Poor English Communication Kills Job Opportunities

Poor English communication skills are still one of the major factors for students of Andhra Pradesh failing in job interviews. It is evident from the job drives being conducted across the state in 13 districts. A roadmap to increase the students’ employability should be charted out by the state government by taking the learning from the job fair into consideration.

Although having good domain knowledge, the students, mostly from rural areas, are finding it difficult to interact with the interviewers. Fear and inadequate preparation remain a problem. Andhra Pradesh Information Technology Academy (APITA) is conducting the multi-sector job drive in all the districts to facilitate over 5000 jobs. IT, ITES and various banks are participating.

The job drives which will conclude on May 29 had witnessed about 10,000 footfalls in eight districts till May 24, of which 2,123 candidates got selected, with a success rate of around 21%. The selection procedure has also become tough owing to the introduction of virtual reality. The applicants need to show their skills in a situation created virtually.    

“Surely good communication skills, besides the domain-specific knowledge, are what the companies are looking for and hence the candidates should have to be good at these skills.” said APITA Additional CEO Winny Patro when asked for the reason why a good number of candidates are not able to crack the interview. Hence, APITA had conducted special orientation programmes in every district prior to the job drives to give the candidates an idea as how to equip themselves for interviews.

A placement officer from a reputed private university in Vizag also admitted that some rural students were better than their urban counterparts when it came to academics, but they were unable to clear the interview in a campus drive due to poor communication skills.

Though APITA is bringing in the recruiters, the employability of the candidates should also be looked into.