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elegant young ladies from well-to-do families learn to walk, talk and make
conversation before entering polite society. Now India is looking to the
model for the three million or so graduates it produces every year to refine
the skills they need to succeed in business and give the country a sharper
edge in the global marketplace. The 'finishing schools' in Mumbai, New
Delhi, Hyderabad and Bangalore are to open later this year, as part of a
two-million-dollar project by the Indian School of Integrated Learning and
British training firm Speak First. 'The finishing school is taking
graduates and anyone else of that academic level through a programme which
will give them all the skills that a business could possibly want,' Speak
First' s Amanda Vickers told AFP in Mumbai. 'A lot of people (in India)
are academically really well qualified, very bright and intelligent, all the
things that most businesses want. But where there is a gap is in the skills
that you need to succeed in business.' India has seen massive foreign
investment into the likes of its IT, banking and outsourcing sectors,
attracted by a massive, educated — and cheaper — workforce, fuelling close
to double- digit economic growth in recent years. But both Vickers, Speak
First's managing director, and ISIL chairman Vijay Moza said Indian
employees could do better when it comes to 'soft skills'.
Misunderstandings have often arisen from telephone manners or email
etiquette with clients and even colleagues based elsewhere in the world that
may just be a simple case of cultural difference, they said. A common
bugbear among foreign businesses and individuals here is of many Indians not
wanting to say 'no', leading to frustrations when requests are not completed
on time or even at all, said Vickers. Too much respect for clients and
superiors can be construed as a lack of directness while attempts to be more
direct can come across as aggression, she added. Teaching communication,
interpersonal and negotiating skills as well as cultural awareness is simply
'reflecting a business need' in an increasingly globalised world, she said.
For his part, Moza said he has heard frequent complaints from company
bosses not just about many graduates' lack of workplace skills but the time
and money it costs to get them up to speed. 'Finishing schools' would
help fill the gap left by the Indian education system that does not have the
resources to teach personality development, said Moza.
