words, “In the last decade or so, science has

discovered a tremendous amount about the role emotions play in our lives. Researchers have

found that even more than IQ, your emotional awareness and abilities to handle feelings will

determine your success and happiness in all walks of life”.

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If individuals don’t develop EI, their career journey tends to get halted by setbacks. They

either can’t get past critical situations at work place, or they struggle past it on vesting so

much of unnecessary time, leaving their family and career in doldrums. They may not react

positively to the other people involved, which prevent them in being productive. Even the

things that are not meant to be may be taken personally by them. Overall, these types of

situations prevent them from being successful as possible in the workplace.

Even though people who possess a highly developed EI face the same critical situations, the

way they take the situation would be different. They take the situation in positive stride and

analyze to understand how those feelings are impacting their behavior. They are able to

recognize how other people are feeling and to empathize with them. One very good example

that showcases the strength of EI comes from the experience of the US Air Force. When

hiring recruiters, the government used an emotional intelligence test as part of the process.

They found that the recruiters who performed the best were the ones that had scored the

highest on the EI test – particularly in the competencies of emotion self awareness, empathy,

happiness, and assertiveness. Hiring employees who have high levels of EI gives us a better

chance of hiring the right people the first time and reduces employee turnover, resulting in

significant cost savings. Multiple studies have shown that the most successful leaders in

organizations are those that have higher levels of EI.

With an array of advantages, EQ is certainly a very important aspect of soft skills and needs

to be inculcated in the engineering students because workplaces demand EQ along with IQ.

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2.3.6 Time Management

Companies and institutions tend to think time as one of their five assets: capital, physical

assets, information, human resources and time. Out of these five, the first four can be

manipulated—bought, sold, retained, changed, hired, relieved, etc. However, the last one,

time cannot be accelerated or slowed. In fact it must be spent, the instant it is received

(Meckenzie and Nickerson, 2009). Time management is essential for both maximum health

and personal effectiveness. The degree to which we feel in control of our time and our life

determines our level of peace, harmony, stability and mental well-being. A feeling of being

“out of control” of our time is the major source of stress, anxiety, and depression. The better

we organize well and control the critical events of our life, the better we feel and the better

we sleep, and the more we get the things done with minimum hiccups.

Tracy (2013) mentions the four Ds - Desire, Decisiveness, Determination, Discipline - as the

techniques that have proven successful for many executives in every field of endeavor.

Finding a time management strategy that works best for us depends on our personality,

ability to self-motivate and level of self-discipline. Chapman and Rupured (2008) list the

following ten strategies for effective time management:

Know How We Spend Our Time

Set Priorities

Use a Planning Tool

Get Organized

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Schedule Your Time Appropriately

Delegate: Get Help from Others

Stop Procrastinating

Manage External Time Wasters

Avoid Multi-Tasking

Stay Healthy

In today’s competitive era, time is at a premium. The ability to manage time “can be seen as

a vehicle that can carry you from wherever you are to wherever you want to go”, says Tracy

(2004). On the contrary, failing to meet deadlines encounters the disapproval or the wrath of

their superiors as completing the given assignment on time is essential in almost all

workplaces. Acquiring skills in time management enables employees to increase the

productivity and meet the organizational goals. These skills are of immense value not only in

the professional world but also in the academia. Students are expected to meet innumerable

deadlines during their academic tenure: completing an exam, accomplishing a project,

applying for a job, etc. However, one of the biggest challenges engineering students face is to

manage their tasks on time or the lack of proper time management skills. It is challenging for

them to strike a balance between their efforts towards the classes and towards associated

activities.

With a heavy engineering four year curriculum on one hand, definitely, one of the most

important skills for engineering students is Time Management and developing skills in this

area would certainly help them succeed in their academic and professional settings.

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2.3.7 Conflict Management

Conflict may be defined as a contest between people with contrasting ideas, beliefs, opinions,

or goals. According to Ramsbotham et.al (2011), it is the widest set of circumstances in

which conflict parties perceive that they have mutually incompatible goals. Conflicts may

happen between students, between children and parents, between professionals or between

nations. It is inherent to social interaction and common to organizational life (Katz and Kahn,

1978). Conflict parties often deny the existence of an issue or reduce its importance in order

to avoid dealing with it (Brown, 1983). In fact, conflict plays a catalyst role in group

development and pushes groups from one stage to the other. As many authors have pointed

out, conflict is a phenomenon that may give rise to both beneficial and functional

consequences (De Dreu and Van de Vliert, 1997). Therefore, it is necessary for an

organization’s management to diagnose it and find some intervention tools as well that may

allow it to keep conflict within acceptable limits. For instance, both competitive and

cooperative approaches are used for managing conflicts. McCorkle et.al (2016) argues that

successful conflict managers are good at both. Whenever conflicts are managed, the process

should not focus on conflict itself. In fact, solution-focused conflict management never

focuses on the conflict itself, but what the parties want to change in the situation and how to

make that happen (Bannink, 2010). An appropriate training in conflict management would

enable individuals to at least manage the conflicts even if they are not able to resolve them

completely.

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Engineering students particularly in India undergo a rigorous coursework which extends over

four years including project internship. They join as a teenager in engineering course; by the

time they leave they are confound professional adult. Because of parental interventions, they

might not have felt the need to manage conflicts during their schooling years. However, it is

not the case when they enter engineering colleges because of the demands at the academic

and other environments they live in during the course of study. At the end of their academic

tenure, they may have to manage many conflicts within themselves and those between them

and their parents. In other words, they have to decide between the conflicting interests of

higher education or employment; perhaps sometimes joining family business or setting up a

business. Although there are situations which put to test the conflicting skills of an

engineering student, seldom the students are equipped with good conflicting resolution skills

to overcome such situations.

When it comes to workplaces, traditionally, hierarchical structure gives rise to potential of

conflicts. Line and staff positions are from the beginning susceptible to conflicts. Engineers

belong to both line and staff positions by the nature of their work. However, in organizations

some belong to line and some belong to staff. In IT industry, construction industry and in

some other industries the scope of conflicts has reduced as they follow predominantly project

or matrix organizational structure. Conflict can arise in engineering teams; between

employees and employers; in hierarchy; among peers. However, as conflicts are inevitable in

all workplaces, engineers must be trained in conflict resolution skills on a periodic basis

because conflicts not only have a high personal cost but also are expensive for the

organization. Research indicates that a typical manager loses 25% of the day responding to

43

unhelpful conflict (Mc Connon et. al, 2008) and this lost time is detrimental to his/her

creative and productive work. In fact, the true cost will include wasted employee time, higher

staff turnover, missed opportunities, absenteeism, inefficiency, low morale and poor

teamwork. On the other hand, people who are skilled at managing conflicts are more likely to

be perceived as leaders, are more influential, gain respect and co-operation and increase the

worth of an organization.

2.3.8 Business Etiquette

Business etiquette is the essence of building relationships with people. Its underlying

principle is the thoughtful consideration of the interests and feelings of others (Robinson,

2000). With the pervasive impact of globalization, organizations demand that their

employees are well versed with global business etiquette because a lack of knowledge of

such cross cultural etiquette can prove to be very costly for them (Martin and Chaney, 2012).

Business etiquette is the means of maximizing our business potential. We can lay foundations

for a strong business relationship and carve out a very special niche for us through our

business etiquette. It helps make a sale, land a job and keep a business person informed and

attune to what is going on in an industry. The term Business Etiquette involves more than

politeness and handshakes. It is an important and essential tool for success.

Business etiquette includes various practices: respecting what is right, fitting or honorable in

a professional environment; maintain decency, propriety and dignity; adapting an ethical and

a socially acceptable behavior; strictly following the organizational code of conduct. For

44

instance, attending personal phone calls during a business meeting or calling a colleague by

first name without knowing him well are not the appropriate business manners.

Etiquette is thus the way a people present themselves to others, being comfortable and

making other people around comfortable. It is no doubt a very important factor in

determining the success or failure of a person. If we feel comfortable with others and make

them comfortable, we can communicate better and develop mutual trust amongst us. This

comfort zone is realized through presenting ourselves effectively. So it is very important for

each one of us, especially the young aspirants who dream of joining the corporate world as a

professional, to practice and master good manners and etiquette in order to be successful, be

liked by the people around and maintain good relationships with clients, customers and

employers/employees. Business etiquette helps us achieve this (Raman et al., 2009).

Business etiquette is an essential ingredient of soft skills. It has paramount significance and

importance at the corporate world either to make or break the business deals. Therefore, it is

mandatory to stick to the basics of etiquettes not just to become a successful professional but

also to earn and sustain good friendship throughout life. Students of engineering may be

intelligent, smart and tactful but without following proper etiquette, they can’t develop

themselves into likeable personalities. To sum up, adapting business etiquette costs us

nothing but buys us everything.

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2.3.9 Group Dynamics and Team Building

In our life, especially in our work career, we’ve probably had a lot of experience working in

groups - project teams; maybe a football or a cricket team, a sales team at work and the list

goes on. Work teams are one of the realities and challenges of managing in today’s dynamic

global environment. Many organizations, especially the IT services companies have made the

move to work restructuring around teams rather than individuals. Before we understand

teams, we first need to understand some basics about groups.

A group is defined as two or more interacting and interdependent individuals who come

together to achieve specific goals (Robbins and Coulter, 2012, p346). These individuals are

connected by and within social relationships and they are networked together like a series of

interconnected computers (Forsyth, 2010). In general, group members usually are the

members of various subgroups, e.g., neighbors, fellow employees, peers, etc. Each of the

group members comes with their own set of ideas, values, beliefs, opinions, and principles. It

is highly possible that each group member influences all other group members as well as the

group as a whole; therefore, it becomes apparent that each group of learners is quite different

and unique and that each group develops its own dynamics. The term "group dynamics" is

used to describe the processes that occur when people interact in a group.

Work teams are groups whose members work intensely on a specific, common goal using

their positive synergy, individual and mutual accountability, and complementary skills.

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Though the term ‘team’ can be defined according to the context it is referring to, it is useful

to look at a few definitions provided by scholars:

‘A team is a group in which members work together intensively to achieve a common group

goal’. (Lewis-McClear and Taylor, 1998)

‘A team is a small number of people with complementary skills who are committed to a

common purpose, performance goals, and approach for which they are mutually

accountable’. (Katzenbach and Smith, 1993)

For engineers, team building is a prerequisite especially in MNCs as they involve employees

from different genders, cultures and backgrounds. Recently the IT MNC sector has expanded

so rapidly that it knew no boundaries thus following the boundary less organizational

structure. Since there would be quite a number of people in a group, arriving at a consensus

is not an easy task. However, team building is an art and science and the leader who can

consistently build high performance teams is worth their weight in gold (Llopis, 2012).

More can be accomplished with groups when compared to something than can be achieved

by the individuals alone, but a group must be focused and healthy to remain productive.

Gone are the days when work used to get to be done by sheer authority. The fast growing

technology and the wide variety of MNCs and the opportunities available has made people

aware of their rights, status and deliverables. It is obviously difficult to deal with the people

effectively if they have quite rigid views, fixed opinions and strong prejudices. It may disrupt

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the interrelationship and poses a challenge to e sprit de corps (Latin term for “team spirit”).

Therefore, it has been observed over the years that the leaders have changed themselves from

master - servant relationship into partnership relationship. This has given birth to a concept

called team work.

Team building shapes the employees into a productive force. It means encouraging them to

work cooperatively, getting them to share not just things but feelings too; could be one’s

successes and as well as failure, letting them grow freely so that they can create their own

path in achieving the results for the organization. Most of today’s organizations rely on teams

for carrying out their projects – small, medium or large - and hence team playing skills are

vital for all employees.

Engineering colleges today train their students for effective participation in team work by

means of both curricular and extracurricular activities. By working together, students learn

pick up various attributes such as patience, perseverance, adaptability, resilience, etc., which

are very important to build and succeed in teams.

2.4 Importance of Soft skills

Developing, practicing and implementing soft skills appropriate to the contexts would

exercise a positive impact on the academic and professional careers of engineering students.

Their main objective is to accomplish their academic pursuits, progress in their professional

settings with due regard, recognition and reward and climb to the higher rungs of their

48

profession. It’s of course a challenging task for the engineering students to stand distinct

among their competitors but soft skills would enable them to succeed in their attempt to do

so. This situation clearly accentuates the importance of soft skills in today’s globalized

workplaces.

Right planning and implementation of the soft skills; applying them at the workplaces while

dealing with employees, workers, people, customers, etc., results in good reputation thereby

creating an aura for an employee. Failure in handling a particular situation effectively and

efficiently within time bound situation may not necessarily be blamed for the employee’s

lack of understanding and approach in a given job. The employees may be good enough and

fit to hold the current job; well qualified in all aspects; possess technical expertise; but may

be lacking one or the other soft skills, by which they might be one step short of the goal and

the target.

Electronics For You (EFY), conducted an opinion survey of engineering students, fresh

professionals and industry analysts through various social media platforms to understand the

importance of soft skills, apart from technical expertise, for a successful career.

62.63 per cent respondents believed that soft skills were important but not the

deciding factor.

25.29 per cent believed that soft skills were extremely important.

Remaining 12.08 per cent believed that these were important as complementary

skills.

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Fig. Importance of Soft Skills

Source: (Mutha Abhishek, 2013) EFY, Issue 32, March 28 2013

When it comes to communication skills, one of the most important soft skills, proficiency in

English language plays a key role. As IT MNCs are characterized by globalization and

competitiveness, it is important for employees to get equipped with effective communication.

Therefore engineering graduates need to possess the much needed proficiency in English, the

lingua franca of the world. More and more new challenges resulting from the

widening/expanding roles of engineers has enhanced the need for the Indian engineers to

possess good English and Communication skills which prove instrumental in an engineer’s

professional success. Lack of such skills only undermines the image of an engineer (Shikha,

2012).

Engineering is one of the attracting fields of study in India for many of the students. For

engineering students whose mother tongue is not English, and who have completed their

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schooling from a regional language medium school, mastering English may be very hard.

However, they need to have adequate proficiency in English to survive in the academic and

professional environments. The English language is spoken by 1.8 billion people in the world

and the number is still rising (Latha, 2014). Many courses in engineering require preparing

reports such as lab reports, project reports etc., and many assignments involve seminars

wherein students need to present the reports and other research oriented tasks in English.

Hence a good hold on English is mandatory.

Conventional Engineering curriculum is focused on the students’ development in terms of

technical knowledge and skills. But, in recent times, MNCs have acknowledged that this

mode of preparation of engineering students is inadequate, as graduates lack the wide range

of written and spoken communication skills required to collaborate with the members of

other professional groups (Peena, 2014). Overall, it has been an expression of discontentment

from the industry managers that the entry level employees (fresh graduates) lack soft skills.

Besides domain expertise, analytical and problem solving skills, decision making ability,

managerial skills, etc., are regarded as the most required qualities for engineers. The growing

importance placed on oral communication skills by employers has been echoed

internationally for the past two to three decades (Patil, 2013). Technical expertise is equally

important, but this needs to be presented with perfection such that the audience understands

the message completely.

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Now-a-days, graduates are competent in their technical skills but lack in soft skills such as

‘team-work’, ‘leadership’, problem solving, etc. More than 40 years ago, the German

Engineering Association (VDI) recommended that at least 20% of the Engineering curricula

should be dedicated to Soft Skills (Dharmarajan et. al, 2012). In short, we can say that, if

adopted properly soft skills can make a career for engineering students; at the same time, if

not learnt and implemented appropriately the same soft skills can break their career.

2.5 Conclusions

It is an indubitable fact that soft skills will have an impact on the academic and professional

life of engineering students. This chapter stresses the importance of soft skills variously

known as personal skills, employability skills or corporate skills and argues that these skills

should complement the hard skills which are subject-oriented skills. Among the soft skills,

certain specific types such as communication, decision making, team playing, time

management, business etiquette, conflict management, etc., play a more crucial role in the

careers of engineering students. This chapter has discussed all these skills in detail and their

roles in the academic and professional world. It is time for the engineering colleges to

realize the real potential of soft skills and provide adequate training to their students who

should be able to strike a balance between hard and soft skills.

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CHAPTER 3

ENTRY LEVEL JOBS IN IT MNCs AND THE ENGINEERING

CURRICULUM IN ANDHRA PRADESH COLLEGES

Currently, India is familiar to few of the good IT MNCs (Information Technology

Multinational Corporations) across the globe. The IT MNCs in India are reputed globally for

their effective and efficient IT and business related customer solutions and their enormous

success have helped the Indian IT industry to make such a mark in the global environment.

This industry has been instrumental in driving the economy of the nation on to a swift growth

curve. Indian economy stands today as one of the influential and attractive economy. In fact,

the liberalization move by the Indian Government in 1990s has given a boost to the Indian

economy and put her into a fast track economic growth route (Kumar, 2014). In order to cater

to their human resource demands, IT MNCs recruit a large number of engineers from various

engineering colleges in India both from top rated engineering institutions and other colleges

of less repute. During the process of recruitment, they realize that the students do not possess

the necessary soft skills. Such a situation may arise because of the inadequate research into

the engineering curriculum. The curriculum adopted in most of the engineering colleges in

India does not cater to the development of soft skills in their students who opt for jobs at the

entry level positions in IT MNCs.

This chapter provides a background to the IT industry and the types of skills it expects; a

brief overview of the academic curriculum adopted in various engineering colleges in India.

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Providing such a background would enable us to understand better the analyses presented in

the chapters that follow.

3.1 IT Companies: Emergence & Growth

India’s IT industry growth is incomparable in the history. No other industry in India has

grown at rapid pace as the IT industry. India’s IT industry started flourishing in the 1990s

and was estimated at 150 million (or 0.15 billion) US Dollars in 1990-91. By 2006-2007, the

industry has grown to 50,000 million (or 50 billion) US dollars; that is a 330 fold increase in

just 15 years! By year 2008, the industry was estimated to increase to 87 billion US dollars.

The annual growth rate of the industry in India is estimated at 30% (Kumar, 2014).

Indian IT industry consists of two major components: IT Services and Business Process

Outsourcing (BPO). According to NASSCOM, this sector aggregated revenues of US$100

billion in FY2012, where export and domestic revenue stood at US$69.1 billion and US$31.7

billion respectively, growing by over 9% (NASSCOM, 2012).

The major cities that account for about nearly 90% of the IT sector's exports

are Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata. Bangalore is considered to

be the Silicon Valley of India because it is the leading IT exporter (Canton, 2012). Exports

dominate the industry and constitute about 77% of the total industry revenue (NASSCOM,

2012). The industry’s share of total Indian exports increased from less than 4% in FY1998 to

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about 25% in FY2012. According to Gartner, the "Top Five Indian IT Services Providers"

are Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys, Cognizant, Wipro and HCL Technologies.

3.1.1 Major IT Hubs in India (Taranjit and Batra, 2014)

Rank City Description

1 Bangalore Popularly known as the Silicon Valley of India and IT Capital of

India. Considered to be a global IT hub and a leading software

exporter. Home for more than 35% of all the IT MNCs present in

India; Contains close to 5000 companies making it the largest IT

contributor in India.

2 Chennai The second largest exporter of IT and ITES of India and is the BPO

hub of India. It has the largest operations centers of TCS and CTS.

3 Hyderabad The third largest IT hub housing notable MNCs like Microsoft,

Google, Facebook, Amazon, Oracle, Electronic Arts, etc.

4 Mumbai The Financial capital of India, but recently many IT MNCs

like TCS which is India's first and largest have headquarters in

Mumbai.

5 Delhi The National Capital Region (NCR) comprising Delhi, Gurgaon and

Noida are clusters of software development.

6 Pune Major Indian and International Firms present in Pune.

7 Kolkata A major back-end operational hub for IBM, Intel, Deloitte, Texas

Instruments, Sun Microsystems (Oracle).

8 Bhubaneswar One of the fastest emerging IT hub and developing cities of India.

9 Thiruvananthapuram The capital of Kerala, now houses all major IT companies including

Oracle, TCS, Infosys, and contributes in IT export of India.

