A personality development class at JD Birla

Priya Singh had a fear of public speaking. The words would never come out the way the first-year B.Com student wanted them to and she would become incoherent midway through a sentence.

Priya has since overcome this drawback and can articulate her thoughts succinctly, thanks to a personality development course started by her college, JD Birla Institute.

“This is a serious, structured programme on soft skills, which more often than not determine employability in today’s world of cut-throat competition,” said Pradip Chopra of the realty firm PS Group.

Chopra is one of the visiting lecturers for the course.

The first batch of students undergoing training in soft skills — the term denotes personality traits, social graces and fluency in language to complement technical skills — has 150 girls from the commerce stream.

“Since the response has been so good, we will now widen the scope of the programme and maybe also introduce an advanced course,” principal Deepali Singhi said.

Another city-based institution, Asutosh College, started a three-year diploma course in communicative English five years ago.

“It is almost equivalent to a honours degree,” Debabrata Chowdhury, the principal of the college, said.

The college also has a short course on communication skills — the duration varies between three and six months, depending on the requirement — for economically underprivileged students. It is funded by the Ford Foundation.

Presidency College started a peer programme on communication for its students last year and St Xavier’s College incorporated a communication module into its post-graduate computer science course. St Xavier’s intends to introduce a similar model for its M.Com students along with a programme for development of soft skills.

“Students might be able to speak English fluently but they have no idea how to face interviews or the way they need to carry themselves,” professor Ashish Mitra of St Xavier’s said.

Soft skills are a must in the BPO and retail businesses, both of which continue to grow in Calcutta.

“This is a wonderful initiative because employers prefer people with soft skills. As the cliché goes, one is hired for skills and fired for attitude,” said Nihar Ranjan Ghosh, senior vice-president of HR at RPG Retail.

At JD Birla Institute, the faculty encourages spontaneity. “They are asked to share the happiest moments of their lives in the first class and wake up the next morning with a strong recall of those moments that elevate one’s mood,” Chopra said.

The girls are shown motivational films, taught the “attitude of gratitude” and goaded into speaking about their strengths, drawbacks and dreams. Once the barriers crumble and the students feel comfortable speaking about their weaknesses, the teachers help them formulate a plan to overcome these shortcomings.