IIT Kharagpur invites applications for Free Online Course on Soft Skill Development via NPTEL

IIT Kharagpur has organised this course while keeping in mind the growing need of Soft Skills in every industry. While hard skills teach us what to do, soft skills tell us how to apply our hard skills in a social environment, states IIT Kharagpur. The focus of the course is to develop a wide variety of soft skills starting from communication, to working in different environments, developing emotional sensitivity, learning creative and critical decision making, developing awareness of how to work with and negotiate with people and to resolve stress and conflict in ourselves and others.

The uniqueness of the course lies in how a wide range of relevant issues are raised, relevant skills discussed and tips for integration provided to make us effective in the workplace and social environments. The key areas addressed are conversation skills, group skills, persuasion skills, presentation skills, critical and creative thinking, emotional skills, positive thinking and vocational skills.

Who can enrol in the course?

This is an Undergraduate computer humanities level course. But anyone can enrol in the course. There are no prerequisites. You should just have the desire to expand the horizon of your knowledge. Moreover, this course is a must-take as soft skills are so fundamental that all companies need employees with good communication skills.

Timeline of the course

This Elective course has a duration of 8 weeks. It will start from 18 January 2021 and end on 12 March 2021. If you want the certificate, you have to give a proctored exam on 21 March 2021. The last date to enrol is 25 January 2020.

Who will teach this Soft Skills Free course?

Prof. Priyadarshi Patnaik, Prof. V. N. Giri and Prof. D. Suar will lead the course.

What will the course teach?

This is an 8-week-long course. Here’s the itinerary for the course.

W1: Communication skills: Basics

W2: Communication skills: Presentation and interaction

W3: Communication skills: Visual, nonverbal and aural communication

W4: Interpersonal communication: Individuals, groups and cultures

W5: Interpersonal communication: Emotional and social skills

W6: Developing key traits: Creativity, critical thinking and problem solving

W7: Developing key traits: Motivation, persuasion, negotiation and leadership

W8: Essential and vocational skills: survival strategies

How to obtain a certificate from IIT Kharagpur?

The course is free to enrol and learn. But if you want a certificate, you have to register and write the optional proctored exam. The fee for this exam is ₹ 1000. Also, the successful completion of the exam does not guarantee a certificate. To get a certificate, you need to get 25% from the assignments and 75% of the proctored certification exam score out of 100.

Final score = Average assignment score (>10/25) + Exam score (>30/75). If one of the 2 criteria is not met, you will still not get the certificate even if the Final score > 40/100. This printable certificate will carry the stamp from both NPTEL and IIT Kharagpur. Further, you can enrol in the course here.