The future of Goa rests in the hands of students who will crarry the legacy of their predecessors ahead. However, there is a major obstacle lying in the way of their future. According to a study done by by Goa Institute of Management (GIM) and the Goa chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) to assess the skill level of Goa’s students, 74% responses received indicated that the skill level was very low. In soft skills evaluation, , the respondents reported a low performance on cross cultural sensitivity, failure recovery, proactiveness, tiral and error along with problem solving skills. Reacting to the study findings, Daniel Michael Pereira, a student at the Institute of Hotel Management, Porvorim said, “The problem lies with the the current education system that penalises students for scoring low marks. Students should be encouraged to try out new things, explore different paths and see what suits them best because ‘if you never try you will never know’. Difficult situations are a part of life.” Shubham Shivaji Shiudkar, also a student at IHM, agreeing with Pereira said, “As a fresher, everyone lacks some skills and has a low performance on some aspects. But as time passes, their skills improve.”
Students felt that even though they were
studying hard and interning, the necessary skills were not being imparted to them.
They argued the fact that lack of training is responsible for the results of
the study.
Bernice Fernandes, a student from St. Xaviers College, Mapusa,
shared her plight saying, “Students are not being trained on how to deal with
failure or difficult situations as these aspects of life aren’t part of any
educational programmes.”
Agreeing with her, a student from Goa College of Hospitality and
Culinary Education, Anna Susann Monteiro added that communication gap and
neglecting the emotional aspects of students adds to the problem.
As the study included 80 respondents, the students felt it
unfair that only a group of 80 selected students represent the whole State’s
competency in the field. In response to being asked about the same Dhruv said,
“We need to know the background of such 80 students as to how they have been
trained or taught in the college or any hotel they’re interning at.” “We cannot
take the whole of 100% of this study, we can maximum take 50% of it because
they are just 80 students. Just in Goa there are multiple hospitality colleges
in Goa.”
Attempts are being made to narrow the gap in this lack by
enforcing a list of policies that will pinpoint and aid precise skills of the
students. Bernice stated, “If hard skills can be thought so can soft skills. By
organising different programs and even coaching students we can build soft
skills. This will help students understand things in a better way and help them
overcome failure.”More students shared what they felt would boost the
performance such as Mr. Pereira who said, “The internet is a huge blessing for
everyone all over the world if used in the right manner. It bridges the gap
between all sections of society irrespective of gender, religion, age, caste,
etc. We need to use the internet as a tool to progress in our personal lives
and in our career.”
Dhruv Kenkre, a student at the Institute of Culinary Management,
Cidade said, “You have to know what you’re getting into because the industry is
not about having fun, it’s about being professional and getting personal with
it.” He went on to explain how the students should take the initiative to learn
to cope with the ever-evolving industry and its troubles. He further added,
“It’s a hands-on industry, you don’t have a lot of time or prove yourself in a
short timeframe. If you know that you’re lacking in something it is high time
you understand that you have to get into it. It is up to us to grasp what the
teachers and seniors tell us and do it.”
Manav Kamat, IHM student, also had a similar view which he put
forth saying, “Theoretically, we do something else at college and practically
we have to change depending on the situation and we have to work on it.
Exposure also is the solution in these kinds of situations which colleges
should imply.”
These
students admit that they are not completely skilled in the field but they also
believe that these skills can be trained and not be regarded as common
knowledge or unlearnable because at the end of the day they ultimately joined
the institute to learn and develop further. As the study looks to collect more
samples and improve, the students also aspire to prove that their capacity to
learn is beyond what meets the eye.