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3.1.2 Reasons behind Success of Indian software companies

There could be zillion factors behind the success story of IT MNCs in India. Besides the

Indian IT MNCs, many MNC bellwethers have also entered into the Indian IT market. India

is the repository of adept software professionals, which are available in affluence at low and

affordable cost. The more the number of software professionals available in the market; the

more in number the companies can recruit so that they can clinch better deals and projects

from their clients showcasing their strong employee bench strength. Therefore, this helps the

IT MNCs to provide cost-effective solutions for their customers. As a result, Indian IT MNCs

can position their products and services in the international market at the most competitive

price. This results in India being a favored destination for outsourcing as well. Adding to this,

many IT MNC giants like Microsoft, Google have their offshore development centers in

India.

3.1.3 Some striking facts about the IT MNCs

India won appreciation for its software writing skills in the late 1990s.

(http://business.mapsofindia.com/software-companies-india/)

Cheaper wages which are almost equal to one fifth of the wages paid to US and

European IT counterparts have helped outsourcing companies like Infosys, TCS and

Wipro.

The software industry in India was hit hard by the Satyam Computers’ fiasco.

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IBM’s Indian subsidiary employs about 1, 50,000 employees (which is one-third of

their total strength). (https://officechai.com/stories/biggest-it-companies-in-india/#)

The IT industry contributed 8 percent to India's GDP. "India's GDP stood at $477

billion in 2000 and increased to $2,091 billion in the year 2015, showing more than

four-fold increase over a period of 15 years," as quoted by PHD (Progress Harmony

Development) CHAMBER president Mahesh Gupta.

(http://profit.ndtv.com/news/economy/article-india-to-clock-nearly-8-growth-in-

2016-17-industry-body-1398821)

The year 2012 was a landmark year for the Indian IT and ITeS industry with

aggregate revenues crossing US$ 100 billion. The sector’s contribution to GDP

increased from 1.2% in FY 1998 to an estimated 8.1% in FY 2014 (NASSCOM,

2014).

3.1.4 Some of the services that are offered by IT MNCs in India:

Custom Business solutions

Collaborative Content Management

Internet Marketing

Web Branding Services

Database Migration services

Customization Services

Application Development

Outsourcing

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ERP solutions

I phone Apps development

Collaborative Commerce

Programming Services

Quality assurance and testing services

Multimedia offering

3.1.5 Types of Businesses in IT Sectors

Infrastructure Software: These include OS, middleware and databases.

Enterprise Software: These automate business process in diverse verticals like

finance, sales and marketing, production and logistics.

Security Software

Industry-specific Software

Contract Programming

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3.1.6 Top FIVE IT Companies in India (Source: http://listz.in/top-10-it-companies-in-

india.html)

The following are the top 5 IT Companies in India 2016 on the basis of Market

Capitalization.

“Market capitalization is the aggregate valuation of the company based on its current share

price and the total number of outstanding stocks. It is calculated by multiplying the current

market price of the company’s share with the total outstanding shares of the company. For

instance, a company has 20 million outstanding shares and the current market price of each

share is Rs. 100. Market capitalization of this company will be 200, 00,000 * 100 = Rs. 200

crore”. (http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/definition/market-capitalization)

1. TCS

2. INFOSYS

3. WIPRO

4. HCL TECHNOLOGIES

5. TECH MAHINDRA

TCS

TCS or Tata Consultancy Services is one of the subsidiaries of the Tata Group. It is the

largest IT MNC not only in India but in Asia as well. Spread across 46 countries across the

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globe this MNC was established way back in 1968. When it’s about IT Companies in India,

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) stands on the top. Some of the sectors in which TCS offers

its services are Banking, Travel, Healthcare, Insurance, Telecom and Hospitality.

Headquartered in Mumbai, TCS is a part of India’s Premier Business Group, Tata Group and

has operations in more than 40 countries across the globe.

In 2015, TCS is ranked 64th overall in the Forbes World's Most Innovative Companies

ranking, making it both the highest-ranked IT services company and the first Indian

company. It is the world's 10th largest IT services provider, measured by the revenues. As of

December 2015, it is ranked 10th on the Fortune India 500 list.

Market Capitalization: Rs 4, 46,006 Crore (As on 16th January 2016)

INFOSYS

Infosys Technologies Limited was established on July 2 1981 by seven people Narayana

Murthy, Kris Gopalakrishnan, Nandan Nilekani, Nagavara Ramarao, S. D. Shibulal, K

Dinesh and N. S. Raghavan. Infosys in a very short span of time has managed to make a

mark for itself as an IT major not only in India but also across the globe, offering 33 offices

spread across different countries.

Infosys is one of the fastest growing IT Companies in India and its consolidated revenue

grew by 6.4% during the financial year 2014-15. A “Multiple Award Winner”, Infosys was

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incorporated in the year 1981 and since its inception; the company has continuously provided

quality rich products and services to its clients. Hospitality, Retail, Communication,

Education and Insurance are some of the industries in which Infosys offer its services.

Market Capitalization: Rs 2, 61,897 Crore (As on 16th January 2016)

WIPRO

Wipro is among the largest IT MNCs in India with its headquarters in Mumbai. Listed on the

New York Stock Exchange, Wipro Technologies was established in 1980. According to a

recent survey carried out by Brand Finance and The Economic Times in 2010, Wipro stands

among the nine most valuable brands in India. Wipro is actively involved in Application

Development and Maintenance, Product Engineering, Business Process Outsourcing

Technology Infrastructure etc. Some of the sectors in which Wipro offers its services include

Manufacturing, Banking, Automotive, Retail and Transportation. Wipro is ranked 3rd in the

list of top 10 best IT companies in India. Founded in the year 1945, Wipro is a leading IT

company in India with operations in 6 continents across the world.

Market Capitalization: Rs 1, 34,257 Crore (As on 16th January 2016)

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HCL

HCL Technologies is the IT service wing of HCL. Founded on November 12 1991, HCL

Technologies is head quartered in Noida. Counted amongst the leading software companies

in India, this company has earned consolidated revenues of US$ 6.1 billion in the FY 2015.

Headquartered in Noida, Uttar Pradesh, HCL Technologies has operations in more than 30

countries across the world. Some of the services offered by HCL Technologies are Cloud

Computing, Network Services, Business Process Outsourcing and Testing Services.

Market Capitalization: Rs 1, 18,051 Crore (As on 16th January 2016)

TECH MAHINDRA

Tech Mahindra is a joint venture between British Telecom Group of UK and the Mahindra

Group. Holding the title of the fifth largest software exporting company in India, Tech

Mahindra has grown by leaps and bounds since its inception in 1986.

Winner of Porter Prize, Tech Mahindra was founded in the year 1986 and presently

operates in more than 50 countries across the world. Tech Mahindra offers its services to the

sectors like Hospitality, Banking, Telecom, Insurance, Retail, etc.

Market Capitalization: Rs 50, 299 Crore (As on 16th January 2016)

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3.1.7 Relevance/importance of Soft Skills in IT MNCs

As we have seen in the earlier chapter, the term “soft skills” is not confined to just

communication skills but it also contains aspects as interpersonal skills, negotiation skills,

decision making skills, problem solving skills, conflict-management skills, etc. which are

very much needed in the current competitive work environment.

While engineers are recruited and trained based on their technical expertise in their

knowledge of operating systems, computer programming skills etc., which are the important

prerequisites to start a career in an IT MNC; behavioral/soft skills such as English fluency,

ability to work with global teams, positive attitude etc., definitely account for in making their

career rosy.

While evaluating a candidate on soft skills, HR professionals look at not only his/her ability

to communicate or present his/her ideas and thoughts clearly but also the candidate’s

personality and problem-solving skills as well. When it comes to the required skills in an IT

industry, the emphasis typically revolves around the technical abilities in the knowledge of

specific skill sets like C, C++, Csharp, Java, Hadoop, VB etc. These are referred to as hard

skills.

The footstep of globalization, notwithstanding its critics across the globe, has increased

swiftly in recent years. Majority of the industry HR professionals point to the gap in the skill

set of an individual vis-à-vis the expectations of the industry (details are given in the next

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chapter). One of the major areas that are needed to fill that void is `soft skills'. In today's

demanding workplace, the companies are requiring more from candidates than knowledge

and experience. While these "hard skills" can make a good impression and prompt an

individual to invite a candidate for an interview, combining them with the right "soft skills"

and the individual just might extend a job offer.

A software engineer may excel in delivering several lines of code to solve a particular

problem/requirement but unless he/she possesses necessary soft skills, he/she would neither

be able to understand the problem faced by a customer nor explain how his/her suggested

procedure/code will act as a solution for the customer’s problem/requirement. Let’s take this

example with respect to our point of research. The software engineers are expected to train

themselves and adept in software nuances like development and testing and provide support

for the applications developed by them. However, to do that successfully, they need to work

in a team and interact with their team members to provide the deliverables to their respective

MNC. Any misunderstanding among the team members would result in the deliverables that

would be far from good standards.

Business is changing constantly. The shift in the workplace from manufacturing/production

work to service/knowledge work has brought about changes in the nature of job performance

both in the developed and developing world. Jobs in the service sector are characterized by

interpersonal and face-to-face interactions with employees, customers, or clients. Employees,

thus, are able to effectively perform behaviors related to the interpersonal nature of work

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performance. Employers are considering the role effective `soft skill' performances can play

in employees helping to achieve organizational goals.

Rao (2011) mentions the importance and types of soft skills required by IT professionals as

discussed below:

According to IEEE, one of the world’s largest professional associations, “Soft skills

are the techniques we need to work with others. The things we weren’t directly taught

in engineering school.

Google, Inc. sees soft skills as “Personal management skills such as attitudes and

behaviors that drive ones’ potential for growth and team work skills”.

“To a techie, anything outside of product and development skills could be considered

soft skills”, says Paula Moreira, writing on “Soft Skills for IT professionals”.

A survey of 1420 CIOs done by an independent research group for Robert Half Technology

found that the most important soft skill for IT staffers was perceived to be interpersonal skills

by 37% of respondents, written or verbal communication (20%), ability to work under

pressure (17%), overall business acumen (11%), professional demeanor (7%) and other skills

by 8% of the respondents (Rao, 2011).

A study by BATEC (Boston Area Advanced Technological Education Connections) on

Information Technology Workforce Skills found that there was general agreement on 8

attributes and skills for employability (Rao, 2011). These are:

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Communication (oral and written) and ability to converse courteously

Ability to work productively in teams and groups

Customer service focus

Ability to listen and comprehend

Ability to be resourceful and constructive when solving problems

Ability to analyze, prioritize work, evaluate and work with minimal supervision

Ability to comprehend and express concepts in quantitative terms

Ability to develop original solutions to novel problems quickly

Respondents to the BATEC study also made comments like:

“Technical skills get you the interview – soft skills get you the job”

Ramesh and Ramesh (2011) take an even broader view of what soft skills comprises and

group over thirty skills into three broad categories Attitude, Communication and Etiquette

(ACE).

3.1.8 Summary

India made an extensively accepted strategic shift in its national policy in the early nineties

and eliminated many constraints to liberalize the Indian economy (Kumar, 2014). This has

given an incredible push for rise and success of all industrial sectors, and IT was in the

limelight to avail the benefits of the liberalization policies. India owns the second largest

technically qualified workforce, the first being US, with skills in English language. An

66

estimate says that there are over 4 million technically qualified employees available for

employment in India. Cost of labor is perhaps one tenth of the wages prevalent in US

(Kumar, 2014). This cheap labor is a big plus for US and others to set up and manage their

units in India.

The Government of India’s able intervention in reducing the import duties on software and

hardware products also helped for the growth of the IT industry. Many local governments too

laid their hand by setting up IT parks with necessary infrastructure for smooth functioning of

the MNCs in these IT parks. This has resulted in new entrepreneurs setting up new

companies. The first and perhaps the most eye-catching example of the new breed of

entrepreneurs is the Infosys Technologies, which was set up by a seven member team of

technocrats with borrowed capital.

However, there was no looking back for Infosys and the company eminently grew year after

year at a compounded rate of 70% (Kumar, 2014). The main reason for the growth of Infosys

was its absolutely transparent practices and its professionalism in project handling. In fact a

good number of Fortune 500 companies of the US are Infosys clients. Other glistening

examples of Indian IT MNCs are: Wipro Technologies, TCS Ltd., HCL, etc.

The huge number of English speaking workforce (unlike China) is a plus for India to

continue to be the major force in the future. Majority of the foreign exchange earned by the

IT industry is from the service sector. IT is an essential part of any Indian company, big or

67

small, for their day to day activities and the dependence on IT for growth is only going to

increase. Thus there is huge scope for IT growth in the Indian domestic market.

3.2 Engineering Education in India

India is one of the swiftly bolstering and developing economies of the world. The country has

a balanced and democratic political system, and has made rapid amends in many endeavors

post-independence: one among them is engineering education. Over the last few decades,

India has made giant strides in the field of engineering education, and the nation currently

has been facing many challenges due to the unemployment problem (Patil and Pudlowski,

2000). The mushrooming number of engineering colleges in India and the missing linkages

between the industry and the academia has led to this situation.

The aggressive growth of engineering education in general in India, and in the State of

Andhra Pradesh in particular, evoked many concerns regarding the quality of the engineering

education. Despite doing well during their engineering journey, at the time of interviews,

students are often confronted with the obstacle of lack of communication skills (as said by

HR professionals during my personal interviews). Considering this view, we can see that the

curriculum of English language skill courses, which are offered to first-year engineering

students, can be regarded to be the most important and essential subjects to face today’s

dynamic and global environment.

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3.2.1 The Growth of Technical Education in India

India has the second largest population in the world, and was the second largest producer of

university degrees in 2000. India has also contributed substantially to the global higher

education by delivering 687,000 university degrees in 2000, which follows China at 739,000

(OECD, 2003).

There has been a massive growth of facilities in the higher education sector in India. In 1947,

the number of universities and colleges of all types stood at 27 and 370 respectively. In 1996-

1997, there were 228 universities and 6,759 affiliated colleges, indicating the tremendous

growth in this vital area of Indian education. For instance, there has been a remarkable

expansion in student enrolments over the last 50 years in India. The number of students at the

university stage, which stood at 0.2 million in 1950-1951, has since risen to over 6 million

during the last decade (Patil and Pudlowski, 2002).

Technical Education covers programmes in engineering, technology, management,

architecture, town planning, pharmacy, applied arts and crafts, hotel management and

catering technology (MHRD). The literature survey shows that there has been a substantial

growth in the number of engineering and technology institutes during the last few decades.

Indeed, the four (A.P, TN, Karnataka, Kerala) southern states of India produce about 75% of

the country’s total engineering workforce, which is more than that produced by the USA

(Patil and Pudlowski, 2000). Today, India produces 1.5 million engineering students from

around 3500 engineering institutions annually (Atasi and Dash, 2016).

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3.2.2 Historical Background

Engineering education in India started during the British era and focused mainly on civil

engineering because of the need for training supervisors for construction and maintenance of

public buildings. While the top level man power were recruited from Britain, the lower level

workforce such as craftsmen, artisans, assistant supervisors, etc., were recruited locally. In

order to train them, the first industrial school was established in Guindy, Madras in 1842 and

then the next in Shibpur, Pune in 1854. The first engineering college was established in

Roorkee in 1847 to train civil engineers. Later, Bengal Engineering College (1856), Banaras

Hindu University (1916), Visvesvaraya College of Engineering (1917) and Harcourt Butler

Technological Institute, Kanpur (1920) were established. In 1945 the Sarkar Committee was

appointed to suggest options for advanced technical education in India. The Sarkar

committee recommended the establishment of higher technical institutes in the four regions

of India based on the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Sarkar, 1945). Consequently,

the five Indian Institutes of Technology at Kharagpur (1950), Bombay (1958), Kanpur

(1959), Madras (1960) and Delhi (1961) (Delhi was added on to the original four) emerged.

The All India Council for Technical Education was set up in 1945, to oversee all technical

education (diploma, degree and post-graduate) in the country. There have been several

official committees set up to review and revitalize engineering education in the country. A

brief history of engineering education in India is available in the Rao Committee report

(2003) and the Ministry of Human Resource Development website

(http://mhrd.gov.in/technical-education) (Banerjee and Muley, 2008).

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As per the Aspiring Minds research article (http://www.aspiringminds.com/research-

articles/employability-of-engineers-state-wise), Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh lag behind

in terms of quality of talent pool. These states are producing more engineering students in

terms of numbers and not the quality. The employability rank in these two states is poor as

per the below table. In other words, the lowest employability figures were observed among

colleges in Southern cities. The proliferation of engineering colleges in Southern and

Western India has brought down the employability figures in Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu

and Maharashtra.

Table: Employability Rank of Major Engineering Hubs

Employability Rank Engineering Hubs

1 UP

2 Karnataka

3 Maharashtra

4 Andhra Pradesh

5 Tamil Nadu

Variations in Employability across states: Exploring the reasons

Aspiring Minds Research Cell looked into identifying the aspects which could explain the

dramatic disparities in Employability across the states. They considered the impact of state

population, size of State, number of colleges, gender spread, etc as possible explanation for

the same.

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As per this second edition of National Employability Study by Aspiring Minds, the

employability percentage decreases with increase in the number of engineering colleges in a

particular state, clearly establishing that opening more engineering colleges shall not solve

the problem of quality of engineers in the country. It’s the quality and not the quantity that

matters. Therefore, it can be inferred that rather than opening more number of engineering

colleges, a given state should think on raising the education standards of current engineering

colleges.

This research by Aspiring Minds further stated that, even though the number of colleges is a

major factor in guiding employability in a particular state, it does not explain it completely.

For instance, even though Tamil Nadu has lower number of engineering colleges (~600) as

compared to Andhra Pradesh (~750), it has a lower employability percentage (8.33 as

compared to 12.73). Similarly Delhi has more colleges than Bihar, but a higher

employability.

According to the leading national daily, The Hindu (2015), a large number of engineering

colleges in Andhra Pradesh have been placed in the B and C grades based on the internal

grading conducted by the Higher Education department. The grading was done after

assessing the quality of the institutions in terms of key performance indicators (KPIs) such as

admissions, accreditation parameters, results and industrial training & campus placements.

261 out of 341 engineering furnished data relating to the KPIs. Of these, only 62 had been

placed in the A grade while 104 colleges had been placed in the B grade and another 62 had

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been given C grade. In all, 33 colleges had been placed in the D grade in terms of their

quality parameters.

Overall, what is definitely required is a larger thrust on improving the quality of engineering

educational standards.

3.2.3 List of universities in Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh consists of three regions as far as the higher educational institutions are

concerned. They are: Andhra University (AU) region that includes the coastal districts; Sri

Venkateswara University (SVU) region that includes the Rayalaseema districts; Osmania

University (OU) region that includes the remaining Telangana districts. Apart from these,

some of the prominent universities are Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University (JNTU)

Hyderabad, JNTU Kakinada, JNTU Anantapur, and Acharya Nagarjuna University (ANU),

Guntur.

The following are some of the universities under which the engineering colleges in Andhra

Pradesh are affiliated to. Out of these four universities, majority of the engineering colleges

are affiliated to JNTU Hyderabad/Kakinada/Anantapur, reason being, JNTU stresses more on

engineering/technical education. Let us look into these universities’ syllabi/curriculum/list of

subjects offered to students. This gives us enough data to assess/examine the range of

emphasis that these universities lay on the soft skills courses as a part of their curriculum.

