Communication

&

IT Skills

For

Job Seekers

By: Abhinav Agarwal

(Modern School, Barakhamba Road)

Table of Contents

Acknowledgement ........................................................................................................................................ 3

Introduction .................................................................................................................................................. 4

Planning of the Sessions ............................................................................................................................... 5

Conducting sessions ...................................................................................................................................... 6

My Takeaways ............................................................................................................................................. 10

Acknowledgement

I would like to express my gratitude to Ms. Charu, CEO NIIT Foundation and Ms Shalini, Centre

Head, NIIT Foundation who gave me the golden opportunity to teach at NIIT Foundation and

train potential job seekers on Communication and IT Skills.

The project required a lot of research for preparing the training material. This helped me

increase my knowledge base. Making continuous updations to adapt it to the audience profile

enabled me to fine tune my communication skills.

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank my parents for their encouragement,

guidance and help during my project work.

Introduction

Communication plays and important role in everyday life. Not only does it help in exchange of

information but is also helps in conveying thoughts and building relationships. However, for

communication to achieve the objective that it is intended for, mere transmission of data is not

enough. It is also important to understand and prudently use various methods of

communication – written, verbal, Non-verbal, to have a complete, clear and meaningful

communication.

My education at Modern School has given me the opportunity to develop my IT skills along with

good communication and presentation skills. So when I decided to teach at NIIT Foundation, I

picked up Enhancing Communication Skills as the topic so that others could also benefit from

my learning. However, I realized that alongside communication, I could also help with IT skills

that can help in day to day life.

Planning of the Sessions

The sessions were planned for 60-90 mins duration and covered the following aspects

Introduction to the Power of Effective Communication (Interpretation through Story,

Problems in Communication: Understanding common problems, Identifying problems in your

communication skills, Identifying skills required to overcome problems

Basics of Communication (Purpose of communication, Interpersonal and Impersonal

communication, communication process)

Verbal and Non-Verbal Conversations (Understanding and implementing techniques)

Effective Writing (In the context of Resume writing)

Building Self Confidence (Shedding inhibitions)

Successful interviews (Do’s and Don’ts with emphasis on body language)

Using the Internet for sourcing information

Using media to enhance communication skills

Learning Methodology: Problem-based learning through presentations, videos, discussions and

sharing sessions

Interactivities: Story Telling, Games, Experience sharing

Conducting sessions On a cold December morning

when I entered the class, I had

a group of 21 curious students

– eager, apprehensive, excited,

shy all at the same time! As I

introduced the topic of our

study for the next couple of

weeks, I could see heads

nodding. That was an indication

that they were receptive to the

topic and I was elated. As the

sessions were to be about

communication skills, I decided

to use the experience sharing

and discussion format to drive

home the concepts. I realized that a few students were a little reluctant to speak as we were

seated in Round Discussion Format and were more comfortable when we changed to the

normal classroom format. They also seemed to be a little hesitant is talking to each other for

may be fear of being wrong. They were shy as they thought they could not speak well in English

and so it was better to not speak than to speak incorrectly. So, my first step was to encourage

them to talk to each other as much as possible and that all are in the same boat and no one is

right or wrong. They took some

time to open up with each

other but eventually started

talking.

I encouraged them to speak

short sentences so as to gain

confidence in the language.

This motivated them to ask

relevant questions that could

help them improve. For

example, in an exercise to

introduce themselves, one

student asked what more he

could say while telling about a

course on IT skills that he has

done. A housewife saw relevance

in improving her skills and how

could she look at herself with a

new perspective of a home

maker. This encouraged her to

come out of her shell and speak

up. While some of them face a

communication problem because

they can’t understand what to

speak, others can speak

confidently in Hindi, but hesitate

and feel uncomfortable to try

that sentence in English. I

encouraged them to share the

problems they face with each other, because the best way to overcome nervousness is to

develop the guts to share with the audience what you’re bad at.

I also realized that they spend a lot of time on YouTube, watching funny videos. Thus, I told

them to watch English videos, related to world affairs, besides their regular YouTube schedule.

This practice would ensure that they utilize their time cautiously, and at the same time learn

something.

In the subsequent sessions, the

students were more

participative. They enjoyed the

exercises as they had some fun

element. As we progressed,

the students also became

comfortable in the Round

Discussion Format.

My goal in the initial sessions

was to enable them to shed

their inhibitions. I saw a

beginning to this from second

session onwards when atleast 4

students volunteered to speak

and share their thoughts on the exercises and the videos shown. They first spoke in Hindi and

later tried to translate and

speak the same in English. To

help them work on their

communication skills, I had

asked students to read a

newspaper before coming to

the class and share one news

or article of interest. To begin

with only 50% of the class had

read the newspaper, but the

ones who had read tried to

share small bits in English.

This made the session

interesting and the ones who

did not promised to come

prepared in the next class.

From sharing incidents they read about in newspapers, we moved to sharing incident from their

personal experiences. Narrating their wow experience was an exercise aimed at helping them

articulate their thoughts and improve their confidence in speaking.

To establish a connect with their work life, I discussed how can they present their profiles in a

way so to communicate their actual knowledge and skills. For example, a student who had

taken a computer skills

course was encouraged to

elaborate on the actual skills

that he possesses such as

expertise in Microsoft office

rather than merely stating

that he has done a

certificate course in

computer science. All were

encouraged to identify their

unique areas of expertise

and write it in their profiles.

I also shared various other

important aspects of profile

writing.

From shedding inhibitions to building confidence to effectively presenting their knowledge and

skills, the class had covered an interesting journey. While presenting skills and knowledge is one

aspect, another important aspect of communication is the body language. I covered this

through the self-confidence and Interview modules. I showed them some videos which gave

them a demo of real work situations and how they can handle such situations.

My Takeaways

Teaching soft skills to students who are elder to me is a unique experience for me. I learned to

adapt my content and my teaching style to the diverse education background, existing language

skills and the individual need for soft skills. The journey so far has been exciting and enriching

for me.

At first, the students felt strange about learning from an 11th grader, but drawing on my

experience at various competitions and school events, I was able to gain acceptance for me as

their teacher.