PART A: EMPLOYABILITY SKILL

Unit 1: Communication Skill

Unit 2: Self-Management Skill
Unit 3: Basic Information and Communication Technology Skill
Unit 4: Entrepreneurial Skill
Unit 5: Green Skills

Communication Skill
Session 1: Introduction to Communication

Session 2: Verbal Communication

Session 3: Non-Verbal Communication

Session 4: Writing Skills: Parts of Speech

Session 5: Writing Skills: Sentences

Session 6: Pronunciation Basics

Session 7: Greetings and Introduction

Session 8: Talking about Self

Session 9: Asking Questions I

Session 10: Asking Questions II

Session 1: Introduction to Communication
The word ‘Communication’ comes from the Latin
word commūnicāre, meaning ‘to share’.
Importance of communication
Your ability to communicate clearly and share thoughts, feelings and
ideas will help you in all your relationships.
Communication skills are needed to:
• Inform
You may be required to give facts or information to someone. For
example, communicating the timetable of an exam to a friend.
• Influence
You may be required to influence or change someone in an indirect but
usually important way. For example, negotiating with a shopkeeper to
reduce the price or helping a friend to overcome stress due to exam or
any other reason.
• Express feelings
Talking about your feelings is a healthy way to express them. For
example, sharing your excitement about doing well in your exams or
sharing your feelings with your parents and friends.
Elements of communication
Communication is a two-way exchange of information
Speaking and writing
Reading and listening
Perspectives in communication
Perspectives are ideas, views, or fixed ways of thinking. These
sometimes affect our communication.

Factors affecting perspectives in communication

Sometimes, we are not able to communicate clearly because of barriers
that stop us from sharing and understanding messages
1) Language
In case of use of incorrect words, unfamiliar language and lack of detail,
language can act as a barrier to communicate what one wishes to
convey. For example, language can act as a barrier when an Indian who
only knows Hindi and Chinese who has the knowledge of Mandarin only
want to interact with each other.
2) Visual Perception
Visual perception is the brain’s ability to make sense of what we see
through our eyes. For example, completing partially drawn pictures
with visual perception whereas they may be something else.
3) Past Experience
Letting our earlier experience stop us from understanding or
communicating clearly.
4) Prejudice
Fixed ideas, such as thinking “No one in my class likes me” may stop a
student from communicating openly in the class.
5) Feelings
Our feelings and emotions, such as lack of interest or not trusting the
other person affect communication.
6) Environment
Noise or disturbance in the surroundings may make communication
difficult.
7) Personal factors
Personal factors include your own feelings, habits and ways of thinking.
For example, fear, and low confidence may make communication
difficult.
8) Culture
Signs’ which have a different meaning in different cultures, such as
showing a thumb may mean ‘good job’ done for some people but may
be insulting to others

Effective communication
Effective communication can happen if we follow the basic principles of
professional communication skills. These can be abbreviated as 7 Cs,
i.e., Clear, Concise, Concrete, Correct, Coherent, Complete and
Courteous.
1) Clear: Be clear about what you want to say
2) Concise: Use the simple words and say only what is needed.
3) Concrete: Use exact words and phrases
4) Correct: Use Correct Spellings, language and Grammar.
5) Coherent: Your word should make sense and should be related to
the main topic.
6) Complete: Your message should have all the needed information.
7) Courteous: Be respectful, friendly and honestly.
Session 2: Verbal Communication
Verbal communication is the sharing of information by using words. Verbal
communication is important because if you do not use the right words, you will
cause confusion and you will not be able to communicate what you want.

Types of Verbal Communication

1. Oral or Spoken Communication
• Face-to-face conversation
• Talking on phone
• Classroom teaching, business discussion and public speeches
2. Written Communication
• Writing letters, notes, email, etc.
• SMS (Short Message Service)
• Using email to share news, thoughts, documents and files.

• Books and newspapers.

Advantages of verbal communication

Verbal communication is easy and quick. You can say what you want and get a
quick response. It is an easier form of communication when you have to exchange
ideas. You keep changing your communication as per the other person’s reply.