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JNTU Hyderabad/Kakinada/Anantapur

Osmania University, Hyderabad

Acharya Nagarjuna University, Guntur

Andhra University, Visakhapatnam

As a sample, we have given below the syllabi/curriculum for the aforementioned universities

for B. Tech (Computer Science) 4-year programme:

3.2.3.1 Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University (JNTU)

Hyderabad/Anantapur/Kakinada Syllabus (Sample: B. Tech, CSE)

(http://jntuh.ac.in/new/bulletin_board/Course_Structure/Computer%20Science%20Engg.pdf)

I YEAR

S.No. Subjects

1 English

2 Mathematics- I

3 Mathematical Methods

4 Engineering Physics

5 Engineering Chemistry

6 Computer Programming

7 Engineering Drawing

8 Computer Programming Lab

9 Engineering Physics/Engineering Chemistry Lab

10 English Language Communication Skills Lab

11 IT Workshop/Engineering Workshop

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II YEAR I SEMESTER

S.No. Subjects

1 Probability and Statistics

2 Mathematical Foundations of Computer Science

3 Data Structures

4 Digital Logic Design

5 Electronic Devices and Circuits

6 Basic Electrical Engineering

7 Electrical and Electronics Lab

8 Data Structures Lab

II YEAR II SEMESTER

S.No. Subjects

1 Computer Organization

2 Database Management Systems

3 Java Programming

4 Environmental Studies

5 Formal Languages and Automata Theory

6 Design and Analysis of Algorithms

7 Java Programming Lab

8 Database Management Systems Lab

III YEAR I SEMESTER

S.No. Subjects

1 Principles of Programming Languages

2 OPEN ELECTIVE

Human Values and Professional Ethics

IPR

Disaster Management

3 Software Engineering

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4 Compiler Design

5 Operating Systems

6 Computer Networks

7 Operating Systems Lab

8 Compiler Design Lab

III YEAR II SEMESTER

S.No. Subjects

1 Distributed Systems

2 Information Security

3 Object Oriented Analysis and Design

4 Software Testing Methodologies

5 MEFA

6 Web Technologies

7 Case Tools and Web Technologies Lab

8 Advanced English Communication Skills Lab

IV YEAR I SEMESTER

S.No. Subjects

1 Linux Programming

2 Design Patterns

3 Data Warehousing and Data Mining

4 Cloud Computing

5 ELECTIVE - I

SPM

Image Processing and Pattern Recognition

Mobile Computing

Computer Graphics

Operations Research

6 ELECTIVE - II

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Machine Learning

Soft Computing

Information Retrieval Systems

AI

Computer Forensics

7 Linux Programming Lab

8 Data Warehousing and Mining Lab

IV YEAR II SEMESTER

S.No. Subjects

1 Management Science

2 ELECTIVE - III

Web Services

Semantic Web and Social Networks

Scripting Languages

Multimedia and Rich Internet Applications

3 ELECTIVE - IV

Ad hoc and Sensor Networks

Storage Area Networks

Database Security

Embedded Systems

4 Industry oriented Mini Project

5 Seminar

6 Project Work

7 Comprehensive Viva

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We can easily infer that out of 58 mandatory courses (including labs and electives) which

students are supposed to pursue, only three courses (English, English Language

Communication Skills Lab and Advanced English Communication Skills Lab) with respect

to the soft skills are incorporated in the curriculum. It is just a mere 5%, which is quite

negligible.

3.2.3.2 Osmania University (OU) Hyderabad Syllabus (Sample: B. Tech, CSE)

(http://www.osmania.ac.in/academics-syllabi.htm)

I YEAR

S.No. Subjects

1 English

2 Mathematics – I

3 Mathematics – II

4 Engineering Physics

5 Engineering Chemistry

6 Programming in “C” & “C++”

7 Engineering Mechanics

8 Engineering Graphics

9 Physics Lab

10 Chemistry Lab

11 Workshop Practice

12 Programming Lab

13 English Language Lab

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II YEAR I SEMESTER

S.No. Subjects

1 Mathematics – III

2 Data Structures

3 Discrete Structures

4 Logic and Switching Theory

5 Computer Architecture

6 Basic Electronics

7 Data Structures Lab Using C ++

8 Basic Electronics Lab

II YEAR II SEMESTER

S.No. Subjects

1 Mathematics – IV

2 Object Oriented Programming using Java

3 Operating Systems

4 Data Communications

5 Electrical Circuits and Machines

6 Environmental Studies

7 Java Lab

8 Operating Systems Lab

III YEAR I SEMESTER

S. No. Subjects

1 Database Systems

2 Microprocessor Systems and Interfacing

3 Computer Networks

4 Software Engineering

5 Managerial Economics and Accountancy

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6 Database Lab

7 Microprocessor Lab

8 Network Programming Lab

III YEAR II SEMESTER

S. No. Subjects

1 Web Programming and Services

2 Principles of Programming Languages

3 Automata Languages and Computation

4 Design and Analysis of Algorithms

5 Object Oriented System Development

6 Mobile Computing

7 Web Programming and Services Lab

8 Object Oriented System Development Lab

9 Industrial Visit

IV YEAR I SEMESTER

S. No. Subjects

1 Distributed Systems

2 Artificial Intelligence

3 Compiler Construction

4 Principles and Applications of Embedded Systems

5 Elective – I

6 Distributed Systems Lab

7 Embedded Systems Lab

8 Compiler Construction Lab

9 Project Seminar

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IV YEAR II SEMESTER

S. No. Subjects

1 Data Mining

2 Elective – II

3 Elective – III

4 Data Mining Lab

5 Seminar

6 Project

We can easily infer from the aforementioned OU syllabus that out of 61 mandatory courses

(including labs and electives) which students are supposed to do, only two (English and

English Language Lab) with respect to the soft skills are incorporated in the curriculum. It is

just a mere 3%, which is quite negligible.

3.2.3.3 Acharya Nagarjuna University (ANU) Guntur Syllabus (Sample: B. Tech, CSE)

(http://cse.rvrjcce.ac.in/syllabus/cse_btech_syllabus.pdf)

I YEAR

S. No. Subjects

1 Mathematics – I

2 Mathematics – II

3 Physics

4 Chemistry

5 Technical English Communication Skills

6 Computer Programming with C

7 Engineering Mechanics

8 Engineering Graphics

9 Physics Lab

10 Chemistry Lab

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11 Workshop Practice

12 Computer Programming with C Lab

II YEAR I SEMESTER

S. No. Subjects

1 Mathematics – III

2 Circuit Theory

3 Digital Logic Design

4 Object Oriented Programming

5 Discrete Mathematical Structures

6 Data Structures

7 OOPS Lab

8 Data Structures Lab with “C”

9 Communication Skills Lab

II YEAR II SEMESTER

S. No. Subjects

1 Probability and Statistics

2 Environmental Studies

3 Electronic Devices and Circuits

4 Computer Organization

5 Micro processors and Micro controllers

6 Operating Systems

7 EDC Lab

8 Micro processors and Micro controllers Lab

9 Soft Skills Lab

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III YEAR I SEMESTER

S. No. Subjects

1 Professional Ethics and Human Values

2 Data Communications

3 Automata Theory and Formal Languages

4 Java Programming

5 Database Management Systems

6 Advanced Unix Programming

7 Java Programming Lab

8 RDBMS Lab

9 Advanced UNIX Lab

III YEAR II SEMESTER

S. No. Subjects

1 Computer Networks

2 Compiler Design

3 Web Technologies

4 Software Engineering

5 Design and Analysis of Algorithms

6 Elective – I

7 Term Paper

8 Web Technologies Lab

9 Algorithms Lab

IV YEAR I SEMESTER

S. No. Subjects

1 Wireless Networks

2 Distributed Systems

3 Object Oriented Analysis & Design

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4 Enterprise Programming

5 Elective – II

6 Elective – III

7 SE Lab/Mini Project

8 Enterprise Programming Lab

9 Elective – II Lab

IV YEAR II SEMESTER

S. No. Subjects

1 Cryptography & Network Security

2 Advanced Computer Architecture

3 Data Engineering

4 Industrial Engineering & Management

5 Elective – IV

6 Data Engineering Lab

7 Project Work

We find that out of 64 mandatory courses (including labs and electives) which are prescribed,

only three (Technical English Communication Skills, Communication Skills Lab and Soft

Skills Lab) with respect to the soft skills are incorporated in the curriculum. It is just a mere

5%, which is quite inadequate.

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3.2.3.4 Andhra University (AU) Visakhapatnam Syllabus (Sample: B. Tech, CSE)

(http://www.andhrauniversity.edu.in/syllabus/BTECH-CSE06062011.pdf)

I YEAR

S. No. Subjects

1 English

2 Mathematics – I

3 Mathematics – II

4 Physics Theory

5 Chemistry Theory

6 History of Science and Technology

7 Computer Programming and Numerical Methods

8 Engineering Graphics

9 Physics Laboratory

10 Chemistry Laboratory

11 Workshop

12 Programming Laboratory

II YEAR I SEMESTER

S. No. Subjects

1 Electronics

2 Elements of Electrical Engineering

3 Data Structures

4 Discrete Mathematical Structures – I

5 Probability, Statistics and Queuing Theory

6 Digital Logical Design

7 Electronics Lab

8 Data Structures Lab

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II YEAR II SEMESTER

S. No. Subjects

1 Operations Research

2 Discrete Mathematical Structures – II

3 Microprocessors - I

4 Computer Organization

5 Environmental Studies

6 Microprocessors – I Lab

7 Object Oriented Programming Lab

III YEAR I SEMESTER

S. No. Subjects

1 Microprocessors - II

2 System Programming

3 Elective – I

4 Formal Languages and Automata Theory

5 File Structures

6 Operating Systems

7 Operating Systems Lab

8 Microprocessors – II Lab

9 Soft Skills Lab

III YEAR II SEMESTER

S. No. Subjects

1 Compiler Design

2 Design and Analysis of Algorithms

3 Database Management Systems

4 Data Communications

5 Elective – II

6 Computer Architecture

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7 File Structures Lab

8 DBMS Lab

IV YEAR I SEMESTER

S. No. Subjects

1 Object Oriented Software Engineering

2 Computer Networks

3 Artificial Intelligence

4 Management Principles

5 Elective – III

6 Web Technologies

7 Graphics and Multimedia Lab

8 Object Oriented Software Engineering Lab

9 Industrial Training and Seminar

IV YEAR II SEMESTER

S. No. Subjects

1 Distributed Operating Systems

2 Cryptography and Network Security

3 Elective - IV

4 Data Communications & Network Programming Lab

5 Project

Again, we find that out of the prescribed 58 mandatory courses (including labs and electives),

only two (English and Soft Skills Lab) with respect to the soft skills are incorporated in the

curriculum. It is just a mere 3%, which is inadequate.

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3.2.4 Summary and Findings

S.No. University Percentage of soft skills

courses in curriculum

1 Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University 5%

2 Osmania University 3%

3 Acharya Nagarjuna University 5%

4 Andhra University 3%

These types of curriculum models are typical in most of the universities in India, including

the State of Andhra Pradesh; there may be minute variations in the existing syllabi followed

by some of the universities. But, it is indubitable that out of the total syllabi of an engineering

curriculum of engineering subjects in the State, English and communication skills contribute

less than 10% (as per the statistics mentioned in the above table). Since communication skills

subject has been introduced only for first year students, and that too based only on theoretical

assessments, students definitely lack much needed level of oral communication skills

required after graduation.

3.3 Conclusions

It is an indubitable fact that there is a great shortage of employable people in India at a time

when we are seeing high growth rates in virtually every sector of the economy. There has

been a proliferation of educational institutions to meet the demand for technical skills –

however, many offer very poor education due to the lack of qualified faculty and proper

infrastructure. Neither is there room in the curriculum for training in soft skills, nor are there

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enough trainers and faculty available. MNCs, particularly in the IT sectors have to devote

enormous resources to train their employees in order to make them productive. Unlike in the

West, college graduates have virtually no exposure to the people skills required to be

effective at work since they have little opportunity to work part time when they are students.

Employees also fail to recognize that they need soft skills to work with others. The typical

Indian professional believes that technical skills are the most valued skills in the workplace

and that their performance evaluation is based primarily on technical output. This belief is

reinforced by the fact that companies continue to hire on the basis of technical skills to meet

their immediate needs. Employees are often willing to devote their own time and money to

upgrade their technical skills but are less inclined to spend their time and money on

improving their soft skills.

The role of soft skills needs high emphasis in increasing the employability of the engineering

graduates produced annually in India. Corporate India may hire employees based on

technical skills, but more companies must recognize that soft skills equip employees with the

necessary skill set to make the transition from technical or functional specialist to the role of

team leader, supervisor or project manager. These skills are imperative for successful

collaboration on projects in the global marketplace and continued high growth of Indian

companies.

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CHAPTER 4

VIEWS OF INDUSTRY PROFESSIONALS: SURVEY ANALYSIS

The ever-increasing global competition and the varying nature of most technical professions

have made soft skills more than simply a prerequisite. The importance of soft skills has been

acknowledged in several occupations such as managers, pilots, entry level managers

(Boyatzis, 1982; Damitz et al., 2003), etc., across cultures (Johansson et.al., 1985) and across

job and pay levels (Holzer et al., 2004). Whether it is a job in industry or government, a

perfect blend of technical skills and soft skills is what distinguishes people from the rest of

their colleagues (Raman and Koka, 2015). Long ago, organizations emphasized on in-depth

domain knowledge necessary for their employees’ job performance. However, with the

pervasive impact of global economy, a sea-change has come about in the realm of industries

because of the rapid transformation in the work ambience with people from diverse cultures

and backgrounds. This reality has led to some pressing management issues for MNCs

engaged in today's complex and dynamic environment. Various studies clearly point to the

gap in the skill set of an individual vis-à-vis the expectations of the industry (Verma and

Bedi, 2008). One of the key areas that requires filling of such a gap is soft skills, which is the

specific point of interest in this research. `Soft skills' pertain to the skills required by any

individual related to the various aspects of his personality like communication skills, time

management, team work, leadership and the like (Verma and Bedi, 2008). To employers,

technical professionals must not only master their technical disciplines, but also chip in as

full participants in accomplishing the mission of the organizations. Among the cluster of

skills that cater to this changing scenario, personality and soft skills are playing a major role

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in a person’s career progress. Communication skills both verbal and nonverbal, problem

solving skills, interpersonal skills, motivation and positive attitude are some of the most

important soft skills that the organizations expect from their employees. Though various

universities endeavor to inculcate soft skills in their students, they seldom realize that there

exists a gap between the skills they try to develop in their students and the ones that the

workplaces really demand from their employees.

When we talk about soft skills, we need to realize that these skills are no different from

employability skills which are the basic skills necessary for getting, retaining and performing

well on a job. These skills can be divided into three categories: basic academic skills, higher-

order thinking skills and personal qualities. It is also known as job readiness skills and refers

to the skills required to acquire and retain a job. According to Zinser (2003), career and

employability skills include areas such as managing resources, communication and

interpersonal skills, team work and problem-solving and acquiring and retaining a job.

Employability skills can also be defined as a set of achievements, understandings and

personal attributes that make individuals more likely to gain employment and be successful

in their chosen occupations (Shafie et.al, 2010). These skills are categorized by the following

competency areas: personal values, problem-solving and decision-making skills, relations

with other people, communication skills, task-related skills, maturity, health and safety

habits, and commitment to job. Generally, employability skills are needed by students to

meet the needs of varied jobs they would be handling upon graduation.

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While the universities feel that they have trained their students for their future workplaces at

various domains, many a time, it has been observed by experts that the industries’ demands

are not met by the university training. In fact, there exists a gap where the level of

employability skills of graduates and entry level work requirements do not meet

(Ranasinghe, 1992; Lindsay, 2002). Researchers (Morley, 2001; Kivinen and Silvennoinen,

2002; Shivpuri and Kim, 2004) recognize the prevailing skills gap among the college

graduates (Maripaz et. al, 2013). Employers today are concerned about finding good workers

who not only have basic academic skills like reading, writing, science, mathematics, oral

communication and listening, but also higher order thinking skills like learning, reasoning,

thinking creatively, decision making and problem solving. In addition, they also look for

employees who possess personal qualities that among all include responsibility, self-

confidence, self-control, social skill, honesty, integrity, adaptability, flexibility, team spirit,

punctuality, efficiency, self-directedness, good work attitude, good grooming, cooperation,

self-motivation and self-management. However, most of our graduates are not aware of this

current phenomenon and hence at times don’t see the connection between what they do in

their classes and what is actually required in the real job world that they will venture into

later. It has also become a common belief in industry that higher education institutions

should equip graduates with the proper skills necessary to achieve success in the workplace

(Shafie et.al, 2010). The purpose of this study is to understand the HR professionals’

perspectives on the importance and requirements of employability skills that encompasses

soft skills in the IT industry and also the causes behind the lack of such skills in students.

This chapter presents the study that has been conducted in order to determine the importance

and requirements of soft skills in IT MNCs (Information Technology Multinational

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Corporations). After providing a general idea on the types of soft skills required by IT

MNCs, the discussion focuses on the research methodology, sample selection, analysis of

the data collected through questionnaire and personal interviews and the inferences drawn

thereon.

4.1 Soft Skills and IT Industry

As we have already discussed in Chapter 2, the term soft skills covers a gamut of factors such

as personality, communication, personal habits, social interaction, time management,

decision making, problem solving, team work, etc. Ahmed et al. (2012) view soft skills as

having their roots in psychology covering a broad range of characteristics mentioned above.

They opine, “In a working environment people tend to weigh that soft skills harmonize the

hard skills”. Both the IT/Software industry and academia have started realizing that in the

collaborative environment of software development, the possession and use of soft skills

enhances the likelihood of an individual’s success and contributes positively towards the

common goal of the project. As today’s work places rely more heavily on project teams and

expect software engineers to partner with their customers, they may have to deal with a

number of conflicts as well.

IT industries view only their end products as the testimony of their achievements. However,

not much importance or recognition is given to the role of soft skills implicitly played by the

organizational teams involved in bringing out the products. Ahmed et al. (2012) hold the

complex relationship between software engineering and the soft skills responsible for this

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trend and feel that it is difficult to investigate such complex relationships. In general, it takes

a variety of soft and hard skills to solve the complex problems related to software

development.

Over a period of time, the engineering of software has become an inter-disciplinary concept,

which means that the skills necessary to successfully work in this area two to three decades

ago may no longer be applicable in today’s workplace. Feldt et al. (2008) have found that

there are multiple and significant correlations between personality factors and software

engineering, and they concluded that individual differences in personality can explain and

predict how judgments are made and how decisions are evaluated in software development

projects.

Hannay et al. (2010) reported that personality may be a valid predictor for long-term team

performance. Young and Lee (1996) and Van Slyke (1998) found that employers tend to rate

non-technical skills higher than technical skills. Cappel (2002) concluded that non-technical

skills such as oral and written communications, problem solving, and the ability to learn

apply to virtually all IT jobs.

In contemporary society, the IT industry has become a major employer for majority of the

engineering graduates. Specialties within software engineering are as diverse as those in any

other area of employment. Software engineering comprises stages in separate and distinct

phases including system analysis, design, coding, testing, maintenance, etc. The job

requirements in the area of software engineering divide the skill requirements into the two

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categories of “hard skills” and “soft skills”. Hard skills are the technical requirements and

knowledge a person should have to carry out a task. This includes the theory and practical

exposure an individual should have to successfully execute the planned task. Soft skills are

the personal individuality that has a major impact on the behavior of a person while having

interaction with others in a work setup (Ahmed et al. 2012).

4.2 Key Soft Skills Required by IT MNCs

This section discusses the important soft skills that are in high demand in the IT MNCs and

would facilitate our understanding of the significance of this study:

Communication

IT systems are ubiquitous in most of the business contexts and the professionals working in

those systems are not working in isolation. In almost all contexts, they work in teams and

hence are expected to possess the ability to communicate well within their teams and also

with different kinds of people at different levels in an organization. According to Robbins

and Coulter (2012, p6) these levels can be depicted as follows:

Figure: Levels of Management

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In addition, they need to listen to their customers and understand them, speak clearly and

explain the latest trends in technology at an appropriate level. While the IT industry in

general expects their employees to be effective communicators, the IT MNCs specifically

expect more from them in terms of their communicative abilities. In other words, these

MNCs demand that their IT professionals communicate clearly with the clients from diverse

cultural backgrounds and also with those who stay abroad to understand and define the

system requirements.

