Online courses are the buzz of the times as e-learning and Instructional design gains ground in India. Online courses are quite the rage in the west whereas it’s still picking up here. However, more and more institutes and corporate concerns are waking up to e-learning and starting to realize its potential in being a cost-effective and effective solution to training woes. E-learning not only aims at reaching a large audience, it also endeavors to integrate learning and fun as the possibility of training and disseminating information through online games is very much in the realm of e-learning. So how is India adopting to this new wave? What is e-learning now and how is it taking shape? Came across an article in The Hindu which deals with these questions. Take a look.
In a blog post earlier, I had written about opportunities in banks all over India. Owing to various circumstances such as opening of new branches and retirement of a lot of officers, there has been a sudden spurt in recruitment both in the public and the private sector banks. Most of the big names in the world of banking are looking for quality talent and here’s your chance to step up and grab the vacancies on offer. To know more about some of the positions up for grabs and their requirements, visit this link. I will keep updating as and when I hear about new vacancies.
It is often said that the best way to learn English is to speak in it as much as possible. However a problem that many of us face is that we do not have access to a group of English speaking people and speaking in the presence of people who are fluent in English gives rise to inhibition and fear of possible ridicule. While I’d like to say go ahead and speak fearlessly, it’s good to consider alternatives in case you do not find people around you to speak in English with.
Online forums can be an interesting way of learning English as well as learning about English. Just like you, there are people from all over the world whose mother tongue is not English and faced with similar problems they often turn to forums to find and interact with people. These forums introduce you to a wide variety of people united by the common goal of learning English. The forums provide a platform where people can chat with each other, trade tips and tricks and talk about the problems and solutions of language learning. While your speaking skills are not really being tested here as we are generally more comfortable chatting online where we are not facing a bunch of people, you can still pick up a lot of valuable information as you get to meet people of different nationalities and backgrounds.
So if you are keen on improving your English, visit a forum and start interacting with people.Take a look at such a forum here and check out the discussions going on.
In order to attract the best talent and to provide them with various facilities, the industry is looking to expand bases like never before. Company offices in future might come to resemble housing complexes as companies are thinking about making things easier for their employees in terms of accommodation and accessibility. This is vitally important for the growing BPO industry in India which often battles the problem of attrition. Providing more facilities to employees might enhance job-satisfaction and facilitate retention.
These reports make it evident that the BPO industry continues to experience growth and generate employment opportunities. Add to that a promising array of incentives and benefits and we can look forward to lucrative openings and satisfying working conditions in future. Judging by the current scenario, we can be hopeful of talent getting its due recognition. Check out this video which talks about the growth of BPOs in India and the new strategies being planned by the industry.
This would be a promising list for all of you who are looking for openings in top BPOs. The big BPO players in Hyderabad are looking for people. If you want to take this opportunity to make it big, visit the websites of the companies listed and check out their requirements. As always, you need to have excellent communication skills and a graduation degree. What should be interesting however is the scope of growth and lateral movement within the companies. The careers section should provide all the information you need in this regard.
Check out the list here.
MBA aspirants and students aspire to make it big in the fields of marketing and communications. The domain offers challenging work and attractive salaries to match. However not many of us are aware of all the profiles in the domain of marketing and the specific responsibilities attached to each profile. It might be a good idea to read up on that so you are sure of what you want to specialize on. Visit this link to get details on marketing jobs, profiles and responsibilities. Accordingly you can decide what suits you best. Knowing more about the various profiles will come in handy in case you are looking at higher studies and the academic side as well.
To those of you who want to pursue higher studies abroad, ETS (Educational Testing Service) must be a familiar name. For a long time, ETS has been successfully conducting online tests such as GRE, TOEFL and GMAT which are mandatory for students to take especially if they are planning to head to top Universities in the US. Apart from USA several more countries like UK, Australia, Singapore and other popular destinations for Indian students accept GRE and TOEFL scores.
Now ETS is offering more than tests that can get you a place in top Universities, it is offering to fund your education as well. ETS has recently announced attractive scholarships for Indian students going over to the US, UK and Canada. There are three scholarships worth $10,000 and four worth $5000. The scholarships will be offered under the TOEFL India Scholar Programme which is aimed at “recognizing students with high academic achievement who have demonstrated leadership skills, innovative ideas and an outstanding ability to communicate in English”.
If you have secured admission to an University in any of these three countries and have not managed to secure funding as yet, this should be great news for you. Apart from an impressive TOEFL score you have to submit a 2000 word essay. For more details, visit ets.org
The urban/rural divide when it comes to education is nothing new to us. Urban students, with better facilities and exposure for learning English, have an edge over their rural counterparts when it comes to soft skills. Developing communication and soft skills is vital when it comes to bagging lucrative opportunities. Though rural students can compete with the city kids when it comes to domain knowledge, the lack of English knowledge often plays spoilsport in interviews. Just came across yet another article in The Hindu today which talks about the problems faced by rural students in various engineering colleges across the state.
Students have to realise that getting into a good college does not guarantee a good job these days. In addition to the curriculum, students need to keep themselves updated on current industry practices and trends. If they find there is something lacking in them (especially something as vital as English), immediate steps must be taken to improve and become an effective communicator. All the domain knowledge won’t be able to help a student out if he/she fails to express it and convince interviewers.
The article provides some other examples as well. Check it out here.
With rising opportunities and variety of work coming in, freelancing is on the rise. Freelancing allows you a lot of freedom and flexibility as you can work from home and can decide how much workload you want to take. A lot of outsourced work is being offered to freelancers and several of them need English writing skills. You get paid to read and write articles on various topics and post them on blogs or as website content. Since a good number of these opportunities are being outsourced, there are opportunities for you to earn in foreign currencies and thus increase your earning potential.
Generally for jobs that involve writing, you need to be a keen researcher in addition to having excellent writing skills. You will either be given a domain or a topic on which you have to write a number of articles. At the end of the month your pay will depend on the number of articles you have contributed. If you are a working professional looking to increase your earning, you can consider writing a few articles per month to add more to your salary. However there are people who do this full time and some of their earnings are on par with people going for work to offices.
More posts and specific freelance opportunities will follow.
I guess most of you will agree when I say learning English should be made as much fun as possible. After all we are most likely to remember all those learning experiences which were informative as well as enjoyable. If you are asked to sit down with a dictionary and learn up a few words everyday, the groan inside will be audible enough to me but if we talk about some fun games which have the potential to make you think about words and remember them in the process, I am sure of hearing some enthusiastic cheer.
Some of you might be familiar with the game “Hangman”. For those of you who are not, the game can be a lot of fun and also serve the purpose of enhancing your vocabulary. While playing the game, you are asked to guess a word based on a given clue. You are given an idea about the number of letters the word contains. So you start guessing one letter at a time and for every wrong guess, the sketch of a person hanging from the gallows nears completion. You need to guess the word before the figure is complete or you lose. From experience, I can tell you that it’s great fun to rack your brains and guess different words. What’s more, the words remain in your mind since you tried so hard to get them.
So if learning English through games sound exciting to you, go for glory with “Hangman”. Follow this link and get started on having fun.