Online English course for students launched CHENNAI, September 19, 2010
Staff Reporter An online English course, Cambridge One, that proposes to enhance the communication skills of students and improve their employment prospects, was launched here on Saturday. The programme is designed to bridge the gap arising due to the mismatch between skills demanded by employers and the learning acquired by the students during the course of their regular study, said G. Sreekanthan, Chairman, Ebek Language Laboratories. It also has a provision in which companies could register and track the performance of students who have applied for jobs with them. “Lack of good trainers and shortage of time, especially in the case of working professionals, are some primary reasons we thought of coming up with this application,” Mr. Sreekanthan added. Speaking at the inaugural function, Minister for Information Technology Poongothai Aladi Aruna spoke about “the overdrive” that is noticed in students who exhibit a fear of not knowing how to communicate in English. “English is a business language that we need to be adept at without neglecting our mother tongue,” she said. On the need to educate people on the benefits of technology, she said “We have more than one lakh computers in schools across the State, but people can be truly empowered only when they realise the ways technology can empower them.” Union Communications and IT Minister A. Raja, who was the chief guest, said the intellectual efficiency of educated people should be directed at creating awareness among the masses. Technology, he added, had to be made available to people living in the “lowest ebbs of the society” to address the “differential treatment meted to them. Emphasising the need to preserve one's identity in today's era of global learning, Mr. Raja said "There are certain grey areas that exist between the learned and the intellectual, English is just a supplement that fills up that vacuum." The 50-hour “anytime, anywhere” self-learning programme has different “learning chunks” that last 10 -20 minutes each, said T.K. Arunachalam, Development Manager (India), University of Cambridge. The university has partnered with Ebek Language Laboratories for the online English programme. Besides providing assistance to students in communicative English – reading, writing, listening and speaking – the application, supported with various audio – visual components, has the option to record answers and play them back, he said. City Union Bank Managing Director S. Balabubramanian and Chairman, Continuing Professional Education Committee of ICAI, V. Murali, participated in the programme. Source: www.thehindu.com Voice your thoughts in the blog to discuss the Rights of persons with disability bill at: http://www.accessindia.org.in/harish/blog.htm To unsubscribe send a message to accessindia-requ...@accessindia.org.in with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in
