English Immersion Course

Background

Today the ability to interact in English is a key skill. While India produces nearly 2 million graduates per year, the level of English skills in most graduates is not at a level acceptable to the ITES industry. The ITES industry additionally suffers from high attrition. This situation provides an avenue to the Sujaya Foundation to impart these "missing" skills to individuals to make them employable by the ITES and other service-oriented industries. The Sujaya Foundation has developed a one-month English Immersion Course (EIC) towards this end.

Key Features

• It is aimed at underprivileged graduates and under-graduates
• Applications are invited from students through an advertisement or word-of-mouth.
• To facilitate personalized attention, the batch size is restricted to around 25 students
  

Four Stage EIC Process

1. Pre selection: Screening of candidates and administering a test to assess their suitability / eligibility for the course. Students who are selected are required to pay a refundable deposit of Rs.1,000. The deposit is taken to ensure commitment on part of the student. The deposit is refunded on the student completing the course with 100% attendance and finishing all assignments given during the course.
2. The one month intensive course: Language skills and computer literacy. Typing speed is brought upto 25 words per minute. The Course also includes a section on grooming and professional etiquette. Voice & accent training is also provided.
3. Post course: Helping the students with placements subject to completing the course satisfactorily. This is done by the Foundation on a "best-effort" basis.
4. Follow through: Continuing to keep in touch by maintaining a database of all Immersion students and trying to upgrade skills.

Utilization

The Indian Information Technology Enabled Services (ITES) industry has witnessed robust rates of growth over the past Five years. The types of services covered by the ITES industry includes voice and non-voice based customer interaction services, data entry services, accounting services, medical transcription services, transaction processing services etc. The number of people employed by such industries is expected to rise exponentially over the next 3 years, with starting salaries ranging anywhere between Rs 5,000 and Rs 10,000 per month. Hence this industry offers tremendous employment opportunities in India. Further given the rapid growth of the industry, there is a dearth of suitable manpower.

The typical profile of new recruits in this industry is:

1. Age between 18 and 25 years
2. At least an under-graduate qualification
3. Fluent English communication skills or reasonable written English skills depending on the job profile
4. Basic working knowledge of computers and ability to type at least 20 words per minute.
   

These are fundamentals imparted at Sujaya. Deutsche Bank has funded the Immersion programs held in 2005 & 2006.

Guest Speaker Panel

One of the major components of the Immersion course is to have guests come in and interact with our students.

Methodology used:

• The speaker sends us a copy of his intervention - maximum 500 words
• A worksheet is prepared by us based on the content of the intervention
• The speaker comes on the appointed day and delivers his intervention
• Students are invited to interact with the speaker and engage in lively debate

Past topics have been:

• The BPO Industry_ Boom and Booming
• Who will win - China or India?
• 26th July, 2005 - a story
• What is good cinema?

We welcome people from all walks of life. All you need is

• passion and knowledge about your field
• the ability to motivate students to ask questions, interact, get engaged
• the desire to listen rather than talk!

If you would like to be a guest speaker or recommend a good speaker, email us at info@sujayafoundation.org