Working English

Updated on: Monday, November 23, 2009

The growth of the Indian economy is expected to propel considerably through the contribution of the service sector. “In fact, the service sector
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will be contributing a substantial 55% in the near future,” said Gautam Bhushan, senior vice-president, learning and development, WNS Global Services, India. There is widespread consensus across the industry on this observation.

Service sectors, particularly in today’s globalised market order, require a ready workforce that is proficient in the use of the English language. “However, this fundamental need has translated to a challenge in India. While there exists a burgeoning chunk of people who have studied in the English medium or have had English as one of the subjects, there are few who are conversationally at ease with the language,” said Sandhya Chintala, director, Education, NASSCOM, India.

Speakers from both industry and academia came together at a two-day conference ‘English for Progress - Third Policy Dialogue,’ that was organised by the British Council India to deliberate on issues that impact the teaching of the English language in India and its use in the practical work context. The conference was preceded by the introduction of a research in English by linguist David Graddol.

Most industry experts at the conference agreed that a common framework of recruitment (testing English language skills) can and should bring cohesive benefits for both employers and potential employees.
“For employees, it should raise awareness about the available career choices at their disposal,” opined Sarita Manuja, director, Rayat-Bahra Institute of Leadership Training, India.

The current situation has necessitated the creation of practical language assessment strategies that in turn can provide valuable cues for building a common framework of recruitment across industry segments as far as English language skills are concerned. Highlighting specific issues that language assessment strategies need to address, Manuja said, “Every service organisation caters to specific requirements of a particular industry or a set of industries and requires people who have a balanced combination of certain predetermined abilities. With respect to English language skills, these abilities will broadly include conversing, interpreting, reading and writing in English. Hence there should be standardised assessment strategies that can determine a mixed range of abilities vis-à-vis the English language.”

At the employers’ end, the benefits are immense, pointed out Stephen Jenner, deputy head corporate training, Project English, British Council India. According to Jenner, “Most recruiters are often faced with a situation where they have to select employees from a large pool of ‘seemingly appropriate candidates.’ In other words, there is no scientific measure that can help them assess the true potential of these candidates. Thus the presence of a common objective framework can significantly help in reducing the risk of a wrong choice. Also, it renders an overall efficiency into the recruitment cycle.” Jenner also stated that at one level a common recruitment framework will help HR managers to upgrade the skills of fresh and inexperienced recruits.

Chintala summed up that a framework should be preemptive of future industry trends and identify growth areas. If this is done, the focus will be on hiring a workforce that has a range of competencies that can be leveraged across different levels to garner both immediate and long-term organisational goals.

Timesofindia

Working English

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