Posts Tagged ‘training’
Exploring Erasmus Mundus Scholarships
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.
Wipro BPO to Train Potential Employees
Sometime back I had written about hiring activities in Wipro BPO. From the looks of things, the recruitment drive is still on and Wipro is getting up close and personal with the process. Faced with the fact that graduates coming out of the various colleges typically lack employability skills and the colleges do little to improve the situation, Wipro signed a MoU with the Acharya Nagarjuna University (ANU) to take the responsibility of training emerging graduates. Under the scheme, students who are passing out of regular degree colleges and who possess decent communication skills, will be trained by Wipro and subsequently absorbed.
Apart from requirements for its BPO, Wipro also needs people for various other positions such as technical support executives, human resources, accounting, supply chain and others. In order to make the most of the MoU, officials from Wipro will visit different colleges and identify students who would be suitable for these positions. The identification will be followed by a training programme where the potential employees will be trained to handle the various responsibilities and will be made to experience what working in Wipro is all about.
The company has announced two recruitment drives already for the PB Siddhartha College of Arts & Science. One in September and the second in November.
Online Courses-Today and Tomorrow
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.
British Council Launches New Courses
The British Council has been instrumental in launching several effective English courses in addition to providing guidance and training to students who want to head to UK for higher studies. Putting their great experience and expertise into practice, they have come up with three new English courses. The courses being offered are English Impact, English Evolution and Business English. Looking at the titles, it is quite clear that the courses will be extremely useful for candidates who want to make it big in corporate communications. Admission to the courses will be through a written test of 90 minutes. This will enable the instructors at British Council to determine which course will suit which applicant.
Introduce English but don’t Impose It
Andhra University has recently decided that students will no longer be allowed to write their exams in Telugu and have to use English. This decision has been troubling a significant section of the students and they are resorting to protests. However, the V.C, B. Satyanarayana is adamant on the issue of students using English. He reasons that the lack of English skills is the reason many students are falling behind in the competition and therefore, students should necessarily take to English.
While it is true that one of the primary reasons behind the failure of a lot of students to secure a good job is their inability to communicate efficiently in English, an University cannot take such a strong decision without implementing proper training and facilities for the students. A lot of students coming from a vernacular medium of education find it difficult to suddenly switch to English for higher studies. It is vital that the Universities recognize this problem and introduce courses or set up coaching classes and training centres so that stuents can enroll and work on mastering a new language.
While many people might term this move as progressive/revolutionary, we need to see whether the institution is offering proper encouragement and support to the students wanting to learn English. If that is not being done then it becomes just a forceful imposition and fails to serve any purpose.
Onward to Online Training
For the industry, training is an important aspect alongwith hiring. As educational institutions usually offer nothing more than theoretical knowhow, companies have to take up the responsibility of grooming new recruits and getting them ready for all they have to face in the corporate world. Therefore, on top of the expenses associated with hiring, there comes the additional burden of training expenses. While profile-related specific training can be best learned from seniors and qualified corporate trainers, more and more companies are looking at alternate means of training when it comes to general training such as communication, ways of dealing with clients and using certain popular software.
A solution in this regard is online training which is emerging as a productive as well as cost-effective solution. With the internet becoming an indispensable part of our lives and the multitude of tools available online, it is no wonder that online training is gaining some serious ground. With the advent of online training, the debate that is doing the rounds is whether it will completely replace face-to-face teaching in the long run. Before attempting to answer that question, a thorough examination of the potential of online training is pertinent. More posts to come on this exciting field.
Attrition Rates: Nightmares of the Industry.
If we are to talk about some of the problems ailing the industry in India, one of the first things that come to mind is attrition. Though its presence is felt in every area, the BPO industry is seen to be suffering the most. High attrition rates have become common in BPOs and HRs need to come up with effective solutions to tackle this problem.
When freshers join a BPO, the company has to spend a considerable amount of time and money in training the new recruits. To enable the employees to communicate well with foreign customers, they are provided voice training, accent training and other tips and tricks of communicating over phone. The candidates need to know a lot about the company and its products as well. So after all the training, if employees leave for other opportunities, it’s back to square one for the companies with another bunch of new employees. Thus bringing the attrition rate down is a priority for most players in the industry.
Some effective strategies to tackle this could be to give employees a sense of job-security, offer them attractive rewards for good performance and make the environment of the offices fun. Work can get stressful at times and various recreational activities can be arranged so that the employees can look forward to a lot more other than routine work.
The attrition rates have lessened over the last year (25-28% on an average) compared to earlier years (55-60%) but that’s largely due to recession. The sooner the companies take effective remedial measures, the better.
Stop by the Finishing School For Job Training on Your Way to the Industry
Conducting finishing schools for students on the threshold of entering the industry is emerging as a welcome initiative. I have come across several reports of colleges and universities arranging finishing schools which are all about putting the icing on the cake. Throughout the years spent on their courses, students have been made to focus primarily on theory and domain knowledge. However, as it is well known, you need a lot more than just domain knowledge to make yourself the right choice for recruiters. Finishing schools attempt to equip students with all the necessary extras to make them employable.
To instill confidence in the students to face recruitment tests and interviews, finishing schools train the participants in all they can expect from the selection process. Effective communication, logical reasoning, numerical and analytical prowess, group discussions and interviews are put under the limelight and plenty of practice sessions enable students to form a reasonably clear idea of the kind of questions that await them in the tests and interviews. Some finishing schools also incorporate workshops where students get trained in some important software which they will have to work with on a daily basis.
Much as I admire this concept, I hope institutions do not leave everything to the finishing schools and keep training students as they pursue their courses. Otherwise the finishing schools might be left with too much to handle and too little time in which to handle everything.
Fast and Accurate:The Keywords of Typing
In this post, I would like to focus on a skill which i feel is somewhat neglected by trainers and trainees alike. When you talk of job training or improving employability, the first few things that come to your mind are communication, organization, writing etc. However, several positions in the industry require you to possess efficient and fast typing skills in addition to the obvious ones. It will definitely add to your credentials if you work on your typing speed and accuracy.
Practicing typing is largely similar to practicing writing, with the difference being you can choose not to be imaginative and just copy text from a book or article. While typing, keep a watch handy so that you can calculate how many words you are typing in a minute. Most companies which are keen on your typing speed would want to know your WPM (Words Per Minute) count. As you go along, pay attention to accuracy as well. It won’t do to have your fingers flying all over the keyboard at lightning speed only to create content which is full of typos. Try to stay away from the “delete” and “backspace” buttons as much as possible and hit each key only once to form words.
Start slow and with practice, you will surely pick up pace.
Faculty Training-A Step in the Right Direction
In an earlier post I had discussed that the general unfamiliarity of teachers with technical vocabulary is a major problem ailing our technical institutions. A lot of the course material is lost on the English teachers who largely hail from a non-technical backgrounds and they struggle to explain things to their students. Now it is heartening to see that something is being done about this issue.
The Indo-US collaboration for Engineering Education (IUCEE) conducted a training/orientation programme for teachers in the field of technical education. Around 600 teachers participated in a session with acclaimed US professors to familiarize themselves with existing and emerging technology as well as to improve their teaching skills. These teachers will in turn speak to the staff of IUCEE regional centres all over the country enabling a large number to grasp various technicalities and become better equipped to handle technical courses.
Needless to say this will go a long way to improve the employability of teachers aspiring for a position in technical training and students who will be taught by them. I think these workshops should not only be conducted for teachers but for the students also. It will give them a chance to acquaint themselves better with technology and prepare some who want to get into academics.
Check out the report in The Hindu here.