In the last few years, thanks to jobs becoming global, the importance of English has increased manifold. It has over the years become an important medium of communication, both at the international and intra-national levels. The importance of spoken English is even more, because there are many cases where one knows his subject well, but fails to communicate it properly. The practice of spoken English, therefore, is quite essential. In today’s corporate world, the need for effective communication has been recognised and accepted more than the technical knowledge. Absurd as it may sound, but this word is not understood by 67 per cent of the engineering population in India.
Aspiring Minds, world’s leading employability credentialing firm released a report on the state of spoken English capabilities in young engineers and how their employability is affected by their Spoken English skills. The National Spoken English Skills (SES) of Engineers report analyses the spoken English skills of over 30,000 engineers in India from more than 500 colleges.The study is based on SVAR, Aspiring Minds patented automated spoken English assessment tool measuring spoken English (pronunciation, fluency, etc) and listening skills and is used across the world by large global corporations to test and rate spoken English capabilities.
According to the report over 51 per cent engineering graduates are not employable based on their spoken English scores.This is a signal that there is a need for higher emphasis not only on written English.The report extensively discusses specific areas of spoken English skills that engineering graduates most lack in and implications of these deficiencies. It also provides suggestive ways to bridge these gaps by way of interventions in the Indian higher education system in order to improve the English of students.
Of the six hundred thousand engineers that graduate annually, only 2.9% candidates have SES for high-end jobs in corporate sales/business consulting. These are some of the best paying jobs in the market. This signals that there is a need for higher emphasis.
Varun Aggarwal, co-founder and CTO, Aspiring Minds, said: “Withjobs going global, the importance of English has increased manifold. It is now a medium of communication at both international and intra-national levels. However, at the same time, it is disappointing to know that 97 per cent engineers cannot speak English fluently and three-fourth of them are not eligible for job requirements in any knowledge economy.”
He also said that recruiters and HR managers around the world report that candidates with “English skills above the local average stands out and garner 30-50 per cent higher salaries than those without English skills. The trends in India are no different, with English being one of the key qualities recruiters look for during the interview process,”Aggarwal said.