Equipping English Teachers to Train Engineering Students for Employability

Abstract

The downward trend in employability skills among engineering newlinegraduates in India has forced experts to voice their concerns about the quality newlineof education offered in colleges. Different surveys conducted among the newlineemployers and students have revealed the lack of quality engineers who are newlinestrong in core employability skills. Among these employability skills, English newlinelanguage communication skill is a major barrier for many of the engineering newlinegraduates who are looking forward to lucrative jobs. A large part of newlineengineering is about communication. For any current or future engineer, newlineeffective language skills are significant for success and progression in the newlinefield. Unfortunately, many engineering graduates are not actually employable newlinedue to poor language skills. It has been constantly reiterated that our newlineeducation system needs to be integrated to the needs of the industry. Hence, newlineit is imperative that the requirements, goals and wishes of the students are newlinetaken into account to make the students attain the intended language level newlineThe researcher also conducted some communicative language newlineactivities in real classrooms to test the efficacy of activity-based teaching. The newlineresults have proved the usefulness of the activities that can be recommended newlineto improve the communication skills of the students. Some activities have newlinebeen video-recorded to prove the methods of communication enhancement. newlineFinally, this research study strongly recommends regular professional newlinedevelopment programs for English teachers to keep them up-to-date on newlineteaching methods, emerging technology tools and new curriculum resources. newline