Communication skills include the ability to adopt accuracy, brevity and clarity in oral and

written communication, to understand the audience and tailor the communication accordingly

and to listen patiently and show empathy to others.

Planning and Organization

The IT sector is a project-driven industry. Proper planning and organization skills are

extremely important for graduates entering the IT jobs, in order to manage tasks on different

projects with pressing deadlines and different priorities. Effective planning makes it possible

to anticipate problems and challenges and convert them into opportunities.

An IT professional can demonstrate his/her planning and organization skills by:

Showcasing proper structure to be adopted for a project

Highlighting time allocation and resource allocation for different projects

Displaying the ability to anticipate challenges

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Drive, motivation and enthusiasm

Drive and motivation are critical for working in this incredibly fast-paced industry.

Professionals of this industry need to enjoy taking on new challenges, crossing boundaries

and looking towards the future. Recruiters give a warm welcome to enthusiastic candidates as

they strongly believe that enthusiastic people are the motivated ones.

Drive, motivation and enthusiasm encompasses persistence and determination to achieve the

expected outcome, optimism and enthusiasm even when things get tricky in the job

environment, and the awareness of the types of tasks and activities one enjoys doing.

Problem-solving

Ability to solve problems is one of the most significant requirements for IT professionals.

They are expected to understand and define problems in a timely manner; identify the root

causes, and then gather relevant information to find appropriate solutions. But problem-

solving goes beyond resolving just technical issues. Professionals may also be required to

suggest improvements in the existing procedures/methods/processes to deliver better service

and a better product to keep the clients satisfied.

Problem-solving skills involve the ability to follow a logical and analytical approach to

problem solving, to view and interpret problems from different angles, and to anticipate

potential pitfalls and prevent their occurrences and recurrences.

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Teamwork

Teams working towards various projects in IT industry play a major role in achieving their

organization’s goal thereby progressing towards its success. Most of the IT MNCs consider

the team-based work as a key ingredient to their achievement. In fact, irrespective of the

sector they belong to --- product or service, the IT industry expects its employees to work

effectively in teams. For instance, Michael Karasick, director of Lotus Development at IBM

China Software Development Lab who leads a team of 800 developers and support staff in

Beijing believes that companies like IBM considers team work as an important attribute

(Robbins and Coulter, 2012, p357). Team-playing skills involve the ability to build and

maintain positive working relationships, to share information with others and to contribute to

keep projects on track so as to achieve the final goal.

Soft Skills in Various Job Profiles of IT professionals

IT professionals are supposed to wear different hats during their work-life cycle in the

roles of System Analyst, Software Designer, Computer Programmer, Software Tester,

to name a few. In all such roles, irrespective of the technical skills they use for their

given assignments, they also need to apply their soft skills appropriate to the contexts.

In the Table given below, Ahmed et al. (2013) depict the types of desirable soft skills

required by IT professionals (H: High Demand /greater than 66%, M: Moderate

Demand /greater than 33% and less than or equal to 66%, L: Low Demand /less than

or equal to 33%. :

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Table: Demand for Soft Skills in Various Kinds of IT Professionals

Type of Soft

Skill

Job Profile

System Analyst Software

Designer

Computer

Programmer

Software

Tester

H M L H M L H M L H M L

Communication

Skills

Y Y Y Y

Interpersonal

Skills

Y Y Y Y

Analytical and

Problem

Solving Skills

Y Y Y Y

Team Player Y Y Y Y

Organizational

Skills

Y Y Y Y

Ability to work

independently

Y Y Y Y

Open and

adaptable to

changes

Y Y Y Y

This Table emphasizes the need for soft skills and also clearly showcases that different types

of soft skills are required for different job profiles.

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4.3 Views of Industry Executives on Soft Skills

The preceding discussion has thrown some insight into the demand for soft skills in the IT

industry based on the studies carried out by researchers. Further emphasizing the importance

of these skills in the professional world, Mutha (2013) has presented the views of various

industry executives as detailed below:

Sudhanshu Pandit, Director-HR, Symantec India: While technical professionals are

often selected and trained based on measurable talents and skills such as knowledge

of OS or software programming skills—which are prerequisites to starting a career in

engineering and technology—intangible skills such as language proficiency, ability to

work with global teams and positive attitude often count in making their career a

rewarding one. These intangible skills are classified as soft-skills.

John Prohod-sky, founder and principal consultant, Future Envisioned: Soft skills are

non technical, interpersonal and communication skills required by an engineer to

successfully solve problems and apply his technical skills.

Dr Pallab Bandyopadhyay, director-HR, Citrix India: In the broader context, soft

skills would also include negotiation, decision making, reasoning and problem

solving, and conflict-resolution skills required in today’s cut throat competition.

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Tina Vas, vice president-global HR, Collabera: Simply put, soft skills have more to

do with who we are than what we know. Soft skills critically impact the way an

individual translates his expertise across to his team and further to the whole

organization.

Ramana Vemuri, VP-process and operations, Cigniti Technologies: Soft skills

enhance an individual’s interactions, job performance and career prospects.

Emotional intelligence is the critical element that defines the core of soft skills a

person is equipped with.

Robles (2012), based on his interviews with selected industry executives has found out that

ten soft skills, namely, integrity, communication, courtesy, responsibility, interpersonal

skills, professionalism, positive attitude, teamwork skills, flexibility, work ethic, have been

perceived as very important in the professional world.

Florentine (2015), while talking about the need for soft skills for a successful IT career,

discusses the views of two reputed IT leaders:

Matt Brosseau, director of Information Technology, Instant Alliance, a recruiting,

staffing and consulting firm based in Chicago: I would argue that soft skills, like

communication, empathy, teamwork and negotiation are almost more important than

technical skills, especially in leadership or executive roles. Technologists who have

these soft skills are better able to understand and accurately convey the business value

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of IT projects to other, non-technical stakeholders, get their buy-in and support and

deliver more successful projects.

Kevin King, founder and CEO of Transformation Point, a management consulting

and assessment firm: A higher degree of soft-skills competency brings improved

effectiveness and improved organizational results, and that in turn drives greater

employee engagement and retention, two top priorities for businesses today. When

people work more efficiently and effectively together, that means their organizations

see better results and they're more likely to stay.

4.4 Research Methodology

This is a qualitative study that uses a survey research method. It aims at eliciting and

understanding the views of HR professionals on (i) the importance of soft skills in the IT

MNCs, (ii) the types of soft skills expected from the fresh engineering graduates, (iii)

possible barriers that the students face in acquiring and developing soft skills and (iv) certain

measures to enhance the soft skills of students. The analysis would in turn enable us to

understand the gap between the actual expectations of the industry and the kind of training

provided at the engineering institutions regarding soft skills thereby leading to certain

solutions to the never ending problem of employability. Personal interviews were also

conducted to elicit more information from the respondents.

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4.5 Population and Sample

The population sample for this study comprises 200 HR professionals’ responses from 30 IT

MNCs such as TCS, WIPRO, INFOSYS, CTS, HCL, IBM, CSC, Polaris, Tech Mahindra,

etc., located in Hyderabad, Bangalore, Delhi, Chennai, Mumbai, and Pune. The main reason

behind choosing such locations has been that these cities are software centric and majority of

the IT MNCs hail from these locations to conduct campus interviews across various

engineering educational institutions. Besides this survey, personal interviews were also

conducted to get additional inputs. In order to enhance the reliability of the data, managers

with an experience of 3 or more years in recruiting candidates for their IT firms were chosen

as sample population. Around 89 % of the managers have an experience of more than 3

years.

4.6 Research Rationale

The survey is expected to fetch a reliable data for analysis from the hiring managers of IT

firms. The responses collected through questionnaire survey and personal interviews would be

analyzed carefully in order to identify the expectations of IT MNCs from fresh graduates in

terms of the soft skills that are needed at their workplace. The respondents would be asked to

list and then rank the soft skills that are required to carry out the given assignments of an IT

professional. The soft skills have been ranked on a scale of 1 to 10, where 1 signifies most

important and 10 the least. In addition, additional inputs have been collected through personal

interviews with the selected sample and their suggestions are incorporated in the analysis.

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4.7 Survey Analysis

The need for not only acquiring soft skills but also applying them at the various workplaces has

become more important than ever before in today’s professional environment. Therefore, the

all-pervading competition for employment in IT MNCs and various technical positions have

made soft-skills a pre-requisite. The engineering students who aspire to secure a job in such

companies need both hard skills and soft-skills to meet the expectations of their prospective

employers.

IT MNCs across the globe are looking for much more in the fresh graduates than mere

technical skills. They expect them to be confident, to communicate fairly well, to be positive,

to anticipate, identify and analyze problems and arrive at suitable solutions, to have an

awareness of various types of jobs in IT industry, to work in teams, to manage time, etc.

Irrespective of the disciplines of engineering the students pursue, many of them are

interviewed for IT jobs because of their omnipresence in various sectors. The IT MNCs always

prefer to employ candidates who are productive from their inception. Those who possess good

soft skills are promoted to higher level as they are considered as wealth producers (Vasanth,

2014). Therefore, it has become incumbent on the engineering students to equip them with

both hard and soft skills in order to perform efficiently at the technical front and to satisfy their

clients and customers. Most of the engineering educational institutions place more importance

on strengthening the technical skills rather than honing the soft skills of their students. So, a

gap may exist between the demands of the industry and the training of the engineering

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institutions in terms of soft skills. It is important to check whether a gap exists and if so, to

arrive at some measures to bridge the same so as to enhance the employability of students.

The analysis that follows presents the results and the ensuing discussion along with necessary

pictorial representation on various factors pertaining to soft skills as covered in the

questionnaire: types of soft skills required by the IT MNCs and their order of importance,

expected period of internship taken up by the students, barriers to acquiring soft skills, balance

between hard and soft skills, etc.

1. Number of years the HR professionals has conducted campus interviews:

As already mentioned, in order to get a representative, reliable data, it was necessary to

choose managers who had had reasonably good experience in hiring potential candidates

from the engineering institutions. Hence the first question was asked about their number of

years of service in IT MNCs as shown in Figure 1 below:

Figure-1

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The pie chart reveals that 89% of the HR managers has an experience of three or more years

in conducting campus interviews. Given the fact that the HR professionals have seen students

from diverse backgrounds and disciplines in the past three years or so, and they have a clear

perception of the students’ skills, it can be ascertained that their responses are authentic and

credible.

2. Types of soft skills expected in the students appearing for campus placements:

This factor was included with a view to understand the HR professionals’ perspectives on the

types of soft skills they expect from the graduating students of engineering institutions. As

shown in Figure 2, majority of the managers, ranked problem solving skills and

communication skills as the top most skills required in the professional world.

Figure-2

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It is evident that almost all the HR Managers (98%) emphasized on problem solving ability

followed by communication skills (92%), interpersonal skills (88%), leadership & motivation

skills (73%), and time management skills (65%) to select a student in campus placements.

Only 43% of managers have given preference for team building skills. It can be concluded

that the students require these skills in addition to their subject knowledge to ace the campus

placement. And, new recruits may not require as much team building skills as the

experienced managers because such skills are mostly required at middle and top levels of the

professional ladder.

It can be concluded that the top three soft skills that HR professionals look for in a student’s

campus interview is problem solving skills, communication skills and interpersonal skills.

Moreover, as engineers grow upon their career ladder, their role becomes more managerial in

nature. A student starts his career as a Software Engineer for a period of 2-3 years (duration

depends upon the individual’s performance and varies with the policies of various IT MNCs)

and moves up the ladder as Senior Software Engineer and later Project Lead, Project

Manager etc. Therefore, majority of the employers look for engineers who are technically

sound and also for those who can demonstrate their soft skills well during their observation

and interaction at the time of employment process. Such a blend of skills enables them to

extrapolate the students’ understanding of the nuances in working within a business-oriented

environment.

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3. Minimum period of industry internship required for the students:

An exposure to industry practice is important for the engineering students to acquire

employability skills through live industrial experience. During their internship, they may be

involved in the projects of the company and if they perform well, they may even be absorbed

by the company. Moreover, these internships not only offer an opportunity to the students to

blend theory and practice in the domains of technical knowledge and soft skills but also

develop in them appropriate awareness, skills and abilities needed for their professional

career. Such internships also promote healthy collaboration and partnerships between

engineering institutions and MNCs, thereby, building greater understanding between these

stakeholders. As shown in Figure 3 more than 50% of the HR managers feel that industry

internship is important though the duration of internship varies in their views:

Figure-3

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The data in Figure 3 reveals that 57% of HR managers want a minimum period of four to six

month long industry internship for the students. 38% of HR managers want it to be greater

than six months. It can be concluded that six months minimum period of internship would be

sufficient for the students to minimize the gap between university training and industry

expectations in terms of their soft skills. It can be inferred that internship is necessary for

students as it helps them improve their employability skills and six months of internship

would be ideal to minimize the gap between university training and industry expectations in

terms of their soft skills.

The aforementioned graph also shows the employers’ percentage of agreement (95%) on the

importance of internship for engineering graduates. This shows that industrial

training/internship program/finishing school is a vital component of engineering curriculum

to produce “industry-ready” graduates for employment. Therefore, it can be said that a

successful industrial training tenure can become a powerful tool to increase the employability

potential of students.

4. Possible hindrances faced by students in developing their soft skills:

As the saying goes, “Habits die hard”. Changing one’s attitude, habits or behavior is not very

easy. Once they are developed at a very young age in students, it may be difficult for the

college teachers to make their students unlearn these attributes and inculcate new set of skills

in them. There may be many barriers that are responsible for not allowing students to develop

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the required soft skills. In order to identify the HR professionals’ perspectives on these

barriers, a question was included and the data collected has been depicted in Figure 4:

Figure-4

Almost all the HR managers (93%) cite poor schooling; 89%, lack of encouragement by the

faculty; 85%, lack of motivation; 80%, lack of infrastructural facilities by the engineering

educational institutions. It can be concluded that poor schooling is the main reason for

students’ difficulty in developing the required soft skills. A small percent of managers holds

outdated curriculum and college environment as responsible for the hindrances. However,

this can be overcome by providing proper encouragement and motivation to the students and

also by enhancing the infrastructural facilities at the engineering educational institutions.

It can be concluded that poor schooling is the main reason for students’ difficulty in

developing the required soft skills. A student spends almost twelve years in a school, i.e.,

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from KG to Class X. As we know, the schools emphasize mainly on subjects such as Maths,

Physics, Chemistry, and Biology rather than life skills. Promoting efficient life skills training

in schools would serve as a means of handholding them through critical stages of their life

and helping them tapping their potential to the fullest (Subhitha, 2013).

Therefore, if students are unable to acquire communication skills/English fluency and to

develop their analytical ability during their school years, it would be difficult to pick up the

same in the later stages of their education. Poor schooling is definitely a setback for the

students.

5. Expected sense of balance between soft skills and hard skills:

It is difficult to say that all engineering students are equally good in their technical

knowledge and soft skills. While some may be good in technical skills, some others may be

better in soft skills. Of course there may certainly be students who are excellent in both and

unquestionably, the hiring managers would like to draw them into their companies. In order

to get the views of HR managers on the importance they give to technical skills and soft

skills of the students, their responses were obtained as shown in Figure 5:

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Figure-5

The data in Figure 5 reveals that 55% of the HR professionals are interested to hire fresh

graduates who possess equal ability in technical skills and soft skills. But the point which is

to be noted is that while 33% vote for students with good soft skills but with not much hard

skills, only 12% wish to employ students with more hard skills and less soft skills.

During one of the personal interviews with the HR Managers, Mr. B S Santosh, HR

Manager, Wipro Hyderabad said, “Technology in the current scenario is volatile. So many

technologies come and go. The students can be trained in them to make them fine tune with

respect to the project requirements. But soft skills remain as it is, irrespective of the project in

which the student is involved.”

“Survival of the fittest” can be the apt phrase to describe the employment scenario today. In

order to survive among their competitors, students are required to hone their hard and soft

skills. As mentioned above, technical skills can be learnt and are volatile while soft skills

have to be acquired and stay for life. However, soft skills are crucial to showcase one's hard

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skills and both can be considered as two sides of the same coin: one without the other has no

impact.

Moreover, the turbulent changes in the economy and businesses demand that the MNCs look

specifically for those candidates who can add value to their organization by bringing in their

soft skills. As Edward De Bono said, “Companies that solely focus on competition will

ultimately die. Those that focus on value creation will thrive”. All those candidates who wish

to get an edge over their competitors are expected to refine their soft skills. This view point is

substantiated by Hewitt (2008) who says that employers value soft skills because they are

just as good as indicator of job performance as traditional job qualification. Verma (2013)

emphasizes the importance of soft skills by saying that only 15% of one’s success relies on

hard skills whereas the remaining 85% depends on soft skills. Notwithstanding such

emphatic statements asserting the importance of soft skills in the present corporate world,

some of the engineering institutions are yet to introduce soft skills in their curriculum. The

engineering institutions are badly in need of incorporating soft skills training in their

curriculum, to ensure better placements.

6. Ranking of TEN soft skills in terms of their importance in industry:

The demand for soft skills varies from industry to industry. In other words, while some

industries based on R&D expect their new recruits to be well versed in written

communication skills, some other industries that focus on client-interaction may expect their

newly inducted employees to be proficient in oral communication. Similarly while

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presentation skills may play a crucial role in consultancy Firms, negotiation skills may be

much needed in marketing Firms. Even within the same industrial sector, one soft skill may

be considered more important than the other. Keeping this fact in mind, the HR professionals

participated in the survey were asked to rank the following ten soft skills in the order of their

importance in IT MNCs (Please see Table below): Communication skills, Interpersonal

skills, Emotional intelligence, Motivation, Time management, Positive attitude, Presentation

skills, Team playing skills, Negotiation, Problem solving skills.

Table showing the % of managers awarding various ranks to the soft skills

SKILL RANK

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Communication Skills 22 22 22 11 11 - - 11 - -

Interpersonal Skills - 11 22 - 34 - 11 11 11

Emotional Intelligence - 11 - - 11 11 22 23 22

Motivation 11 11 - 34 11 - 11 22 -

Time Management 23 11 - 11 22 11 - 22 - -

Positive Attitude 44 11 23 - - - 22 - - -

Presentation Skills - 11 - 34 - 11 - 11 11 22

Team Playing Skills - 11 11 - 22 34 11 11 - -

Negotiation Skills - - - - - 11 - 11 33 45

Decision Making Skills 11 - 22 - - 11 34 11 - 11

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Though the HR managers’ perceptions vary, taking the average of the collected data, it is clear

from the Table that they have rated the ten soft skills as follows:

1.Positive attitude; 2.Communication skills; 3.Time Management; 4.Motivation; 5.Team

playing; 6.Interpersonal skills; 7.Decision making skills; 8.Presentation skills; 9.Emotional

intelligence; 10.Negotiation skills.

Therefore, it can be concluded that positive attitude and communication skills lead the array

of soft skills and are perceived by the HR managers as the most important ones while

negotiation skills stands at the bottom most and is supposed to be of least importance when

they consider recruiting fresh engineering graduates for their companies.

While the Table discussed above provides a comprehensive view of the ranking of ten soft

skills, the graphs and the discussion that follow would provide an insight into their individual

rankings:

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6(a) Communication Skills 6(b) Interpersonal Skills

6(c) Emotional Intelligence 6(d) Motivation

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6(e) Time Management 6(f) Positive Attitude

6(g) Presentation Skills 6(h) Team playing Skills

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6(i) Negotiation Skills 6(j) Decision Making Skills

The discussion that follows provides certain justification as mentioned by the HR managers

for the top three rankings and bottom most ranking:

Potential employers look for candidates who possess cheerful personality and soft/good

verbal intonation to their questions. They expect the candidates to be positive and be

optimistic about the happenings around them. In fact, students appearing for job interview

also need to know that there may be situations over which they may not have any control

during the interview process and hence it is better for them to go with a positive frame of

mind. For instance, if a particular part of their interview doesn’t go the way they have

expected thereby posing an unexpected challenge, it is better to face it then and there rather

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than procrastinating the same. It may be true that many students at one point or the other

would have fumbled during the process, but it is important to note how they handle those

tense moments so that they can stand out from the crowd and strengthen the employers’

impressions on their candidature to a particular job.

