Bhubaneswar, Dec. 29:The new language and communication laboratories, which have been set up by the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur, are ready to welcome the new batch of students enrolling into Plus Three degree courses thisacademic session in37 colleges of the state.

The higher education department's initiative aims to churn out smarter and job-worthy candidates from various colleges of the state in the next three years.

The students will be imparted tailor-made language and communication training designed by the institute, so that they get ready to face job related interviews by the time they leave college.

'These will be free and compulsory classes for the first two semesters.Every batch will have 16 hours of classes in first and second semesters.However, communication classes for the third, fourth, fifth and sixth semesters would be paid classes. Students will have to pay Rs 300 annually at the time of admission. Thepaid classes shall be of 50 hours duration per academic year,' an official said.

There are 24-seater as well as 32-seater labs that are available and the colleges can choose them depending upon the student strength.

The facilities include a personal computer for students, projectors and other demonstration equipment.The labs will lay emphasis on developing group discussion skills, body language and communication skills.Thecourse module has been developed around phonetics, conversational activity, word exercises andintonation exercises.

'The labs will help students like me, who are from Odia medium schools. Communicating in English remains a major challenge for us, as we are scared that we might go wrong somewhere and be laughed at. But, such specialised labs will definitely help us deal with that fear factor and boost our confidence,' said Prayag Mohanty, a student.

In 2012, the department signed an MoU with IIT Kharagpur for setting up of the labs in government and private colleges. The labs have been set up at a cost of Rs 2 crore.