Disadvantages of verbal communication

The most common disadvantage of verbal communication is the cultural
differences between the sender and receiver of the information. These
differences may be due to the use of different languages, inability to understand
the colloquial phrases used by the other individual, and the accent. Since verbal
Communication depends on words, sometimes the meanings become confusing
and difficult to understand if the right words are not used.
Public speaking
Speaking in front of a large group makes most people nervous. You can use the
3Ps (Prepare, Practice, Perform) method to get over your fears, and become a
confident and effective speaker.
1. Prepare
• Think about your topic
• Think about what your listeners need to know about the topic
• Think about the best way to make your listeners understand your
topic
2. Practice
• Practice by yourself first, talk in front of a mirror
• Talk in front of your family and friends and ask them what they
think
• Speak clearly, loudly and at the right speed (not very fast nor very
slow)
3. Perform
• Take a few deep breaths if you are feeling nervous
• Think about what you have prepared and start speaking confidently
Session 3: Non-Verbal Communication
Non-verbal communication is the message send to others without using any
words. We send signals and messages to others, through expressions, gestures
and body postures. Non-verbal communication makes our message stronger.
Type What it implies How to make use of
non-verbal
communication
effectively
Facial Expression A facial expression many • Keep your face relaxed
a times shows the • Try to match your
feelings of a person. For expression with what you
example, when we are are saying • If you agree
happy, we express it with something, you may
through a smile or when nod while listening, which
we are sad we show a indicates that it has your
gloomy face. assent
Posture Postures are positions of Keep your upper body
the body. They show our relaxed and, shoulders
confidence and feelings. straight • Sit straight, rest
For example, straight hands and feet in relaxed
body posture is seen as position • Keep hands by
confidence. Holding your your sides while standing
head may be taken as
tiredness.
Gestures or Body Gestures describe • Avoid pointing at
Language movements of parts of people with your finger •
the body, especially Instead of keeping your
hands or head, to express hands in pocket while
an idea or meaning. This talking, try to keep your
includes waving, pointing hands on the sides • Bend
and using our hands your head a little while
when speaking. For talking or listening to
example, raising a hand show that you are paying
may mean asking a
question. Biting nails attention
show nervousness
Touch We communicate a great • Shake hands firm
deal through our touch,
such as shaking hands • Avoid other touch
and patting on the back. gestures, such as
For example, a firm stroking your hair,
handshake shows scratching your nose,
confidence. Sports tugging on your
coaches pat on the back clothes, etc., during
of the players to formal communication
encourage the players.
Space The space between two Maintain proper space’
persons while depending on the
communicating, generally relationship, which could
depends on the intimacy be formal or informal or
or closeness between the closeness with the
them. person with whom you
are talking
Eye Contact Maintaining an eye • Look at the person who
contact with the person is speaking • Keep a
you are talking indicates relaxed, pleasant look •
interest, whereas, looking Break the look every few
away can make the other seconds
person feel ignored
Paralanguage Paralanguage is the tone • Use a proper tone and
of our voice, speed and volume while speaking •
volume that makes a Maintain a moderate rate
difference in the meaning (speed) of talking
of the communication.
Speaking too fast may
show excitement or
nervousness. Speaking
too slow may show
seriousness, sadness or
making a point.

Visual communication
It involves sending and understanding messages only through images or pictures.
The main advantage of this type of communication is that you do not need to
know any particular language for understanding it. It is simple, easy to understand
and remains same across different places.

Traffic symbol which communicates not to blow horn

Traffic Lights—Red for Stop; Yellow for Wait and Green for Go

Sign for ladies and gents toilet

Sign showing railway crossing

Sign used to pause a video or audio file in smartphone or computer

Session 4: Writing Skills: Parts of Speech

A sentence is a group of words that communicates a complete thought (Example:

Raju goes to school). A group of words, which does not make complete sense, is
known as a phrase (Example: Raju goes). A sentence always begins with a capital
letter, and it always ends with a question mark, full stop or exclamation mark.
Using capitals
All sentences begin with capital letters.

MINTS is a set of simple rules that help you capitalise words correctly.

1. M= Months
Capitalise the first letter in all the names of months.
Example: I will go to college in June.

2. I = The letter:
Capitalise the letter ‘I’ when it is used to begin a word.
Example: I play tennis with him every day.

3. N = Names :
Capitalise the first letter in the names of people, places and days.
Example: This Tuesday, Vidya will be in Rajasthan.

4. T = Titles :
Capitalise the first letter in the titles used before people’s name
Example: Dr Shah and Mr Patel work together.

5. S = Starting letter of sentences

Capitalise the first letter in every sentence.
Example: The cat ran out of the house.

Punctuation
1. Full stop (.)
It shows the end of a sentence. Also used to show short form of long
words. For example, ‘doctor’ can be shortened to ‘Dr’ when we use it as a
title before a name.
Example: Sanjay is a doctor.
2. Comma (,)
We use a comma to indicate a pause in the sentence. We can also use a
comma to separate items when we are listing out more than two items in a
row. We can also use a comma to separate items when we are listing out
more than two items in a row.
Example: I bought apples, oranges and grapes.

3. Question mark (?)

We use a question mark at the end of a question.
Example: What is your name?

4. Exclamation mark (!)

We use an exclamation mark at the end of a word or a sentence to
indicate a strong feeling, such as surprise, shock or anger.
Example: You are late!

5. Apostrophe (‘)
We use an apostrophe followed by an s to show that something belongs
to someone.
Example: That is Divya’s pen.
We also use an apostrophe to indicate the shortened form of some words
in informal speech.
Example: Let’s go. (Instead of Let us go)

Basic parts of speech

1. Noun
2. Pronoun
3. Adjectives
4. Verbs
5. Adverbs
6. Articles
7. Conjunctions
8. Preposition
Supporting parts of speech types

Session 5: Writing Skills: Sentence

A subject is the person or thing that does an action. A verb describes
the action. Object is the person or thing that receives the action. For
example, read aloud the simple sentence “Divya reads a book”.