A positive attitude can keep students motivated and focused, while improving decision-

making abilities as well. There are different ways to showcase positive attitude during an

interview. For example, sitting in a slight-lean-forward position expressing, making direct

eye contact and adopting an enthusiastic facial expression, etc., enable the students to express

their interest in the interview process. Employers believe that a positive attitude in the

workplace helps employees to accomplish tasks faster and better. They feel that the

performance of employees to a great extent depends on the good relationship they share with

their colleagues and such a relationship can be established only when employees demonstrate

a positive attitude towards their work and colleagues. Employees with positive attitude never

consider their work as a burden; they enjoy their work and their work environment.

It won’t be an exaggeration to say that communication skills is the cornerstone of

professional progress. The fact that almost 90% of the HR managers place communication

skills within the first 5 positions reflects the importance given to these skills in the IT MNCs.

For the transfer and interchange of ideas, facts, feelings and courses of action within their

teams, superiors and clients, employees require effective communication. Today’s

multicultural organizational environment demands their employees to be proficient in

English in order to communicate with people from diverse cultural settings. As already

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highlighted in Figure 5, many HR managers consider soft skills as more needed than

technical skills and as we are aware, communication skills is one of the most important soft

skills.

“The benefits of managing your time include an increase in productivity as you take control

of what you do and when you want to do it. Far from being a rigid way of living, it frees you

to get on with the important things in life”, says Bird (2010). Hence, it is appropriate that the

HR managers consider time management as a crucial component of professional success. We

all have the same number of hours a day but some of us who use these hours effectively are

able to see our goals and dreams come true whereas others who waste these hours fail to

achieve their aspirations (Winslow, 2012). In fact, meeting deadlines set for various

assignments has become essential both in academic and professional environment. Moreover,

being punctual at various aspects of work, communicating to the point with others at

workplaces, etc., involves time management. Thus the hiring managers look for this aspect of

soft skills in students appearing for job interviews.

Though negotiation skills are important in IT MNCs, the respondents have rated it as the

lowest just because of the entry level for which the fresh graduates appear in interviews. In a

typical corporate environment, negotiation skills are much needed at the middle or upper

levels of management when the managers need to clinch a deal. Boulden (2008) is of the

view that senior managers are concerned with goals and strategies; middle level managers

take the goals and strategies and develop policies and procedures for their implementation

and apply them; first line managers break these policies and plans down into work tasks.

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Thus, in order to strategize, middle and senior level managers may have to negotiate with

various parties and hence need to equip themselves with effective negotiation techniques. In

case of new recruits, before actually embarking upon any projects, they will be inducted into

some rigorous training. However, as far as the students are concerned, the process of

negotiation starts at the very moment they get an interview call. Be it in terms of work

profile, the nature of work, job posting or salary, negotiation is clearly seen at each and every

stage of the selection process. So it is better for students to have some basic insight into the

process of negotiation. Of course, the main motive of any HR professional is to make the

employee (lateral employee) join at the lowest possible salary but make sure the employee is

not offered anything less than his/her previous salary as he/she will never be interested to

join. However, such a need may not arise in case of fresh graduates.

So, in short, negotiation skills are important mainly at the managerial level. As and when the

fresh graduates gain experience and become Project Managers, Relationship Managers,

Delivery Managers, etc., negotiation skills would definitely prove handy at that level and

need not necessarily at the entry level.

There is no doubt that all the ten soft skills prove important at respective stages of a

candidate’s journey from an entry level employee (fresher) to one of the top level employees

in his/her entire career. Since the research problem here revolves around the employability of

the budding engineering graduates, majority of the HR professionals consider “positive

attitude” and “communication skills” are important as these soft skills show the door for final

year engineering students to march themselves ahead into the professional world.

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7. Measures to Enhance the Employable Soft skills in Students:

Any study becomes meaningful only when it identifies certain measures that can be taken up

to improve the existing situation. Keeping this fact in mind, the participating HR managers

were asked to give their views on some proposed measures to enhance the employability

skills in engineering students. As the study mainly aims to bridge the gap between the

academia and IT industry in terms of soft skills/employability skills, factors such as making

the teaching more practice oriented; enabling students to participate in more and more

extracurricular activities; inviting hiring managers from IT industry to have interaction with

students; arranging discussion sessions between teachers of soft skills and the hiring

managers of IT industry; conducting remedial course in English to enhance the English

proficiency of weak students; providing adequate and relevant training to teachers were

included in the options.

The results are given in Figure 7 below:

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Figure-7

It is evident that almost all HR managers (95%) felt that employable soft skills can be

developed in students by making the teaching more practice-oriented followed by inviting

hiring managers from IT industries to have interactive sessions with students (92%) and

arranging discussion sessions between the teachers of soft skills and the hiring managers of

IT industries (86%). They feel that unless the soft skills taught in the colleges are applied or

showcased, they don’t add any value to the instruction or learning. The respondents add that

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it is important for the educational institutions to interact with industry personnel and

understand their exact demands.

There is no difference of opinion among the HR professionals in considering soft skills as

very much essential for the students to succeed in the campus interviews. In other words, it is

difficult for students to succeed in the interview if they do not have requisite soft skills.

However, the type of soft skills required from the graduates varies from MNC to MNC as it

mainly depends on the job profile the graduates would be selected for.

The HR professionals feel that it is incorrect for the engineering colleges to provide training

in soft skills only at the end of students’ academic tenure (3rd or 4th year). They suggest that

the soft skills training has to be incorporated in the curriculum and it should be spread over

all the four years of their B.E./B.Tech degree program. Such a persistent effort will enhance

the students’ performance in the campus interviews. To reiterate, both the technical skills and

soft skills are equally important for a successful engineering professional.

Educational environment today mostly depends on tests and examinations to assess the

students and hence the teachers spend most of the classroom time in training them to fare

well in examinations.

According to Greenberg and Nilssen (2015), who express this view in their survey-based

research paper, “Stakeholders believe that schools focus too much on ‘teaching to the test’,

solitary (alone) work and individual achievement, whereas teamwork, group achievement,

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and collaboration with others outside of the classroom all receive too little focus”. Thus, it is

no surprise that the data collected also reflects the same idea, i.e., the soft skills should be

more practice-oriented.

8. Other suggestions/remarks given by the industry professionals:

Apart from the factors discussed above, the survey provided an opportunity to the HR

managers to express any other views or suggestions which were not included in the

questionnaire. They following views were expressed by them:

Soft Skills play a vital role in one’s success. What we see is that technology in the

current world is volatile. Many such technologies are becoming outdated or replaced.

Soft skills, behavioral aspects, etc., are something which remain as they are.

Every month (preferably weekly) some kind of activities/sessions should be

conducted to create interest in students on the subjects and their career.

Colleges should provide correct environment for the students so as to encourage them

to present their skills and enhance themselves for future needs.

Organizations expect not just hard skills which include academic and technical

knowledge but also soft skills such as positive attitude, communication skills,

problem solving skills, presentation skills etc.

Multi-national companies always prefer to employ candidates who are productive

from the early stages; those having good soft skills are promoted to higher level as

they are considered as wealth producers.

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In order to survive in the job market, candidates aspiring for good profile jobs must

have to bring competitive edge that distinguishes them from the other competitors

with similar qualifications. Only then, they can get this competitive advantage of

having soft skills.

For employees in the IT and ITES sectors, soft skills have assumed critical

importance. A software engineer no longer works in isolation but is expected to

interact with a variety of clients both within and outside the country. Moreover,

employees are also sent on project assignments overseas. They need to be sensitive to

the behavior of people from other cultures and be aware of the differences.

4.8 Summary

The industry HR professionals are not content with the level of soft skills of the current

engineering students who appear for campus interviews. Though majority of the HR

professionals want the engineering students to strike a perfect balance between hard skills

and soft skills many of them even rate soft skills more than hard skills.

The purpose of this survey is to elicit the views of HR professionals on the importance and

requirements of soft skills in the IT MNCs, what prevents the students of engineering

students from acquiring and developing such skills during their academic tenure and certain

measures to enhance their soft skills so that their employability opportunities can be

enhanced.

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200 HR managers from IT MNCs who participated in the survey have ranked Positive

Attitude, Communication Skills and Time Management as the top three soft skills required

by their companies. Though 55% of them expect the students to strike a perfect balance

between hard skills and soft skills, 33% have emphasized the importance of soft skills by

preferring them over hard skills. These managers have also mentioned poor schooling, lack

of encouragement from faculty and the inadequate infrastructure provided by the engineering

colleges as the most important causes behind the lack of soft skills in students. They feel that

industry internships would go a long way in enhancing the students’ ability to fuse theory

with practice and also to develop university-industry collaboration which in turn would

enable the colleges to organize interactive sessions between the industries and the faculty &

students. Providing adequate training to the faculty members would enable them to make

their teaching of soft skills more practice-oriented. Most of the HR managers are of the view

that soft skills training should start right from the first year of engineering and continue till

the end of their graduation so as to provide them adequate time to improve upon the skills.

Owing to the fact that the importance of soft skills has increased more than ever before, the

need of the hour for all students is to acquire soft skills along with their technical skills. This

may not be too difficult once they identify their weak spots in soft skills and work hard

towards overcoming them. The role of higher educational institutions is extremely crucial in

developing the soft skills of students. In fact, they need to take special responsibility in

enhancing the soft skills of students coming from rural background and who have not had the

opportunity of attending reputed schools before entering their colleges. It is a fact that

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students with adequate soft skills do have an edge over others in securing a good job thereby

transforming themselves into young successful professionals.

Realizing the importance of educational institutions in developing the soft skills of their

students, a survey was conducted among faculty and students of engineering colleges. The

next chapter presents the analysis and findings of this survey. Suggestions collected from

both the surveys are included in the concluding chapter.

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CHAPTER 5

VIEWS OF ACADEMIA: SURVEY ANALYSIS

In today’s fast-paced professional world, most careers need both technical and soft skills. It is

not an exaggeration to say that communication skills and leadership skills are as important as

technical skills for realizing the full potential in people and driving them towards success in

any venture, professional or personal. Besides these soft skills, skills in problem solving,

team playing, decision making, negotiation, developing interpersonal relations, emotional

intelligence, presentation skills, conflict management, etc., are also crucial for one’s success

in life. In this age of cut throat competition, technical skills are only the threshold

requirement whereas it’s these soft skills that are vital to the progress and accomplishment of

an individual, business or society.

It is the soft skills of the managers that can assist in recruiting appropriate team members so

that relationships between them are value generating for the venture/business along with

creation of an innovative environment. According to Kirzan et al. (2011), “Today’s service

economy puts a premium on people skills and relationship-building among coworkers,

departments, organizations and customers”. Some skills can be attributed to pre-defined

mental notions, others as processes while the remaining ones are concerned with the amount

of consciousness that one puts in to grasp them. As already mentioned elsewhere institutions

of higher education play a major role in developing such skills in their students. It is from

these institutions that the students step into the professional world that demands both hard

and soft skills from them in order to carry out their assignments with elan. While the

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technical skills are inculcated in students through various theoretical and laboratory courses

throughout the four or five years of study, the soft skills, in some institutions are not given

the required importance. On the one hand, there is the fact that India is placed at a lower level

of the global knowledge hierarchy, and on the other hand, industry still faces the issue of

employability among new graduates. According to National Skill Development Corporation

(NSDC) report 2010, “students who are currently at school and will enter the labor market in

2022 would have to acquire the required soft skills for employment”, as quoted by

Nicolopolou et al. (2011). Out of the 50 or above courses the students pursue during their

academic career at their colleges, hardly 2 or 3 courses are dedicated to the development of

soft skills such as communication skills, presentation skills, conversation skills, etc. It’s not

only the number of courses allotted to train students in soft skills but also the methodology

that is being adopted in classrooms which decides the success of their students. Of course,

many institutions in India face the challenge of training students who have joined them from

rural areas and have limited communication skills. So, the background of students also plays

an important role in their soft skills training. Referring to the lack of interest among colleges

to have collaboration with industries, Ashok Reddy, Managing Director and Co-founder of

the recruitment agency Teamlease Services India is of the opinion that universities in India

are not willing to have significant collaborations with industry, and they often cite the need to

adhere to a tight curriculum rather than keep up with industry changes (Mishra, 2014).

Realizing the importance of soft skills in the professional world, especially the IT industries

in India, this study has already presented in the preceding chapter, the analysis of the survey

conducted among the industry personnel. As the faculty and students of higher education

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institutions also stand as the stakeholders as far as the employability skills are concerned, this

chapter focuses on the survey conducted among 34 colleges of engineering/technology in

AP. It presents the analysis of the data collected through this survey regarding the number of

classes allotted, type of skills targeted, pedagogical approach, assessment, etc., being

followed in these colleges. Apart from the analysis of collected data, this chapter also

includes few excerpts from the student and faculty interviews which may be significant in

understanding the status of soft skills development in the colleges in AP.

5.1 Objectives

The study aims at examining the views of academia (both faculty and students) on the

ongoing trends in their respective engineering colleges and requirements of employability

skills in the IT industry and also on the causes behind the lack of soft skills in students. It

attempts to get the perspectives of faculty and students on various issues involved in the

development of soft skills: number of classes allotted for soft skills and English language

skills; types of extracurricular activities; impact of internships taken by students in industries;

training provided to the teachers of soft skills and communication skills, etc.

5.2 Methodology

This study was conducted using the survey research method. The purpose of survey research

is to gather data from groups of people (students and the faculty) by utilizing questionnaires.

In the process a questionnaire is developed to find out the issues faced by the students in

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grooming themselves with the required soft skills. An attempt is also made to find out the

reasons for the ever prevailing industry institute gap across various engineering colleges.

Gall et al. (2003) states that “the purpose of a survey is to use questionnaires or interviews to

collect data from a sample that has been selected to represent a population to which the

findings of the data analysis can be generalized”. The responses were collected from 500

faculty members and 200 students from 34 engineering colleges in Andhra Pradesh. Personal

interviews have also been conducted with both faculty and students to gather additional

inputs.

5.3 Sample

The research focuses mainly on the engineering colleges in Andhra Pradesh (AP). As already

discussed in Chapter 3, majority of the colleges in AP are affiliated to Jawaharlal Nehru

Technological University (JNTU) Hyderabad/Kakinada/Anantapur while many others are

affiliated to Osmania University or Andhra University. The selection of the following 34

colleges was based on the fact that the HR managers of IT MNCs whom I had interviewed

have been regularly visiting these colleges for campus placements. 500 faculty members and

200 students participated in the survey. All these colleges are private colleges.

5.4 List of engineering colleges from which the faculty responses were taken:

1. Atmkur Engineering College, Nellore

2. Aurora Engineering College, Hyderabad

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3. Aurora’s Scientific Technological and Research Academy, Hyderabad

4. Aurora’s Seetaiah Engineering College, Hyderabad

5. Avanthi institute of engineering and technology, Hyderabad

6. Chaitanya Bharathi Insitute of Technology, Hyderabad

7. CVR college of engineering, Hyderabad

8. G. Narayanamma Institute of Technology and Science, Hyderabad

9. Geethanjali College of Engineering and Technology, Hyderabad

10. Gudlavalleru Engineering College, Gudlavalleru

11. Hyderabad Institute of Technology and Management, Hyderabad

12. KL University, Vijayawada

13. Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Technology, Hyderabad

14. Methodist college of engineering and technology, Hyderabad

15. M J College of Engineering, Hyderabad

16. MVSR Engineering College, Hyderabad

17. Narayana Engineering College, Nellore

18. PES Institute of Technology, Hyderabad

19. PVP Siddhartha Institute of Technology, Vijayawada

20. Pujya Shri Madhavanji College of Engineering and Technology, Hyderabad

21. Royal Institute of Technology and Science, Hyderabad

22. R V College of Engineering, Hyderabad

23. Sreyas Institute of Engineering and Technology, Hyderabad

24. Sreenidhi Institute of Science and Technology, Hyderabad

25. Sri Sai Jyothi Engineering College, Hyderabad

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26. St. Peter’s Engineering College, Hyderabad

27. St. Francis College, Hyderabad

28. Stanley College of Engineering and Technology for Women, Hyderabad

29. Tirumala Engineering College, Hyderabad

30. Vaagdevi College of Engineering, Hyderabad

31. Vidya Jyothi Institute of Technology, Hyderabad

32. Vignana Bharathi Institute of Technology, Hyderabad

33. VITS College of Engineering, Visakhapatnam

34. VR Siddhartha Engineering College, Vijayawada

5.5 Faculty-Survey: Analysis and Findings

One of the senior faculty members in an engineering college (name of the faculty and college

is kept Anonymous on their request) admitted that there are students who could not even

write a letter without mistakes. “I recently received an official letter from a fourth year

student, who signed it off by saying yours lovingly”, recalled the faculty.

Many engineering graduates in India are found to be unemployable due to their poor

communication skills and lack of confidence (Clement and Murugavel, 2015). A number of

research papers have reiterated the importance of improving engineering graduates’

employability skills. However, the problem of poor communication skills grows unabated in

India. This study is mainly conducted to understand the reality with respect to the prevailing

practices in the engineering colleges pertaining to soft skills and understand the reasons

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behind the poor performance of many engineering graduates in India. It has been identified

through personal interviews of the students that many third year students still lack confidence

to face their campus placements that are to take place in their final year of study. Moreover,

it has been found that the pedagogical approach employed by the faculty members need to be

enhanced as large number of students want more interactive sessions to improve their

language/communication skills. The best way to teach soft skills to students is outside, not

inside, the walls of academia - through practical experience (Philipose, 2010).

This situation demands/calls for good infrastructure facilities in the engineering colleges

which majority of the students couldn’t enjoy. The survey results have shown a clear and big

gap between the teachers’ methodology and engineering students’ confidence levels and also

accentuate the importance of suitable training programs required for engineering students.

This section presents the factors pertaining to the soft skills training provided by the

engineering colleges which are included in the questionnaire, the pictorial representation of

the results and the analysis thereon.

1. Number of classes per week the students have in soft skills as such and in its various

categories:

A clear theoretical perspective and a sound practical application are required in any kind of

training, be it technical or non technical. For such training programmes, colleges need to

include the respective subjects in the curriculum and also allocate adequate classroom

sessions or laboratory sessions without which teachers may find it difficult to develop the

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required skills in their students. The respondents were asked about the number of classes

they have been using for inculcating skills in communication, English language usage,

problem solving, leadership, time management, conflict management and negotiation,

keeping in mind the types of soft skills required at the workplaces:

(a) Communication skills

Figure-1(a)

The data in Figure-1(a) reveals that 67% of the sample population said that their engineering

colleges conduct 1-2 classes on communication skills.

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(b) English Language Skills

Figure-1(b)

The data in Figure-1(b) reveals that 42% of the sample population said that their engineering

colleges conduct 1-2 classes on English Language Skills. An alarming 57% reveal that there

are no classes for English language skills.

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(c) Problem Solving

Figure-1(c)

The data in Figure-1(c) reveals that 37% of the sample population said that their engineering

colleges conduct 1-2 classes on Problem Solving Skills. Again 63% of the faculty members

say that there are no classes dedicated to problem solving skills which play a crucial role in

almost all workplaces.

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(d) Leadership and Motivation

Figure-1(d)

The data in Figure-1(d) reveals that 37% of the sample population said that their engineering

colleges conduct 1-2 classes on Leadership/Motivation while the remaining 63% said that

they don’t dedicate any classes for the same.

(e) Time Management

Figure-1(e)

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Only 39% of the sample population said that their engineering colleges conduct 1-2 classes

on Time Management.

