Time to upgrade, or have specialised skills, government workers told

Dimapur, June 25 (EMN): There was a time when people managed only with basic skills but times have changed drastically now that having only academic qualifications is not enough. The demand of the professional world is skills, upgrading them, or having specialised skill sets, a government official told civil servants during a skill development programme in Kohima recently.

A training program in soft skills and ‘professionalism’ development for ‘officers and staff of chief engineer’ was conducted on June 25, organised by the Water Resources department, in Kohima.

The government’s publicity agency, the department of Information and Public Relations (IPR) issued updates to the media about the event.

Chief Engineer Tsuktinungsang, no surname given, said in his key note address that with ‘only our own basic skills and achievements in our careers everyone has come this far and we are all accordingly responsible in whatever work we do as a public officers.’ Besides academic or qualifications people have, “We need to specialise or upgrade our skills.”

Upgrading skills does not only mean knowing exactly what work is all about, Tsuktinungsang said. ‘We need to focus on how to avoid consequences, the IPR reported him as having said.

‘As government servants working in an atmosphere where we have seniors working above us, we should be ready to hone our skills in communication, on how to communicate and where to communicate,’ Tsuktinungsang told the gathering. He encouraged the officers and staffs to avail the opportunity to enhance their capabilities in how to get job done ‘in a very cordial way among the officers and colleagues and the people.’

The director of YouthNet, Lezo Putsure, was the resource person for the event. He said professional skills are career competencies that are not taught or acquired as part of course work required to earn Master’s or Ph.D. It is a skill of leadership, of mentoring, and project management besides conflict resolution and value-added skills, he said.

These are essential to any career, he said. ’Our behaviour or success comes by our attitude and by the way we deal different situations that comes our way.’

An instance to the contention he made was public speaking skills: ‘Almost every job requires some public speaking and it is where one needs to be capable of speaking clearly and presenting information effectively,’ he said.

‘To be presentable to anyone or in public, one needs to have articulation, confidence, creating presentation slides, poise, projection, social skills, receiving criticism and feedback,’ he added.

During the training the officers and staff were taught on ‘skill development of professionalism,’ time management, effective communication and emotional intelligence, body language, appropriate response and effective functioning in teamwork situations, the IPR stated.