Types of objects
1. Direct object: It is answers the question what?
For example, Sanjay bought vegetables
2. Indirect object: It answers questions, such as ‘to whom’ and ‘for
whom’. For example, in the sentence “Abdul gave a gift to his
mother.”
Types of sentences
1. Active Sentences: Sentences where the subject does an action are
known to be in the Active voice.
For example, Sanjay broke the glass.
2. Passive Sentences: Sentences in which the subject receives an
action are known to be in the Passive voice.
For example, The glass was broken by Sanjay.
Types of sentences (according to their purpose)
1. Statement or Declarative Sentence
This is the most common type of sentence. It provides
information or states a fact. It always ends with a ‘full-stop’
(‘.’).
For example, I go to school.
2. Question or Interrogative Sentence
This type of sentence asks a question. It always ends with a
question mark (‘?’)
For example, Do you like eating vegetables?
3. Emotion/Reaction or Exclamatory Sentence
An exclamatory sentence expresses a strong emotion, such as
joy, sadness, fear or wonder. It always ends with an
exclamation mark (‘!’).
For example, Oh, it’s so cold!
4. Order or Imperative Sentence
These sentences show an order, command, request, or advice.
It can end with a full stop or an exclamation mark (‘.’ or ‘!’).
For example, Complete your project.
Paragraphs
A group of sentences forms a paragraph. While writing a
paragraph, make sure the sentences have a common idea.
When you want to write about a different idea, make a new
paragraph.
Session 6: Pronunciation Basics
Pronunciation is the way you say a word, just as spelling is how
you write a word.

Phonetics
It is the study of the sounds that we make when we speak.
Types of sounds
1. Vowels
The English alphabet has five vowels (a, e, i, o and u) but 12
vowel sounds. This means most vowels can be pronounced in
different ways. We make a vowel sound when we read a
vowel in a word.
Example, bit
2. Diphthongs
A diphthong sound when we combine two vowels.
Diphthongs start as one vowel sound and go to another.
For Example, house
3. Consonants
A consonant sound is any sound that is neither a vowel nor a
diphthong sound
For Example, pot
Session 7: Greetings and Introduction
Greetings
Types of greetings
1. Formal greeting
2. Informal greeting
Formal greetings: It is used if you do not know the person. It
is used to greet senior, elderly people or people with whom
we have formal relations like teachers or customers. This is
used more often in schools, colleges and offices.
Informal greetings: It is used when you talk to friends, family
or a known person.
Session 8: Talking about Self

Filling a form
Write about yourself in a form. A form is a typed or printed
page with blank spaces for information.
Session 9: Asking Questions I
Need for asking questions
A question is a request for information. It could be any type of
information, such as an answer to a question in the textbook,
information about a person or a place or about how to do a task.

Asking questions helps us to

• gain new knowledge, get information,
• make sure that what we know is correct,
• avoid doubts, confusion, misunderstanding, and
• start talking to people by asking about them and their ideas

How to make sure we have complete information?

If you do not have information about how to reach a place, you will not
be able to reach it. If you do not know how to do some work, you will
not be able to complete it, unless you ask questions and get
information. Asking all the correct questions at the right time is also
important. You can follow the simple method of ‘5W+1H’
Session 10: Asking Questions II
A question is a sentence, phrase, or word that either asks for
information or is used to test someone’s knowledge.
Use a question mark (?) at the end of a question.
Types of questions
There are two basic types of questions:
1. close-ended Question:
Questions that can be answered with a “yes” or a “no” are
called close-ended question. That is because the answer options
are limited or closed. For example, when we ask “Do you have a
TV at home?”
2. open-ended Question:
When we ask a question, we expect an answer with more
details. For example “What do you like to watch on TV?”, the
answer could be “I like to watch movies on TV.” These are called
open-ended questions because their answer options are not
limited or closed. In this case, the person could have also said
sports, news, or anything else.
Framing (or forming) questions
1.Framing close-ended questions
Close-ended questions can be form by adding helping verbs
(called auxiliary verbs) like Be, Do and Have. These convey
additional information, such as time and mood. Besides these,
there are other auxiliary verbs (called modal verbs), such as Can,
Shall, May, Should, Could which show possibility or necessity. One
method of framing close-ended questions is to take a sentence
without the above words and place such words before the
subject.

2.Framing open-ended questions:

Questions are called open-ended because their answers are not
limited or closed. They have to be answered with more information
than just a “yes” or a “no”. We can form open-ended questions by
using question words, such as What, Why, Who, How, When and
Where. Notice how these questions CANNOT be answered with a “yes”
or a “no”.