(f) Conflict Management

Figure-1(f)

The data in Figure-1(f) reveals that 98% of the sample population said that their engineering

colleges DONOT conduct classes on Conflict Management.

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(g) Negotiation

Figure-1(g)

The data in Figure-1(g) reveals that 99% of the sample population said that their engineering

colleges DONOT conduct classes on Negotiation.

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The Table given below provides a comprehensive view of the analysis presented above:

Skill 0 classes per

week

1-2 classes per

week

2-3 classes per

week

3-4 classes per

week

Communication 32% 67% 1% 0%

English Language

Skills

57% 42% 0% 1%

Problem Solving 63% 37% 0% 0%

Leadership and

Motivation

63% 37% 0% 0%

Time Management 61% 39% 0% 0%

Conflict Management 98% 1% 1% 0%

Negotiation 99% 1% 0% 0%

It is understandable that it would be difficult for the engineering colleges to assign classes for

developing all types of soft skills considering the quantum of technical knowledge the

students have to acquire during their academic career. A survey report of National

Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM, 2014) reflects the view that

during recruitment, the weightage ascribed to the soft-skills is different across various bands

of seniority, usually classified as execution, coordination, managing, leading and

strategizing. However in order to impart any type of soft skills in students, teachers require

at least 3 classes per week in every semester so that they can use one class for giving an

insight into the various facets involved and keep the remaining two classes for practical

applications.

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English is the prime means for communication, and can often serve as the global language

between two people from two different cultures, wherein English is not the native tongue and

Communication skills are essential for an engineer who aspires to carry out his/her

professional practice in the global arena (Riemer, 2002). Considering the importance of

English and communication skills over the other soft skills in the professional world,

majority of the colleges have assigned one or two classes per week for inculcating these

skills. Even in top ranking colleges which may admit students with reasonably good

proficiency in English and communication, one or two classes per week will be inadequate if

the soft skills classes are to be made practice-oriented.

2. Optional or mandatory nature of the classes offered for the aforementioned skills:

Classes on Soft Skills may be compulsory or optional according to the policies of the

university to which the colleges are affiliated. If the courses are compulsory, every

engineering student will certainly undergo certain soft skills training; if not, at least develop

some awareness about the importance of such skills in the professional world. However, if

they are optional, only a few students may register for such courses because majority of them

may feel that soft skills are easy to acquire and hence it is not necessary for them to formally

attend classes for the same. Some may even realize that their soft skills are inadequate only

when they appear for job interviews and hence it would be too late to become conscious of

these skills at that time when they are expected to showcase their soft skills.

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As the mandatory or optional nature of soft skills classes may play a role in the required

quantum of training, respondents were asked about this issue during the survey.

Figure-2

56% of the faculty members agree that the aforementioned activities/courses are optional

while the remaining 44% say that it is mandatory. This data reflects that a significant

majority of the colleges do not consider soft skills as a necessary component of student

development.

3. Organizing guest lectures in soft skills:

While talking about the advantages of organizing guest lectures in colleges, Miller (2014)

mentions that students not only can get different points of view by listening to new voices

but also can store in them potential resources they can apply later. Such lectures may also

refresh the students by providing the students new faces and different varieties.

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When the faculty members were asked whether their college had organized guest lectures ,

they answered affirmatively : one or two guest lectures in soft skills per year (or) on an

average 1 per semester by alumni, distinguished speakers during fests, etc., on the following

topics:

How to face the campus interviews

Employability skills, listening skills, communication skills (group discussion), role

play

Aptitude & Reasoning covered under Campus Recruitment Training (CRT) program.

People skills, personality development and behavioral skills

Personality development, time management, leadership qualities etc

The faculty members have also added that after the 3rd year of study, students are trained

under different skill development programmes as mentioned before.

4. Other methods used in college to gain more practical experience in the development

of students' soft skills:

“No interviewer is going to ask you if you have a soft skill; they’re going to ask you to show

them how you have implemented that skill in or out of the workplace. You need to have

concrete examples ready to talk about...” says Miller (2016), an environmental researcher at

US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). This statement is very true; in order to apply

the soft skills learnt in classes, students need to apply them in various communication forms

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such as debates, group discussions, role plays, case study discussions, mock interviews, etc.

As interpersonal communication plays a significant role in students’ academic and

professional careers, many educational institutions take some efforts in training them. One of

the questions in the questionnaire deals with the training provided through these forms of

communication and the results are discussed below:

Figure-3

74% of the population sample said that their engineering colleges used GDs as the method to

gain more practical experience in the development of students’ soft skills; 40% each use

quizzes and mock interviews; 18% use role plays; 13% use case studies and 12% use debates

to gain more practical experience in the development of students’ soft skills.

The respondents felt that as GD is used in many placement interviews to assess the

personality, knowledge, communication skills and leadership of the applicants, many

colleges give more importance to GDs than the other forms. Khan and Chakrabarty (2009)

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considers group dynamics which is concerned with the interactions and forces between group

members to be a whetstone to analyze, modulate and regulate a group towards achieving its

target. Mock interviews and Quizzes occupy the second position in terms of the soft skills

training methods adopted by the engineering colleges that participated in the survey. These

two forms of training enables the students understand their strengths and weaknesses in their

technical and soft skills. The other three forms, namely, role plays, debates and case study

discussions are used by very few engineering colleges. Among them case studies may require

more attention because many companies assess the candidates’ approach to problems through

case study exercises.

5. Students' proficiency at their entry level in certain communication tasks:

It is necessary to get an insight into the students’ ability in various areas prior to imparting

certain training to them. Diagnostic tests may be helpful in such assessments. Once the

teachers get an idea about the students’ prior knowledge, they can arrive at an appropriate

strategy for their classes in soft skills. For instance, if students’ ability in speaking is better

than that in writing, teachers can focus more on developing their writing skills.

The following illustrations and analysis speak for the respondents’ views on certain soft

skills of students at the time of joining their respective engineering colleges:

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(a) The ability to write clearly and effectively

Figure-4(a)

An alarming 70% said that students have poor writing skills while the remaining 30% said

that students have average writing skills. This data reveals the need for enhancing the writing

skills which play a crucial role not only in students’ academic career but also in their

professional career.

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(b) Ability to speak clearly and effectively:

Figure-4(b)

The data is just the reverse of the one above. The point to be noted is that faculty members

feel that their students are “better” in speaking rather than in writing though they have not

voted for “Good” or “Excellent” either in writing or in speaking.

(c) Ability to solve complex problems:

Figure-4(c)

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It is encouraging to note that 70% of the faculty has said that their students stand average in

solving complex problems.

(d) Ability to present well:

Figure-4(d)

As far as presentation skills are concerned, it is very disappointing to see that majority of the

students are poor in the views of their faculty members. The fact that presentation skills are

extremely important to perform well in both academic and work environment can’t be

ignored.

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(e) Ability to work in a team:

Figure-4(e)

Despite the fact that the colleges provide opportunities through GD, Role Plays, Case

Studies, etc., in order to enhance the students’ skills for team-playing and decision making,

majority of them are poor in their ability to work in teams.

Figures 4(a) through 4(e) reflect that students lack skills in writing, presenting and team-

playing. All these three skills are critical for their success in both academic and professional

settings. In fact, a survey of American corporations revealed that two thirds of the salaried

employees have some writing responsibility but about one third of them do not meet the

writing requirements; say Guffey and Lowey (2015). As already discussed in chapter 2,

without acquiring skills in professional presentations and team- playing students may find it

difficult to accomplish their academic and professional goals. Hence, there is a dire need to

enhance the aforementioned soft skills in engineering students.

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6. Enhancement of soft skills through co-curricular and extracurricular activities:

Apart from attending classes, students of engineering enroll themselves in various academic

and non-academic clubs in order to pursue their interest in co-curricular and extracurricular

activities. These activities, no doubt, expose them to various cultures and behaviors because

of the number of friends they get during interactions. They understand the importance of

communication, courtesy, etiquette, patience and many other such attributes during the

course of team work they are involved in during the activities. Thus extracurricular activities

provide ample opportunities to acquire and practice soft skills. Figure 5 and the analysis

detailed below reflect a similar view from the respondents:

Figure-5

95% of the population sample agreed that co-curricular and extracurricular activities enhance

soft skills of students.

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(a) Number of hours per week for co-curricular and extracurricular activities:

Figure-5(a)

It is clear that in the views of 43% of the faculty, 2-3 hrs per week would be sufficient; 27%

feel 1-2; 19% feel 3-4; 11% feel >4. So we can conclude that in faculty opinion, on an

average, about 2 to 4 hours per week can be devoted to co-curricular/extracurricular

activities.

Though almost all respondents feel that about 2-3 hours are required for extra/co-curricular

activities, they need to find out the feasibility of such a provision. In fact, if students are

motivated to participate in such activities, they would certainly be able to reap the benefit in

terms of enhancing soft skills.

7. Sending students to IT companies for internship:

Chapter 4 has already analyzed the importance of industry internship and also the HR

managers’ view that internships serve as finishing schools for the students and make them

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industry-ready. In order to get the views of faculty and students regarding the existing

practice in their respective colleges of sending their students to internships in industry, the

same issue was included in the survey conducted for them and their responses were recorded

as detailed below:

Figure-6

Merely 15% of the population said that their students are sent to IT MNCs as a part of course

curriculum. It means that the many colleges do not facilitate their students taking up

internship in industry. It is a matter of concern for the students because without pursuing an

internship in industry, students may struggle to apply their theoretical inputs in carrying out

the workplace assignments.

7 (a) Duration of the internship:

When the few colleges who send their students for internship were asked about the period of

internship, majority of them quoted the period as 10-20 days [Fig 6(a)]

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Figure-6(a)

During personal interview the respondents also said that the internship was not a part of

curriculum and even if the students would take up the internship it would be for a maximum

of 20 days. Moreover, the students have to look for the internship on their own (through their

efforts), due to which many of the engineering students lack interest in internship.

So it can be construed that the students lack exposure to the finishing school or actual

industry environment which is very vital for their career.

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8. Impact of internship on students’ soft skills:

Figure-7

Only 17 % feel that they could observe a difference in the soft skills of their students because

of the impact of internships whereas 83% felt that there was a LITTLE difference. It is

apparent that since the students go to internship for just 2-3 weeks not much difference is felt

with respect to their soft skills. But they will get to know the certain factors constituting the

corporate environment: corporate etiquette, behavior with supervisors, dress code, etc. Only

when they spend a considerable amount of time, say, at least 2-3 months, it would exercise

an impact on their personality and soft skills.

9. Training provided to teachers for developing soft skills in students:

Training the trainers is important for all professionals whether they are engaged in teaching

or managing a business. Kroehnert (2000) is of the opinion that though the term ‘learning’

has many interpretations; it is generally accepted as a change in attitude. As we are aware,

there is no limit to learning. Hence teachers who play a crucial role in developing the

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personality of students need to undergo some training programme in order to ensure that their

content input is aligned with the demands of industry. Many colleges organize Faculty

Development Programs (FDP) in various areas. However, it is necessary to find out whether

the teachers get training in soft skills.

Figure-8

It is heartening to note that 62% of the faculty members have expressed that their respective

engineering colleges facilitate them in getting adequate training in teaching soft skills to their

students.

10. Measures taken by the colleges to strengthen the soft skills of students:

Apart from training the teachers of soft skills, colleges use various other measures to enhance

the soft skills of their students so as to facilitate them perform well in their professional

world and more importantly their job interviews. Kilam and Sharma (2013) suggest three

models for developing soft skills in engineering students: In-house training, Outsourced

training; Hybrid method wherein they discuss the advantages of Hybrid method over the

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other two. Figure 9 and the discussion that follows mirror the efforts taken by the

participating colleges at present towards enhancing the soft skills of their students:

Figure-9

The data in Figure 9 reveals that 81% of the engineering colleges invite soft skills trainers to

conduct workshops for teachers and students, 41% focus more on building confidence in

students, 15% discuss with IT industry before the beginning of each semester to understand

their expectations in terms of soft skills in students, 14% enhance English proficiency in

students, 8% create awareness in students about the significance of soft skills in professional

world, 4% take the help of students who possess good soft skills to train their friends.

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Out of all these efforts, discussing with IT industry to understand their demands might be

more meaningful and sustainable attempt to enhance the soft skills in students.

11. Any other suggestions/remarks that have not been covered in the question above:

With a view to give scope for the participants to express their opinions that were not covered

in the earlier questions, their suggestions were sought through the final question and their

responses have been mentioned below:

Soft skills should be encouraged from the school level itself, not just at the college

level. Poor schooling always proves detrimental in the progress of a student. There

are many instances where a student with high CGPA not getting successful through

campus interviews due to lack of soft skills.

Students from the rural background/environment lack these skills owing to their

upbringing and the quality of schools which they have studied.

Teachers if trained in soft skills by relevant experts can bring in change in the

students provided the college includes one weekly (Saturday afternoon) class of an

hour in soft skills as a part of curriculum.

Mother tongue influence should be reduced.

Even though there are independent private institutes offering soft skills training to

graduate students, universities/engineering colleges may take the initiative in

formalizing the same as part of the syllabus.

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Separate training programs are to be conducted to the students from regional medium

background thereby giving an opportunity to enhance their skills

Campus Recruitment Training program (CRT) really helps the students

5.6 Student-Survey Analysis

The world of workplace has undergone several changes not only because of the phenomenal

advancement in technology but also as a result of the enormous impact of globalization over

the last few decades. The yesteryear workers in traditional organizational set ups were asked

to carry out routine tasks which were repetitive in nature (Carnevale et al. 1990; Wilhelm,

2002). These organizations were often pictured as a pyramid and were supervised by a

traditional top-down and hierarchical approach (Carnevale et al. 1990). This structure needed

only those at the top of the pyramid to make decisions, interact with others, and solve

problems. Rest of the employees had little authority or power to take decisions and were very

little needed for interaction with one another. They used to do the duties as instructed,

nothing more than that.

But today the entire scenario is quite the opposite. At present, the employees have far lesser

monotonous tasks, much more freedom, and far more need to work with fellow employees

closely at all levels of the organization (Overtoom, 2000; Smith, 2005). Such demands

definitely require a new set of skills for the employees. As a result of the current ‘flat

organizational structures’, employees at all levels are required to possess the required soft

skills.

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Recent studies (Raman and Koka, 2015), found that though employers have recognized the

major role to be played by colleges and universities in enhancing the country’s ability to

drive innovation and competition in the global economy, they see much room for

improvement in the level of preparation of today’s four-year engineering graduates. The

three skill areas consistently cited as deficient in incoming hires are the ability to collaborate

effectively with others in a team environment, critical thinking skills and the ability to

communicate effectively across various constituencies (Dwyer et al. 2006). These skills are

needed by members of every level of organizations in order to strengthen their potential

required for effective teamwork, problem-solving, decision-making and communication.

This study investigated on the prevailing happenings in the current engineering colleges

where the would-be graduates were prepared for effectiveness in today’s contemporary

workplace. The primary purpose of this study was to analyze the industry-academia gap in

terms of soft skills and the two primary stakeholders, namely, the Industry and the Academia

were chosen as samples for the study. In this direction, chapter 4 has already presented the

analysis of the survey conducted among HR managers of IT MNCs. As far as the survey

conducted among the stakeholders of engineering colleges, this chapter has already discussed

the analysis pertaining to the faculty members of 34 colleges in AP. Hence the following

discussion presents the analysis of the data collected from the remaining stakeholder—the

students of these engineering colleges:

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5.6.1 Methodology

Aimed at understanding the views of students on the importance of soft skills, the kind of

learning their colleges provide to develop their soft skills, their satisfaction on the instruction,

training programmes, etc., and also some suggestions to improve the scenario, this survey

distributed a questionnaire among the students and received responses from 200 of them. In

fact, factors such as, number of classes devoted to soft skills, internship training, etc., have

already been covered in the faculty-survey. Hence only a few questions which were specific

to students were included in this questionnaire. Personal interviews were also conducted to

elicit more information from students so as to get a better idea of their perspectives on soft

skills training they have received from their colleges.

5.6.2 Population and Sample

The population sample for this study comprises 200 randomly selected students from various

engineering colleges in AP. Out of these 200, 50 were from second year, 75 each from third

year and fourth year. Generally, the students appear in the campus interviews in the second

semester of their third year or the first semester of their fourth year. Hence 150 students out

of 200 were taken from third year and fourth year put together. Survey questionnaires were

mailed to these students and responses were received and analyzed.

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5.6.3 Analysis and Findings

1. Students’ educational background:

Figure-1

As the background - rural or urban - of the students is important to draw some inferences

related to the development of soft skills, this question was asked. Figure 1 reveals that 57%

of the population sample is from urban background and 43% of the population sample is

from rural background.

The demand for English medium schools has increased by leaps and bounds such that even a

rural/remote area is replete with many English medium schools. However, even though they

are English medium schools, they exist just for name sake and not in terms of delivery of

classes. In other words, classes are not at all taught in English. This is clearly evident from

the personal interviews conducted with some students. Moreover, the schools keep

advertising that theirs is an “English Medium School” just to attract the parents. But the real

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scenario reflects the poor teaching standards or in other words, the teaching standards in

English are not met. Hence it can be inferred that even though the students are from English

medium schools it is not necessary that they are equipped with good communication

skills/English fluency etc. Moreover, grooming of students from rural background may be

different from those from urban background. Though the former may be good in their

engineering subjects, they may not feel confident in expressing themselves to others.

2. Awareness of the importance of Soft Skills in professional world:

Figure-2

It is good to know that 82% of the students are aware of the importance of soft skills in the

professional world. Once again let us reiterate the importance of the sample population

chosen for this study. As the students appear for campus interviews in their final year and

their penultimate year, 75% of the chosen population from third and fourth year of study

might know the importance of Soft Skills in professional world and hence the data collected

should be representative of the student population.

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3. Top three soft skills which are important in the students’ view:

All is not easy for today's young would-be engineering graduates. The engineering colleges

are spreading like mushrooms and these students should weather the storm in today’s

competitive scenario to battle out and get a job through campus interviews. While many IT

MNCs are eager to hire, they report having trouble finding qualified candidates to fill those

positions. The employers are not happy about the engineering colleges and they feel that the

colleges were not doing enough to prepare students for the industry. During our personal

interviews with the HR managers of IT MNCs for the survey discussed in the preceding

chapter, we understood that the problem isn't about fresh graduates’ lack of technical

expertise, but about their lack of soft skills. Among the multifarious soft skills, students may

consider a few to be more important than others and try to develop such skills during their

academic career.

In students’ view the following three soft skills rank among the top three (Figure 3):

1. Communication Skills

2. Problem Solving Skills

3. Leadership Skills

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Figure-3

67%

23%

10%

0%

Rated communication skills as ONE Rated problem solving skills as TWO

Rated leadership skills as THREE

Communication Skills

Majority of the students rated communication skills as the top most important soft skill.

Communication is necessary in team building, knowledge transfer, effective social

interaction, etc. Being well versed in the subject would definitely give the students an initial

edge, but without good communication skills, they may not be able to showcase their

academic knowledge or personality during an employment interview. The interviewers need

to be convinced that a particular student (interviewee) is the right person for the job. In this

regard, students’ communication skills come in handy. In fact, students can enhance their

chances of getting hired by showcasing their communication skills.

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The engineering colleges view jobs in two categories: Normal and Dream. A job with CTC

less than 5 lpa (varies from college to college as the case may be) is considered to be a

Normal job, while a job with CTC equal to or more than 5 lpa (varies from college to college

as the case may be) is considered to be a Dream Job. Many students wish to secure

something akin to a “dream job”. They do prepare hard for the interview of their dream job

by reading various books, discussing with their friends, etc. Further, they make sincere

efforts to know the company profile, its achievements, and the awards that it has won, etc.

