Rural folks lack etiquette, says VC

According to him, rural students have a long way to go before they can catch up with the competitive Corporate India. Students from rural areas or even from the outskirts of big cities and towns do not stand a chance for a job in the high-profile sector, as they lack English-speaking skills and in conducting themselves in public. They, according to him, are village simpletons whose body language “is poor” and their knowledge of computers “not apt”. How can they fit into the world of style and statement, flamboyance  and finnesse and above all, good English?

Some corporate blue-bloods agree with the VC. “Corporates look for etiquette. Most students from rural areas lack that. Inferiority complex is another issue that has to be addressed among them,” one of them says.

The VC feels a way to effect a change would be to make them learn soft skills — how to talk, how to behave, how to eat, etc. In short, a total personality makeover to suit the profit-making environs of the corporate sector.  

But the VC was quiet about what the university is doing to bring about that change though he talked about general improvement of the employability of the university’s graduates. His comments came during an interaction he had with the Federation of Karnataka Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FKCCI) president N S Srinivasa Murthy.

According to Murthy, a large number of the 5.6 lakh graduates enrolled with the State Employment Exchange were unemployed.

“Curriculum must keep pace with fast-changing trends,” said Murthy.