Every day, more and more institutions are waking up to the fact that students passing out from their portals are not equipped enough to contribute to the industry. What they are lacking is employability skills. The institutions are worried because a dip in campus placements reflects poorly on their capabilities. They know that the best way to attract students is to show them a long list of successfully placed candidates. In order to ensure the development of soft skills, they are tying up with companies, training institutes and universities like IGNOU. Among the soft skills, effective communication is given the most importance as most students are weak in this area. Click here to read a report about it.
All of us want to be in the best schools, colleges and universities right? Not only does a renowned institution guarantee good facilities, it also adds a lot of value to our profiles. While looking for a job, recruiters will undoubtedly be impressed if you are from a premiere institution. So how do we go about looking for the best places to study? Most often, academic rankings come to the rescue. Irrespective of the country you want to go to, you can easily find lists of top ranking institutions for that country. Often, the rankings provide you the websites as well so that you can choose your dream destination and get in touch right away.
However, always remember to look at how good the faculty for your area of interest is. Often we get carried away by looking at the overall rankings only to discover that the course we want to pursue is not one of the university’s strengths. It would be better to make a list of the top-ranking institutes and then research the department of your choice in all of them. Make a second list based on the reputation and quality of the departments and go for the top ones.
Found an interesting article on The Hindu about the way the rankings are arrived at. Take a look.
Fluency in languages is the primary requirement for a BPO job. By fluency in languages, we most often mean English and maybe some foreign languages. While it is true that English and foreign languages get you the best BPO jobs and the highest pay-packages, regional languages can get you a good position too. Not all BPOs cater to international customers and also among those who do, there are requirements for the domestic sector.
BPOs know that all customers won’t be comfortable with English when it comes to communicating within India. In order to enhance customer services, BPOs have a team which caters to customers unwilling to speak in English. To handle the domestic sphere, a team of customer service executives are hired who communicate in regional languages. For such a profile, it is desirable to be fluent in more than one regional language including Hindi.
The demand is quite big and rewards offered are exciting. To check out a few openings, click here.
Sometime back I posted a blog on education in Germany and the DAAD scholarships which can get you there. Today I came across an article in The Hindu that discusses the prospects of education in Germany and what it has to offer to Indian students. I got some new information and decided to share it here. The article gives details about the different categories of Universities to be found in Germany. The range of courses offered is extensive. Germany currently offers 90 Bachelor’s programmes, 450 Master’s programmes, and 190 doctoral programmes. Check out the article here if you are considering courses abroad.
Our Government willing, we can soon see a number of Universities from various countries setting up their Indian campuses. About 50 universities have expressed their willingness to have campuses here and talks are in progress. This is promising news indeed as it will give education in India a completely new dimension and for all those Indian students who fail to go overseas owing to funding issues, this will enable them to pursue a course of their choice in a reputed foreign university in India itself. Middlesex University is one among the 50 institutions looking to open their India chapter. Head over to The Hindu for an interview of the Vice Chancellor of Middlesex University, Professor Michael Driscoll.
There is nothing better than seeing something in action when you are trying to understand it. In India, online learning still is a mystery and a lot of us are clueless as to how it all works. Well it is a lot more than interacting with someone online and learning through the discussion. It’s about devising learning theories, developing effective content, making things visually appealing and simple to understand. This video that I came across talks about a few aspects of online learning and communities which are working for its betterment and effective implementation. You will get a better idea about how instructors are working in this field and some learning methodologies that they resort to. More videos and information to come on this exciting field.
Education is trying to seamlessly fit into every lifestyle and is taking varied responsibilities into consideration. Not everybody can follow the rules laid down by conventional means of imparting education and more and more people are realizing and respecting this fact. This is why we are seeing the upsurge of online learning and distance learning which are great alternatives for people who are unable to make it to schools and colleges. Future education, training and communication will be largely online and it looks all set to pervade all corners. It’s little surprise then that states are considering community colleges for the purpose of education of all levels.
A community college lets you pursue your degree the way you want it. You have the option of attending regular face-to-face classes, you can choose to take your programme online and you can opt for a part-time or a full-time course. Thus community colleges are a one-stop-shop for all kinds of courses. You can enroll for an associate degree in various fields which will enable you to get admitted to a college or university for completion of degree. Karnataka’s first initiative, the Geeta Ramanujam Educational Institution (GREI), is off the mark with 29 students who have signed up for associate degree courses. The certificates will be given by IGNOU and the job-oriented courses will ensure that students get employed soon after course completion.
Looking forward to more such initiatives in other states of India. With this, the vision of bringing education to everybody is getting brighter by the day.
Naukri.com has released its monthly report on hiring activities in India based on location, industry and experience for the month of August 2009. The report gives us a general overview of hiring activity in the major cities in India and looks into requirements across various industries. Compared to last year, hiring activity has seen a nosedive this year but figures are by and large maintaining stability. With the improvement of the economy, we can look forward to a spurt in hiring across profiles.
The sector under the limelight when it comes to growth is banking and financial services which was hit hard when the recession struck. It is good to see progress in this sphere and we can be hopeful of it regaining its lost ground. Among the cities, Bangalore saw a rise in hiring activity while Mumbai stayed stable. Other major IT hubs such as Hyderabad, Pune, Delhi and Chennai saw a marginal fall.
Check out the detailed report by visiting this link.
We have been discussing online courses lately and from the way things are shaping up, we will continue to discuss it as its influence keeps growing. It’s always more fun listening to an audio clip or watching a video to learn. Online learning is taking things away from the realm of text books and combining learning with fun to make a deeper impression on the learners. With that being said, I am going to cut down on writing here and refer to a video for the points I am trying to make. It’s a video which gives you some useful tips on writing by pointing out common mistakes that are found in writing samples. Check it out here.
When it comes to offering a wide range of scholarships for various masters and research courses, there aren’t many resources that can beat Erasmus Mundus. The European Commission offers these scholarships under the education and training services. The scholarships are available for undergraduate, postgraduate, doctoral and post-doctoral studies for students all over the world. Trainers and teachers have also been covered under the scholarship scheme which gives academicians a great opportunity to sharpen their skills under a prestigious fellowship programme.
The courses covered range from art and agriculture studies to business management and technology. Apart from the well known and desired courses, offbeat courses such as ship design, early childhood care, vision and robotics are offered. With these scholarships, the options available are practically endless and it’s really difficult to find a programme that is not covered. The programmes are offered in prestigious European Universities that boast of intellectually stimulating and multicultural ambiences. Some of the programmes are jointly offered by two or more universities. This gives a student the opportunity to experience diverse campus cultures and brings him/her in close contact with some of the best academic minds.
To see a complete list of scholarships on offer and application procedures, visit this link.