However, all these efforts may prove futile if they are unable to express themselves

effectively during the employment interview. Good communication skills are the need of the

hour as the interviewer judges the interviewees based not only on their technical skills but

also on their ability to express themselves effectively in a face-to-face or a telephonic

interview. In fact, the employers carefully observe the candidates’ communication skills

which enable them to extrapolate how the former would deal with the clients and colleagues

in their professional setting if they are selected. Kneeland (2002) emphasizes the importance

of communication skills by saying that winners in job interviews speak well and recognize

the all-important fact that communication is something that happens in the minds and hearts

of the audience and not the words of the speaker. So students should be effective in

communicating with the prospective employers so that they can comprehend the message

easily.

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Problem Solving Skills

There is no MNC that doesn’t depend on problem solving abilities to keep their business

moving forward. We may find many problem finders in this world but not many problem

solvers who can contribute to the bottom line of any organization. In other words, people

who can fix and solve problems carry much value to the organization and are rare than the

ones who can just identify a problem. This is why majority of the interviewers rely on

problem solving questions while interviewing and this has been ranked as the top second in

the list of soft skills that are considered important by the population sample.

Leadership Skills

At their campus interviews, MNCs initially choose a Group Discussion as a second round

(first round being the aptitude test) of interview process which would enable them to spot the

ones who initiate and create an impact by showcasing their leadership skills. Starting from

there, personal interviews are taken to finalize the students’ candidature for the job offered.

Being a leader is a different thing altogether! Leadership skills will help the students reach

the pinnacle of their career. Students know that MNCs do value leadership qualities and

hence showcasing them during campus placement stage such as group discussion, group

activities, etc., will surely set the ball rolling for them to get noticed by the interviewers.

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4. Training offered by colleges in Soft Skills:

Figure-4

69% of the students said that their respective engineering colleges offer classes/training

programmes on soft skills. In an attempt to make the students match the expectations of the

IT MNCs (not to forget the fact that 90% of the companies that visit campuses to conduct

interviews are from IT industry; we hardly find any core companies in local/normal

engineering colleges except in a few top ranking universities), i.e., they are to be industry-

ready, majority of the engineering colleges have introduced programmes including

workshops on soft skills and training programmes in personality development under the

banner of Campus Recruitment Training (CRT). Soft skill programmes are usually part of

some managerial courses and it has not been part of the engineering curriculum few decades

before. The new move owes its origin to an initiative of the All India Council for Technical

Education (AICTE) which has come out with several programmes to help colleges improve

the level of education. Even if the students possess strong technical expertise, if they are not

good at communication skills, they may be rejected in the job interviews. To solve such

employability issues, the engineering colleges have come up with crash courses. This will

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help the students hone their body language, communication, writing skills, etc. Even IITs are

no exception to this. For example, IIT Hyderabad has tied up with IT skilling firm Talents

Sprint to conduct computerized tests evaluating the students in their B.Tech, M.Tech and

PhD. IIT Kanpur, on the other hand has tied up with the British Council to conduct English

tests focused on conversation skills, writing and speaking skills, etc. Elaborating on the

same, Director of IIT Madras, Prof Bhaskar Ramamurthi has said, “In today’s job market,

students need to have skills in addition to technical skills in order to find and succeed in a

job”.

5. Process of Getting Internship in industries:

Figure-5

When the students were asked about the internship in industries, only 12% of them said that

they take up internships. To probe further into this issue, a question was asked about how

they get the internships: on their own efforts or through their colleges. As depicted in Figure

5, 96% of the population sample said that their internship was taken up through their own

efforts while the remaining small number (4%) said that it was arranged by their college.

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Therefore, it can be inferred from the above figure that very less number of students take up

internships in industries and that too through their own efforts. It can also be said that

students who could pursue internships might have got them through the help of their parents

or other contacts. In fact, it is very difficult for every student to get an internship through

such personal contacts.

6. Usefulness of guest lectures on soft skills on campus:

As mentioned in the faculty-survey analysis, guest lectures on soft skills are organized by the

colleges in order to enhance the awareness and also the appropriate use of soft skills during

job interviews. When the students were asked about the usefulness of such lectures, 71%

answered in affirmative while 29% do not find them useful (Figure 6).

Figure-6

Guest lectures by experts in industry would certainly enable them to understand the industry

requirements in terms of the skill sets necessary for their professional career thereby

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preparing themselves better for the interviews. Lectures which are highly theoretical and not

adequately supported by practical examples are not liked by students and as a result they do

not find them useful also.

7. Quality of teaching of the instructors of soft skills:

Teachers of soft skills play a key role in implementing their learning acquired through

teacher training programs and delivering them appropriately to their students. They should

make their teaching styles student-centered where students are expected to participate

actively in the learning process, while the teachers undertake the role as a facilitator (Ngang

et al. 2015). Despite the best efforts made by colleges in providing training to teachers, they

may not deliver the content in an effective manner in their classes and hence may not impress

upon their students. When students were asked about the quality of teaching of their

instructors, only 36% of them said that their teachers were good while 56% said they were

fair. However, it is good to note that the quality of teaching is not poor according to most of

the students (Figure 7).

Figure-7

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As only 1% of the students rated their teachers as excellent, it is important that the soft skills

teachers put in more efforts towards making their teaching more effective Moreover, they are

expected to prepare their students to become good performers in their professional life rather

than mere toppers in their classes.

8. Overall rating of the Campus Recruitment Training (CRT) program:

Shashikanth and Pranay (2016) in their study report on campus placement mention that many

colleges have Training and Placement Cell that organizes Campus Recruitment Training

(CRT) programme to reduce the gap between industry and academics. Industries too have

joined hands with universities and colleges with special recruitment teams to capture the

talents within the student segment. By applying the modules learnt in CRT programmes,

students may be able to minimize the unemployment problem to certain extent with never

give up attitude and passion towards their dream jobs.

Figure-8

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While 37% of the respondents felt that the CRT program held in their respective colleges is

good, the remaining 63% rated them as fair or poor. In fact, they felt that though the CRT

programs were helpful in developing awareness on various issues related to employment

scenario, they found very less exposure to practical applications.

5.7 Excerpts from student interviews

It was quite interesting to listen to students’ views during the personal interviews conducted

to get further views on employment skills. Given below are few excerpts from such

interviews:

“A student with 60% (or the minimum criteria laid by the IT MNCs) and with much needed

soft skills is what majority of the IT MNCs are looking for to recruit a student when

compared to a student with 80% in B. Tech and not-so-good soft skills.” – A Sai Siva Rama

Krishna, Prasad V. Potluri Siddhartha Institute of Technology (PVPSIT), Vijayawada

“Once a student graduates, his/her certificates act as a ticket to get him/her interview calls,

but clearing the interviews is a very different ball game. Even if a student possess good

technical knowledge but not backed up with good communication skills his/her chances to

clear the interview are very bleak.” – Viswanath Akash, Koneru Lakshmaiah University,

Vijayawada

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“The problem is that the students realize the importance of communication only during their

college days that too in their penultimate and final year, when they are about to attend their

campus interviews, which can be termed as very late realization. As a matter of fact, the

importance of soft skills and communication should be given from the schooling itself.” – E

Naga Vikas, Velagapudi Ramakrishna Siddhartha Engineering College (VRSEC),

Vijayawada

“On the one hand companies release advertisements on employment opportunities while on

the other hand we have unemployment problem, a totally mismatch situation. This clearly

shows that the skills imparted by our current education system and the skills required by

different industries to find employment are headed towards different directions.” – Qureshi,

Muffakham Jah College of Engineering and Technology, Hyderabad.

The above words of students reveal not only their awareness of the importance of soft skills

in the professional world but also their anguish of not being trained by their respective

colleges in the right direction.

5.8 Summary

To sum up the preceding analyses, we can say that facilitating engineering students to

develop adequate soft skills is increasingly becoming necessary. However, many of the

current lot of engineering educational institutions are not focusing on such development.

Though many of the colleges participated in the survey understand the importance of soft

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skills, they are not allocating adequate number of classes for inculcating these skills in their

students. Very few classes are conducted to enhance the proficiency of their students in

English language or to strengthen their analytical skills, leadership skills, etc. Some of the

colleges do conduct classes on English communication but without any specific focus on the

industry-specific skills.

The failure to provide the necessary infrastructure to the students to enhance their

employability skills is nothing short of a disservice as they need such skills to achieve

success in their academic as well as professional career. The participating students feel that

earmarking classes for soft skills alone will not be enough. The colleges need to train the

faculty members teaching communication and soft skills courses so that they get an insight

into the demands of workplaces and orient their teaching accordingly.

Apart from the soft skills, namely, communication skills, interpersonal skills, problem

solving skills, etc., students also need skills to deliver effective presentations, write succinct

project reports, etc. As we have already mentioned, IT MNCs consider corporate etiquettes,

communication, documentation, presentations, etc., as valuable skills at workplaces and

hence it has become necessary for students acquire them before embarking on their

professional career.

Though some of the colleges train their students in group discussions, debates, mock

interviews, role plays, etc., the quality of training requires to be improved. Similarly, the

efforts taken by some of the colleges to organize lectures by industry experts and campus

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recruitment training programmes needs to be augmented and made more practice-oriented so

that students find them useful in their employment process.

Based on the inferences drawn from the survey analyses, the next and concluding chapter

provides certain recommendations that would enable the colleges to strengthen the soft skills

of their students and make them not only more employable but also better suited for their

professional career.

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CHAPTER 6

CONCLUSIONS

“Real education is that which enables one to stand on his/her own legs.” – Swami

Vivekananda

“Education system must aim towards employability and ensure quality in education. There is

a large gap in the availability of employable skill. To bridge the gap, an interface is needed

between the school curriculum and the needs of the industry.” – A.P.J. Abdul Kalam

The mushrooming numbers of students graduating from a large number of engineering

colleges in India and the cut throat competition among them for employment have forced the

industries to raise the standards to be met for entry-level jobs year after year. For many

decades, organizations emphasized on domain competence or hard skills for their employees’

job performance. However, with the pervasive impact of global economy, industries have

been undergoing a striking change because of the rapid transformation in the workplace

environment. Such a transformation has highlighted the need for soft skills to cater to the

newly emerging demands of the industry. Employability (or soft) skills are playing a vital

role in an individual’s career in this changing and demanding scenario. Among the various

types of industries, IT industry has been playing a lead role in providing a number of related

services not only in India but also in countries abroad. The IT MNCs that employ a large

number of fresh graduates from the engineering colleges in India have their specific job

requirements in order to ensure collaboration among their employees all over the world. In

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other words, these companies want their employees work both with their Indian counterparts

and with their foreign clients. Moreover, they are also expected to be effective and efficient

in using various technologies involving the application of video-conference, IP phones,

emails, etc.

Irrespective of the profession which the students choose to be in, they need to realize the

importance of soft skills in accomplishing all the related assignments with élan. Alternatively

called as employment skills, life skills or survival skills, soft skills enable them achieve

success in their respective professions by enabling them communicate effectively, initiate

changes, present their ideas well, listen patiently, manage time effectively and encourage

team work. It may be true that many students possess extraordinary domain competence but

what truly differentiates them from others is their ability to practice efficacious soft skills as

mentioned above.

Engineering has been a major field of science pursued as an education and career by majority

of the students. It has covered in itself many milestones of advancements since its inception.

Eight decades before Herbert Hoover (31st president of USA) was mocked by a lady for

being an engineer as at those times engineering wasn’t considered a gentleman career (Rohit

et al. 2014). Engineering education evolved through those decades and stands currently as a

field mostly preferred and adopted as the lifetime work by millions of students of both sex. It

is indeed a fact that Engineering and Technology professionals are the pivotal human

resources in any nation, instrumental for its economic advancement and success. The

developed countries have already reaped benefits from their Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

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(KSA) and have determined the vital role played by these professionals in strengthening their

R&D, industries and economies. Therefore, the Indian educational system should now

engage itself in such an endeavor and should have a clear and detailed road map for the much

needed infusion and upgradation of the employability skills in the current lot of engineering

professionals.

Despite this progress in engineering education, there are challenges that need to be paid

consistent heed and addressed in the way engineering is taught and learned. Currently Indian

educational system focuses too much on facts and figures which do not support creativity,

analytical and reasoning power among students.

The current challenges that the engineering curriculum in India (as per my interviews

with some of the engineering students in AP) has been facing are:

Syllabus/Curriculum is very much outdated. Students say that they are taught about

the technology that is at least 15 years old. For example in Computer Science

Engineering (CS) branch, the students are taught to implement algorithms in C/C++

language but whereas in the Industry much more advanced languages like Hadoop,

PHP, Python etc. are used in the projects

In the students’ four years of engineering, students are only trained from the

examination perspective so that they can score well. For example, we have seen some

question papers in which the engineering colleges ask the students to explain the

differences between switch and break statement; for and while loop etc. In other

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words, the question papers include theoretical questions that require answers straight

from the books. However, certain reputed engineering institutions assess students on

their analytical skills. The fact is that students who are proficient in applying theory

for solving the problems is aware of the concepts and also how to apply them to solve

problems but it is not the case with those students who learn the concepts by heart just

to answer the theory questions.

The students say that curriculum redesign is not happening frequently. Even if

revised, it is not according to the current industry demands

The question papers are more theory-oriented and do not test the application thereby

leaving very less scope for experiential components (like case studies, presentation

skills, GDs as a part of evaluation components)

The students’ regret that there is almost no support from Universities to its Students

in Research & Innovation. They cite this as the main reason why universities like

Oxford and Stanford are miles ahead of us

The evaluation is not uniform/is unequal.

There is no link between what the industries expect from the fresh engineering

graduates and what the colleges provide them.

The IT industry has revolutionized India’s image on a global scale, besides boosting the

nation’s economic growth by empowering higher education sector (especially in engineering

and computer science). The industry has employed almost 10 million Indians and hence, has

contributed a lot to social transformation in the country (Taranjit and Batra, 2014).

Furthermore, Indian firms, across all other sectors, are heavily dependent on the IT service

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providers to make their business processes efficient and streamlined. Indian manufacturing

sector spends high on the IT service providers followed by automotive, chemicals and

consumer products industries. Indian organizations are turning to IT to help them grow

business in the current economic environment. IT is seen as a change enabler and a source of

business value for organizations by 85 per cent of the respondents, according to a study by

VMware, an American IT MNC that provides cloud and virtualization software services

(Taranjit and Batra, 2014). This sector has also led to massive employment generation and

the industry continues to be an employment generator. This clearly indicates the fact that job

openings are in abundance in IT sector and so the entry level students’ craze to enter into the

IT MNCs to start their careers.

This study has begun with identifying the gap between the demands of IT industry and the

kind of soft skills the engineering educational institutions develop in their students. A

detailed review on the importance of various types of soft skills required in different levels of

IT designations/capacities was studied along with the industry readiness of the engineering

professionals. The current trends in engineering education were particularly studied to

understand and bring out the current curriculum and pedagogies adopted in the academia.

The secondary sources consulted include books, print and electronic journals, online data

bases, conference/seminar proceedings, papers presented at various avenues such as

conference/seminar proceedings and the online content available in public domain and

newspapers. The primary data sources include questionnaire responses from a wide range of

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users comprising HR professionals, faculty and students. Personal interviews are also

conducted to supplement the data collected through surveys.

Overall 500 responses from faculty and 200 responses from the engineering students were

collected across 34 engineering colleges from Andhra Pradesh and the analysis has been

discussed in Chapter 5. Overall 200 responses were collected from the IT MNCs HR

professionals from 30 IT MNCs across Delhi, Chennai, Bangalore, Mumbai, Pune, and

Hyderabad. The analysis pertaining to the views of IT MNCs has been detailed in Chapter 4.

Industry Analysis

Employers expect their recruits to be enthusiastic and to possess certain critical soft skills

though they do not anticipate a recent graduate to be well-versed with everything. They feel

that even if the recruits do not have fully developed skills that could be described as specific

to the workplace, they need to possess at least partially developed levels of these skills.

Communication skills, interpersonal skills, basic aptitude, etc., are the most important

employability skills in the view of IT HR professionals, and a lack of them in a candidate is a

knee-jerker for many employers. Considering the fact that the global demand for soft skills

has increased significantly, it is now necessary for engineering students to equip them with

adequate soft-skills besides domain competence. Equally important is the need to understand

the barriers (if any) that prevent them from developing soft skills and endeavor to break such

hindrances so as to come out of their university education with all those skills expected by

their prospective employers. This study has gauged the IT HR professionals’ perception on

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the importance and requirements of soft skills in the IT MNCs; reasons that prevent the

students of engineering students from acquiring and developing such skills during their

academic tenure and certain measures to enhance their soft skills so that their employability

opportunities can be enhanced.

Highlights from Industry Analysis

89% of the responded HR managers possess experience of three or more years in

conducting campus interviews.

Almost all the HR Managers (98%) emphasized on problem solving ability followed

by communication skills (92%), inter personal skills (88%), leadership & motivation

skills (73%), and time management skills (65%) to select a student in campus

placements.

57% of HR managers want a minimum period of four to six month long industry

internship for the students. 38% of HR managers want it to be greater than six

months.

95% of the employers agreed on the importance of internship for engineering

graduates.

Almost all the HR managers (93%) cite poor schooling; 89%, lack of encouragement

by the faculty; 85%, lack of motivation; 80%, lack of infrastructural facilities.

55% of the HR professionals are interested to hire fresh graduates who possess equal

ability in technical skills and soft skills. 33% voted for students with good soft skills

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but with not much hard skills and 12% wish to employ students with more hard skills

and less soft skills.

The HR managers have rated the ten soft skills as follows:

1.Positive attitude; 2.Communication skills; 3.Time Management; 4.Motivation;

5.Team Playing; 6.Interpersonal skills; 7.Decision making skills; 8.Presentation

skills; 9.Emotional intelligence; 10.Negotiation skills.

Almost all HR managers (95%) felt that employable soft skills can be developed in

students by making the teaching more practice-oriented followed by inviting hiring

managers from IT industries to have interactive sessions with students (92%) and

arranging discussion sessions between the teachers of soft skills and the hiring

managers of IT industries (86%).

Academia Analysis

Engineering colleges have been springing up like dandelions in India in the last few years.

The state of Andhra Pradesh alone has more than 700 colleges. The fact, however, remains

that 20-33% out of the 1.5 million engineering graduates passing out every year run the risk

of not getting a job at all, points out Economic Times (Mahajan, 2014). Some of the world’s

renowned IT services sector industry bellwethers like Accenture, TCS, Infosys, WIPRO,

CTS, Tech Mahindra, to name a few, are always in need of the industry ready candidates. But

the opportunity to get the engineering students placed in any of these companies can be

exploited only when these students are equipped with much needed hard and soft skills.

There is a need to bring in necessary changes in the curriculum and teaching methodology.

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Also the teachers need to attend and participate in workshops so that they would be trained

well enough to train the students. It is crystal clear that the industries are looking for young

and talented professionals to weather the storm in today’s competitive scenario. A proper

fusion of technological knowledge and employability skills would enable the engineering

colleges to empower the talent pools. The real challenge before the teaching community is

positioning themselves as ambassadors in providing necessary inputs on the employability of

the students through curriculum revisions and assessments to meet the needs of IT MNCs in

today’s corporate world. The academic pedagogy also has to be designed in a manner such

that it enhances the employability skills of the individual candidates and help them get placed

in IT MNCs.

During the process of data collection interview, Dr. K.V. Purushotham Reddy, Associate

Professor, SSJ College of Engineering, Hyderabad appreciated our research efforts in the

following words:

“This research gesture is timely and appreciable. Industry-Institute interaction should be

made MANDATORY by way of industrial visits every semester, leasing the college premises

to industry to help students get exposure to industry environment and conduct small

assignment projects. Presently our government is trying to link Rajiv Yuva Kiranalu (RYK)

by way of funding the industry for training interns and absorbing them. Faculty Development

Programmes (FDP) to the teachers should be made mandatory. Guest lectures by various

industry sectors’ faculty can be organized to give tips on their requirements on soft skills”.

