Authors : D. prabhakara rao,
Page Nos : 51 to 63
Description :
Jawahar Knowledge Centers (JKC’s) were introduced in Andhra Pradesh in the
year 2005 with a view to enhance the employment capabilities by imparting
communication, Soft & Computer oriented skills to the young graduate students of
Engineering Colleges and for the students pursuing general degree in Under Graduate
and Post Graduate Degree Colleges. The advancement of Information and
Communication Technologies (ICT) opened the doors for the placement in jobs globally.
Indian education system was opened to outside the world. But various studies revealed
that only 25% of the engineering graduates are employable and bulk of the students are
enrolled in arts, science and in commerce/management. But most of the undergraduates
coming out from degree and even from engineering colleges were found mostly with
inadequate in skills for gainful employment. Their learning is mostly in Telugu medium.
Expression and presentation skills are on low ebb due various socio economic factors.
Keeping in view of all the facts JKC’s were introduced by the Government of
Andhra Pradesh to train the students for employment in corporate and govt. sectors. It is
observed that in spite of the best efforts by the faculty of JKC the students, their
performance in soft and communication skills and their use of information resources from
the library to improve their skills are not satisfactory. Hence the study has been taken up
in the Government Degree Colleges and in Engineering colleges of Prakasam District, A.P
to know the growth, functioning of the JKC; the extent of use of information resources
from the library by the staff and students for improving their communication, computer
and other soft skills; to study the employment generation by the JKC and to offer the
needful suggestions to the JKC’s and libraries in the institutions under study in Prakasam
District, A.P. The study has been assisted financially by UGC-SERO, Hyderabad under
“Minor Research Project.†The report has been submitted in May 2014.
Key words: JKC, Communication skills, Computer skills, soft skills, employability,
information resources, user studies etc..
