Volume : 4, Issue : 9, September - 2015

A STUDY ON THE PERCEPTION OF MANAGEMENT STUDENTS ABOUT THE SOFT SKILLS TRAINING PROGRAM IN SFGC, BANGALORE

Dr. Mahesh Kumar. K. R. , Santhosh Kumar A. V.

Abstract :

<p>Soft skills training is conducted to enhance and increase the performance level of a student to develop &lsquo;people skills&rsquo; to meet the current as well as future needs of industry and businesses, to enhance employability, to ensure effective utilization of available resources and integrate personal goals, which results in productivity improvement, greater workforce flexibility, savings on resources and principal costs, more motivated workforce and improved quality. Training and development are extremely crucial to the employees, the organisation and their effectiveness. Training evaluation has been the main focus of many studies in the last decade. It is now a well-established fact that employers are increasingly putting more emphasis on soft skills, it is equally important that students should also adequately appreciate the value of such skills and make deliberate efforts to acquire them. The business students&rsquo; attitude towards behavioural courses, with substantial coverage given to soft skills development, is usually negative together with their reluctance to register for such courses. As a result, there is an awareness gap resulting in deficiency of soft skills among business graduates entering the work force. Consequently, there is now more pressure on academic institutions to enhance soft skills of their students through structured training programs. The literature review suggests that a majority of the studies on this topic have been done from employers&rsquo; perspective and only a limited number of studies have focused on the perceptions and attitudes of students towards soft skills. In addition, a higher percentage of such studies were conducted in North America and Europe with different learning environment and work culture than in many Asian countries. It is, therefore, worth exploring students&rsquo; perceptions of soft skills from a new context. This paper focuses on the perceptions of business management students of the importance of soft skills for their education and employment. Some areas covered by this study were: students&rsquo; perceptions of the value of soft skills training, participation in skill development programs and the role of academic institutions in developing soft skills.</p>