Updated on: Tuesday, September 13, 2011
With the present-day employment market laying great emphasis on English language communication skills, thousands of students graduating out of educational institutes find themselves at a disadvantage in the race for jobs. Though a majority of students know the language, they are unable to speak with clarity and confidence for a variety of reasons, both academic and cultural.
The Hindu launched the EducationPlus (E-Plus) Club to address the requirement for good speaking skills in English. Through daily sessions of practice in speech and discussion, along with writing schedules, the concept caught on among colleges, and made a perceptible difference in making students job-ready by the time they graduate from their colleges.
The clubs are designed to serve as a platform to get together, interact informally, give each other the opportunity to practice writing and debating in English, overcome stage fear, build confidence, and acquire the ability to collect and retain information that can bring about an all-round improvement in their personality.
Learning module
To guide these sessions, The Hindu EducationPlus supplement, appearing every Monday, carries a carefully researched language-learning module, provided by Hyderabad-based SkillSpark.
The module lists topics of discussion and debate for the club's activities during the week. The duration of the activities can stretch from 30 minutes to an hour every day.
Coverage
Periodic coverage of the club activities appears in these columns.
The Hindu can also become a media partner with educational institutions hosting inter-EducationPlus Club events and provide coverage in its columns.
We are now extending the reach of the programme and invite educational institutions to contact us if they would like to form such clubs.
The institution should identify a suitable person on its faculty to act as mentor or moderator for the activities.
If you are interested, write to [email protected] with contact phone/mobile numbers for registration and other details.
We will get back to you and provide you guidance on setting up the clubs in your institutions.