The
world that we live in today, differentiates immensely between being educated
and being employable. Often, the skill set acquired by a student at graduate
and post graduate level is not an exact match for the skill set required by the
industry. The JLU Centre for Professional Skills has been established with the
aim to focus on and impart skill development training in order to equip
students and working professionals with job relevant set of skills that are
applicable to their area of employment and consequently the skills gap between
academia and industry is bridged. The Centre, headed by Dr. Rolii Ajay Khare organised
its first Faculty Development Program on 15th February 2018.
The
resource person for the session was Dr. Neva Cebron from the University of
Primorska in Slovenia (Europe). She conducted
the session on the topic ‘Aiming towards
Building Global Readiness and Competency based on Non Essentialist Approaches’.
She demonstrated and discussed how cultural stereotypes interfere with our
understanding of and communication with others. The session was made
interactive by use of videos showcasing how people behave when they have strong
preconceived notions about other people’s appearances and supposed cultures. The
video showcased an American man making typical assumptions about an Asian woman
only to learn a few minutes later that she herself was born and brought up in
the US! Another interesting video that Dr. Cebron played was a TED talk by the
Nigerian author Ms. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, recorded at Oxford, England. Ms.
Adichie herself had fallen prey to cultural stereotypes numerous times where
she repeatedly encountered people who were familiar with ‘just one story’ of a place. She went on to
explain with an example where she said “Yes life in Nigeria was difficult, when
I saw the rationing of milk, the jam jar disappear from the table, the hike in
bread prices and when there were months when my parents weren’t paid their
salaries. Yet, I was a girl who was brought up happy and content in a tight
knit family, a girl who had education. The idea here is to understand the
danger of a single story, it is not incorrect, it is incomplete.” Her talk
beautifully illustrated the assumptions that all of us make for each other’s
cultures.
The
session particularly aimed at addressing the staff of the School of Engineering
and Technology, School of Humanities and Arts, School of Management, Jagran
Lakecity Business School, Jagran School of Journalism and Communication and the
School of Education, with a view to training students who are expected to be
globally ready for jobs and other encounters.
Certificates
of participation were also given for this session.
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