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Highlights of Academia Analysis

56% of the faculty members agree that the courses on soft skills to be chosen by

students are optional.

74% of the faculty said that their engineering colleges used GDs as the method to

gain more practical experience in the development of students’ soft skills.

95% of the population sample agreed that co-curricular and extracurricular activities

enhance the soft skills of students.

A mere 15% of the faculty said that their students are sent to IT MNCs as a part of

course curriculum.

Only 17 % feel that they could observe a difference in the soft skills of their students

because of the impact of internships (internship is for 2-3 weeks ONLY) whereas

83% felt that there was a LITTLE difference.

81% of the engineering colleges invite soft skills trainers to conduct workshops for

teachers and students

57% of the population sample (students) is from urban background and 43% of the

population sample is from rural background.

82% of the students (75% of the sample chosen from third and fourth year) are aware

of the importance of soft skills in the professional world.

In students’ view the three soft skills that rank among the top three in the order are: 1.

Communication Skills; 2. Problem Solving Skills; 3. Leadership Skills

69% of the students said that their respective engineering colleges offer classes /

training programmes on soft skills.

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A mere 12% of the students said that they take up internships. 96% of the population

sample said that their internship was taken up through their own efforts.

37% of the students felt that the CRT program held in their respective colleges is

good; the remaining 63% rated them as fair or poor.

Summary

There may be umpteen reasons for the students going to a university, including – a love of

the subject to be studied; the opportunity to experience a different way of life; to improve job

opportunities and so on. Engineering education in itself is much more than a production line

for industry-ready graduates. It is an undeniable fact that people see engineering education as

a stepping stone to a decent job. Even though some engineering educational institutions help

students develop analytical, synoptic and presentational skills which are highly valued in the

modern economy, majority of the employers strictly opine that more could be done to

develop students’ wider skills and attributes, including team-work, communication,

leadership, critical thinking and problem solving. As mentioned in the Chapter 2, these are

known collectively as employability skills. Considering the fact that during the last few

decades the importance of soft skills has increased notably, it is of high importance for

everyone to acquire adequate skills beyond technical expertise.

The two analyses reflect the fact that communication skills and problem solving skills are

considered the most important soft skills in the professional world. While the industry

considers time management as a very important skill, students do not give as much

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importance to it. They consider leadership as an important skill whereas the industry

personnel may not demand the same as much at the entry level jobs. As far as the internship

is concerned there is a gap between the industry expectation, that is, a four-to-six-month

period, and the duration of two to three weeks of internship that the students go through.

Many students feel that the CRT program offered on their campuses is not that impactful as it

is supposed to be. The HR managers who participated further emphasized the importance of

practice-oriented teaching and the interaction between students and the industry personnel in

enhancing the soft skills. However the faculty and teachers emphasize upon the importance

of necessary infrastructure, changes in curriculum and the need for more encouragement and

motivation.

However, it is to be noted that there is no one single method to develop a particular aspect of

soft skills that a student lacks; there are various ways of correcting it. In other words,

teachers should possess an exclusive responsibility regarding soft skills, because during

students’ school and engineering education they have major impact on the development of

their students’ soft skills. In addition to promoting awareness regarding the relevance of soft

skills and inspiring students to improve their skills, teachers should actively practice soft

skills with their students. A very effective and efficient way of doing this is to include soft

skills training into the teaching of hard skills. As a result, the lectures will become more

engaging, which in turn will increase the success rate of students.

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Therefore, all the teachers should rise as phoenix from the ashes of conventional method of

inculcating learning and shift over to innovation thereby meeting the needs of the employers.

They are required to convert the lecture room from teacher-centered learning to student-

centered learning to upgrade the skill sets to suit to the industry needs. To make this happen,

an upheaval is very much needed at the levels of framing academic curriculum, adopting

teaching methodology and teacher’s willingness to accept and implement change. The

prevailing scenario is like a wake-up call to the entire teaching fraternity which propels them

to adapt to the dynamic needs and expectations of the industry.

As it is clearly evident from the aforementioned views and statistical findings, the need of the

hour for academia is to acknowledge and take in the views of the employers and therefore

this work is timely. The findings in this study contribute to the global discourse surrounding

the employability skills and the goal of ensuring that engineering graduates are well prepared

to launch and sustain their professional careers.

From the first interaction with the supervisor, the first team session with peers, the first

presentation to a large group, the personality and soft skills are on display. Also, perfect

command over soft skills is required for the first mentoring advice given as a manger, the

first time a large team with multiple projects is led and the first bid for a customer contract.

These traits are also used by companies for assessment and evaluation - and are a key driver

for career growth.

190

Recommendations

An improvement in the resources/infrastructure can be made to support curriculum mapping

for employability skills. Curriculum mapping will make clear how employability skills are

included in the curriculum so that there is a consistency of approach within and between

faculties. Teaching and assessment practices will directly reflect and integrate employability

skills in meaningful and discipline specific ways. In doing so, students will have a stronger

awareness of these skills and develop and hone these skills through their coursework. The

faculty also develops a clear understanding of when to address each employability skill with

students, what content to cover and how learning outcomes should reflect employability

skills. In doing so, employers also can gather the information about students’ qualifications,

skills, etc. which is unambiguous because it is based on solid curriculum and learning

outcomes. Few specific recommendations are listed below:

Right from Class 12 the need for soft skills has to be emphasized to prepare students

as per the corporate requirements and expectations.

Soft skills training programs need to be provided by every engineering educational

institution

Teachers should simulate real workplace scenario in the classrooms while teaching

the necessary soft skills so that their students can get adequate practice

Both industry and campus should work with mutual co-operation for grooming

students for employability

191

Training and Placement Officer (TPO) of an educational institution plays a major role

in acting as a liaison between the industry and the educational institution

Some percentage of the evaluation components can be allotted to experiential

learning

Industry experts should be invited to visit educational institutions to bring awareness

among the students about their requirements

Team teaching can be adopted wherein both the faculty member and an experienced

industry professional could undertake teaching simultaneously in classrooms. It helps

in aligning theoretical concepts with the practical aspects effectively resulting into

reinforcing the content in the minds of the students

Role-plays, Group Discussions, Case Studies, Just A Minute (JAM) sessions, Game

based Activities, etc are to be organized in the classrooms to hone soft skills among

the students

Future directions of research

This research study has provided great insights into the current trends of the engineering

education in Andhra Pradesh regarding engineering curriculum, assessment strategies, and

challenges faced by students in equipping themselves with the employability skills through

their engineering education. The exploratory nature of this study and its focus on a specific

population of students (A.P) and employers (IT MNCs) limits the generalizability of the

findings. Therefore, similar descriptive research can be conducted using participants outside

of this study context (may be for example students from different state and employers from

192

various sectors). As a result, there may be a possibility to cover a wide section of respondents

from Industry and Academia. A comparative study among various industries or among peer

institutions, for example, may afford an excellent opportunity to better understand the

employability skills’ agenda from a macro-perspective. Furthermore, the effect of generation

gap and gender differences on employability skills could also be explored. Conducting

descriptive research using urban, suburban and rural school settings as a grouping variable

may enable us to determine the possibility of statistical differences in various outcomes when

grouped by school setting. Also, this study itself can be repeated with different population of

IT MNCs and engineering colleges.

193

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http://cse.rvrjcce.ac.in/syllabus/cse_btech_syllabus.pdf

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/definition/market-capitalization

http://innovationleadershipforum.org/wisdom-of-others/the-soft-skills-effect-is-magic-so-

why-are-we-missing-the-trick

http://jntuh.ac.in/new/bulletin_board/Course_Structure/Computer%20Science%20Engg.pdf

http://listz.in/top-10-it-companies-in-india.html

https://officechai.com/stories/biggest-it-companies-in-india/#

http://www.osmania.ac.in/academics-syllabi.htm

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http://profit.ndtv.com/news/economy/article-india-to-clock-nearly-8-growth-in-2016-17-

industry-body-1398821

http://www.psychologydiscussion.net/essays/personality-development/communication-

skills/communication-skills-meaning-code-and-content/1240

https://www.salesforce.com/blog/2014/08/business-soft-skills.html

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Appendix A: Questionnaire 1 (Students)

The following questionnaire is part of the study being conducted for my research work. The

focus is on analyzing the industry-academia gap in terms of Soft Skills. Your responses

would enable me to substantiate my research work. Kindly spare some time to answer the

questions. Thank you for your cooperation.

Anjani Srikanth Koka

Part A: Personal Details

Name:

Engineering College:

Part B: Questions

1. Your year of study:

a) First Year

b) Second Year

c) Third Year

d) Fourth Year

2. Your educational background:

a) English medium (urban area)

b) Regional medium (rural area)

3. Are you aware of the importance of soft skills in professional world?

a) Yes

b) No

4. If your answer is “Yes”, please list the top three soft skills which are important in

your view:

A.

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B.

C.

5. Does your college offer any classes on soft skills?

a) Yes

b) No

6. How many classes per week do you have in subjects related to Soft Skills?

a) Communication 0 1-2 2-3 3-4

b) English Language Skills 0 1-2 2-3 3-4

c) Problem Solving 0 1-2 2-3 3-4

d) Leadership and Motivation 0 1-2 2-3 3-4

e) Time Management 0 1-2 2-3 3-4

f) Conflict Management 0 1-2 2-3 3-4

g) Negotiation 0 1-2 2-3 3-4

7. What are the other methods used in your college to gain more practical experience in

the development of students’ soft skills?

a) GD

b) Case studies

c) Role Plays

d) Quizzes

e) Mock Interviews

f) Debates

8. Have you taken up any internships in industries?

a) Yes

b) No

9. If your answer is “Yes”, the internship is

a) Arranged by your college

219

b) Taken up through your own efforts

10. Are the students sent for internship to IT MNCs as a part of course curriculum?

a) Yes

b) No

11. If the answer to the aforementioned question is yes, then what is the duration of the

internship?

a) <10 days

b) 10-20 days

c) 30 days

d) 2 months

e) 2-3 months

f) >3 months

12. Do you find a difference in your soft skills after returning from internship?

a) No difference

b) Little difference

c) Major difference

13. Does your college facilitate teachers in getting adequate training in teaching soft

skills to the students?

a) Yes

b) No

14. According to you, which of the following does your college provide in order to

strengthen the soft skills of students? (Tick as many as you feel appropriate)

a) Discussion with IT industry before the beginning of each semester to understand

their expectations in terms of soft skills in students

b) Inviting soft skills trainers to conduct workshops for teachers and students

c) Focusing more on building confidence in students

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d) Enhancing the English proficiency

e) Taking the help of students who possess good soft skills to train their friends

f) Creating awareness in students about the significance of soft skills in professional

world

15. Do you find the soft skills/guest lectures provided by your college useful in your

campus interviews?

a) Yes

b) No

16. Rate of your instructors as Soft Skill Teachers.

a) Excellent

b) Good

c) Fair

d) Poor

17. What is your overall rating of the Campus Recruitment Training (CRT) program held

in your college?

a) Excellent

b) Good

c) Fair

d) Poor

18. Any other suggestion/remark that has not been covered in the questions above:

____________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________

Thank you for taking the time in participating in my survey.

221

Appendix B: Questionnaire 2 (Faculty)

The following questionnaire is part of the study being conducted for my research work. The

focus is on analyzing the industry-academia gap in terms of Soft Skills. Your responses

would enable me to substantiate my research work. Kindly spare some time to answer the

questions. Thank you for your cooperation.

Anjani Srikanth Koka

Part A: Personal Details

Name:

Designation:

Engineering College:

Part B: Questions

1. How many classes per week do the students have in subjects such as Soft Skills?

a) Communication 0 1-2 2-3 3-4

b) English Language Skills 0 1-2 2-3 3-4

c) Problem Solving 0 1-2 2-3 3-4

d) Leadership and Motivation 0 1-2 2-3 3-4

e) Time Management 0 1-2 2-3 3-4

f) Conflict Management 0 1-2 2-3 3-4

g) Negotiation 0 1-2 2-3 3-4

2. Are the aforementioned activities/courses optional or mandatory?

__________________

3. Have there been any guest lectures in soft skills every year? If so, mention the topics.

222

4. What are the other methods used in college to gain more practical experience in the

development of students’ soft skills?

a) GD

b) Case studies

c) Role Plays

d) Quizzes

e) Mock Interviews

f) Debates

5. Please indicate your students’ proficiency level in the following tasks when the

students entered the institution.

1=Poor 2=Fair 3=Good 4=Excellent 5=Not

sure/Not

Applicable

The ability to

write clearly

and effectively

The ability to

speak clearly

and effectively

The ability to

solve complex

problems

The ability to

present well

The ability to

work in a team

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6. Do the co-curricular and extracurricular activities enhance the soft skills of students?

7. If the answer to the aforementioned question is yes, then how many hours per week

can be used for such activities?

a) 1-2

b) 2-3

c) 3-4

d) >4

8. Are the students selected/sent for internship to IT companies?

a) Yes

b) No

9. If the answer to the aforementioned question is yes, then what is the duration of the

internship?

a) <10 days

b) 10-20 days

c) 30 days

d) 2 months

e) 2-3 months

f) >3 months

10. Do you find a difference in their soft skills once they come back from internship?

a) No difference

b) Very little difference

c) Little difference

d) Major difference

11. Does your college facilitate teachers in getting adequate training in teaching soft

skills to the students? Yes/No

224

12. According to you, which of the following does your college provide in order to

strengthen the soft skills of students? (Tick as many as you feel appropriate)

a) Discussion with IT industry before the beginning of each semester to understand

their expectations in terms of soft skills in students

b) Inviting soft skills trainers to conduct workshops for teachers and students

c) Focusing more on building confidence in students

d) Enhancing the English proficiency

e) Taking the help of students who possess good soft skills to train their friends

f) Creating awareness in students about the significance of soft skills in professional

world

13. Any other suggestion/remark that has not been covered in the questions above:

____________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________

Thank you for taking the time in participating in my survey.

225

Appendix C: Questionnaire 3 (HR Professionals)

The following questionnaire is part of the study being conducted for my research work. The

focus is on analyzing the industry-academia gap in terms of Soft Skills. Your responses

would enable me to substantiate my research work. Kindly spare some time to answer the

questions. Thank you for your cooperation.

Anjani Srikanth Koka

Part A: Personal Details

Name:

Designation:

Organization:

Part B: Questions

1. For how many years have you conducted campus interviews?

a) 1-2

b) 3-5

c) 6-8

d) 9-12

2. Which of these soft skills do you wish to emphasize more when you recruit the

students?

(You can tick as many as you think are important)

a) Problem Solving ability

b) Team Building skills

c) Conflict Management

d) Communication Skills

e) Interpersonal Skills

f) Time Management

g) Leadership and Motivation Skills

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h) Emotional Intelligence

3. What is the minimum period of industry internship required for the students to

minimize the gap between university training and industry expectations in terms of

their soft skills?

a) Less than one month

b) One month

c) Two months

d) Three months

e) Less than six months

f) > six months

4. In your view, what could be the hindrances many of the engineering graduates face in

developing the required soft skills? (Please tick as many as you feel appropriate)

a) Poor schooling

b) Lack of interest shown by the student

c) Lack of confidence

d) Lack of encouragement by the faculty

e) Lack of infrastructural facilities by the engineering educational institutions

f) Lack of motivation

g) Outdated curriculum

h) College environment

i) Any other ________________________________________________

5. While employing fresh graduates, who would, you choose among the following?

a) Good at soft skills and not much at technical skills

b) Good at technical skills and not much soft skills

c) Equal ability in technical skills and soft skills

227

6. Please rank the following TEN soft skills in terms of their importance in the

professional world (1 is the top most and 10 is the least important)

Communication skills

Interpersonal skills

Emotional Intelligence

Motivation

Time Management

Positive Attitude

Presentation skills

Team-playing skills

Negotiation skills

Decision-making skills

7. In your view, employable soft skills can be developed in students by

a) Making the teaching more practice-oriented

b) Providing adequate and relevant training to teachers

c) Enabling students to participate in more and more extracurricular activities

d) Inviting hiring managers from IT industries to have interactive sessions with

students

e) Arranging discussion sessions between the teachers of soft skills and the hiring

managers of IT industries

f) Conducting a remedial course in English to enhance the English proficiency of

weak students

g) Any other (Please specify)

8. Any other remarks / suggestions :

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

Thank you for taking the time in participating in my survey.

228

Papers Published

1. Anjani Srikanth Koka and Meenakshi Raman (2016), “Developing Soft Skills in

Engineering Students for Better Employability in IT Industry: Academicians’

Perspectives”, International Journal of English Language, Literature and Humanities

(IJELLH), 4(3), pp. 580-594.

2. Anjani Srikanth Koka and Meenakshi Raman (2015), “Importance of Employability

Skills in IT MNCs”, Asian Journal of Management Research, 6(1), pp. 277-285.

3. Anjani Srikanth Koka and Meenakshi Raman (2014), “Role of Soft Skills in Team

Communication”, International Journal of Communication, 24(1), pp. 91-97.

4. Meenakshi Raman and Anjani Srikanth Koka (2015), “The Ever-Increasing

Demand for Soft Skills at Workplace: A Study on IT Professionals’ Perspectives”,

International Conference on Management and Information Systems, Sep 18-20,

ISBN: 978-1-943295-00-5, AIMS International Journal of Management, pp. 4-8.

229

Papers Presented in National and International Conferences

1. Anjani Srikanth Koka and Meenakshi Raman (2012), “Role of Business Etiquette

and Emotional Intelligence in Personality Development”, National Conference on

the Frontiers of English Literature & the Patterns of English Language Teaching,

November 9-10, Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Technology (MGIT), Hyderabad

2. Meenakshi Raman and Anjani Srikanth Koka (2015), “The Ever-Increasing

Demand for Soft Skills at Workplace: A Study on IT Professionals’ Perspectives”,

International Conference on Management and Information Systems, Sep 18-20,

Bangkok (Awarded the Outstanding Paper Award in the INternational FOrum

of Management Scholars (INFOMS) Best Paper Competition).

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Brief Biography of the Candidate

Anjani Srikanth Koka is presently working as a Lecturer (Off-Campus) in the Department of

Management at BITS, Pilani – Hyderabad Off-Campus Centre. He did M.Sc (Hons.)

Mathematics and Master of Management Studies from BITS, Pilani – Pilani campus. He has

been teaching courses viz., Principles of Management, Managerial Communication, Human

Resource Management, Managerial Economics, and Technical Report Writing to working

professionals who pursue their off-campus degrees of BITS, Pilani. Mr. Srikanth has 8 years

of teaching experience. He has worked for over 2 years in software industry prior to joining

BITS Pilani as a faculty. He has published several research papers in International and

National Journals. His areas of interest are Organizational Behavior, Human Resource

Management, Soft Skills, and Professional Communication.

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Brief Biography of the Supervisor

Dr. Meenakshi Raman is a Professor of English & Communication and Head of the

Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at the Goa Campus of BITS Pilani and has

over 25 years of teaching experience. After her successful stint at the Pilani Campus for over

16 years, she joined the Goa Campus in 2009. She has been teaching courses in Professional

Communication, English Language and Literature to undergraduate and postgraduate

students of Engineering and Science. She also teaches communication courses to working

professionals pursuing their off-campus degrees of BITS, Pilani. She has been actively

involved in teaching, research and administration at her university. Dr. Raman has held

several responsibilities such as the Chief of Publications and Media Relations, Coordinator

for GRE and TOEFL training courses, member of Senate and the Research Board and the

resident warden of a girls’ hostel. Dr Raman has guided several PhD students, authored 12

books and edited four volumes in the areas of English Language and Communication. She

has published 60 papers on English language and literature, professional communication and

soft skills in national and international journals. She has organized a number of seminars,

workshops and international conferences at the Pilani and Goa Campuses and has been

conducting workshops on soft skills at various educational institutions across India. She has

also presented papers at various national and international conferences, including the ones in

USA, UK, UAE, South Africa, Australia and Thailand.