Date:02/07/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/07/02/stories/2006070205090200.htm

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Students get soft skills training

Susan Muthalaly

Learn how to tackle interviews, recruitment tests They get training in preparing resume and tackling interviews

HONING SOFT SKILLS: Students at the employability workshop at Rajalakshmi Engineering College. — Photo: K. Pichumani

CHENNAI: For the past three days, 180 students of Rajalakshmi Engineering College, Thandalam, have been learning how to tackle interviews, what to put on their resume and what to expect during recruitment tests.

Thangam Meganathan, chairperson of the college, said that the exercise was meant to help students secure jobs.

Graduates from engineering colleges may have the goods, but increasingly, they are forced to realise that they often lack the soft skills necessary.

Acknowledging this, COPE (Corporate Orientation Programme for Employability) Foundation was formed by people who know exactly what recruiters have in mind. Mohan P., one of the team members at COPE, says that students these days are qualified and have impressive technical knowledge, but they lose out on job interviews as they lack soft skills.

At Rajalakshmi Engineering College, the students undergo two sessions — comprising written tests and interviews. They are also given an introduction to the recruitment procedure from each of the 10 major IT companies. As a result of extensive research, COPE has a database of the admission procedures to about 30 companies. Hence, at their workshops, one learns that Infosys has the most structured recruitment procedures. Candidates will have to undergo a written test and a human resources interview. At TCS, the cut-offs are 60 per cent for class 10 boards and 70 percent for class 12. They even suggest Barron's GRE Guide as a source for the test.

At the workshop, students are given tips and guidelines for the verbal or vocabulary test — reading comprehension strategy: skim, read questions, mark important ideas.

They are also shown how to solve logic problems and taught memory tricks. COPE can be reached over the phone at 044 - 24938196 or emailed at info@copefoundation.net