students and soft skills abb june2009

8/13/2019 Students and Soft Skills ABB June2009

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ASSOCHAM

BUSINESS

BAROMETER

STUDY

Importance of Soft Skills:Students Perspective

June 2009

Prepared by:Nusrat AhmadAssocham Research Bureau


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89 per cent of students enhance soft skills for achieving success in futurecareer: ASSOCHAM

Apart from good academic records and work experience, 89 per cent of students

feel that soft skills such as oral communication, written communication and team

work needs to be enhanced to land up into money minting industries, according

to Assocham Business Barometer (ABB)

The study on Importance of Soft Skills: Students Perspective says thatout of

the 15 transferable skills identified by Assocham Research Bureau (ARB) to be

perceived by university students, 76 per cent of the them consider oral

communication as the most preferred soft skill for future career, whereas writtencommunication (72 per cent) and team work (67 per cent) were the second and

third most preferred option among the students.

Corporate India has two major concerns first to hire good employees and

secondly to train them. Soft skills learned by students during their university

education help them to learn the trade efficiently by using their technical abilities

as a part of a team, to understand conflict as a means for discussion instead of an

angry confrontation, and to respect difference as a creative opportunity rather

than an obstacle, said Mr.D.S.Rawat, Secretary General, ASSOCHAM.

ASSOCHAMs study is based on the survey of 427 students attending graduate

and post graduate courses across 12 universities/colleges/institutes. The survey

focused on important skills perceived by students to develop along with their

higher education to gain good jobs.

Soft skills also called as Transferable skills, Employability skills, Generic

skills or Key skills are not job specific, but are skills which serve horizontally

across all industries and vertically across all jobs at all levels in an industry. The


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degree to which students develop these skills determines how well they can

communicate, make presentations & reports, solve problems, function in teams,

self assess and do performance reviews of others, learn new knowledge, and

manage stress when they have to cope with changes.

Degree Year Prominent soft skills perceived by respondents

Graduation

1st year Fluency in second language, Problem Solving, IT Skill

2nd year Oral Communication, Analytical Ability, Team Work

3rd year Oral Communication, Written Communication, Team Work, Leadership

Post- Graduation

Oral Communication, Written Communication, Presentation Skill, Research

Skill, Decision Making, Leadership, Coping with Multiple Task

Source: Assocham Research Bureau

ARB observed that 58 per cent of the students in first and second year of their

graduation are least concerned in developing their employability skills, whereas

93 per cent of third year graduates and post graduate students are keen to

acquire on an average more than 5-6 skills.

Sixty three per cent of the students agree that individual personality plays an

important role in acquiring any skill. Fifty two per cent of the students feel that

soft skills should be learnt on the job instead of university/college.

Forty eight per cent of the students expressed that prominent soft skills can be

developed during class presentations and through information management.

Presentation skills and time management skills are perceived to be among the

most important skills learnt by students yet 44 per cent of them are not able to

master this skill, scoring average points on it.


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Certain commercial skills such as leadership quality, coping with multi-tasking

and networking that are required in all types of jobs are considered as least

important by students due to general lack of clarity about their career direction.

On an average 1.4 crore students get enrolled every year in various graduate and

post graduate courses across Indian Universities. ASSOCHAM feels that

employers found that entry level job applicants are deficient in soft skills, thus,

the apex chamber suggests, the need of the hour is that higher learning schools or

institutions needs to lay more emphasis on developing these skills by

encouraging students to identify it.


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Annexure I

Importance of Soft Skills: Students Perspective

QUESTIONNAIRE

This questionnaire undertakes opinion of graduate and post graduate

students on soft skills they need to develop for future careers. This will

help ASSOCHAM Research Bureau (ARB) to understand the related issue

from students perspective.

The responses provided would be kept strictly confidential and

analysis will be done only in the aggregate. The information is being used

only for research purpose.

We appreciate your time and effort to complete this questionnaire.

Thanking You

Name of University/College/Institute:

Name of the Course Enrolled:

Graduation Year:

Please rank the soft skill in ascending order of your preference:

Soft Skill Rank/PreferenceOral communication

Written communication

Team work

Research/Report skill

Analytical ability

Decision makingFluency in second language

Information management

Time management

Leadership

Networking

Presentation skill

Coping with multiple task


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Planning

IT skill

Which of the above skills are perceived to be important but is scored low byyou during higher education?

Do you think soft skills should be enhanced/learned during:

Higher Education Job/Work Experience

Does individual personality plays an important role in acquiring soft skills?

Yes No

Are you consistent and decisive about the direction of your career?Yes No

students and soft skills abb june2009

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