Employability Skills

Textbook for Class XI

 ISBN 978-93-5292-126-3

First Edition ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

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 Foreword

The National Curriculum Framework–2005 (NCF–2005) recommends

bringing work and education into the domain of the curricular, infusing it in
all areas of learning while giving it an identity of its own at relevant stages.
It explains that work transforms knowledge into experience and generates
important personal and social values such as self-reliance, creativity and
cooperation. Through work one learns to find one’s place in the society. It is
an educational activity with an inherent potential for inclusion. Therefore,
an experience of involvement in productive work in an educational setting
will make one appreciate the worth of social life and what is valued and
appreciated in society. Work involves interaction with material or other
people (mostly both), thus creating a deeper comprehension and increased
practical knowledge of natural substances and social relationships.
Through work and education, school knowledge can be easily linked
to learners’ life outside the school. This also makes a departure from
the legacy of bookish learning and bridges the gap between the school,
home, community and the workplace. The NCF–2005 also emphasises
on Vocational Education and Training (VET) for all those children who
wish to acquire additional skills and/or seek livelihood through vocational
education after either discontinuing or completing their school education.
VET is expected to provide a ‘preferred and dignified’ choice rather than a
terminal or ‘last-resort’ option.
As a follow-up of this, NCERT has attempted to infuse work across
the subject areas and also contributed in the development of the National
Skill Qualification Framework (NSQF) for the country, which was
notified on 27 December 2013. It is a quality assurance framework that
organises all qualifications according to levels of knowledge, skills and
attitude. These levels, graded from one to ten, are defined in terms of
learning outcomes, which the learner must possess regardless of whether
they are obtained through formal, non-formal or informal learning.
The NSQF sets common principles and guidelines for a nationally
recognised qualification system covering Schools, Vocational Education
and Training Institutions, Technical Education Institutions, Colleges
and Universities.
It is under this backdrop that Pandit Sunderlal Sharma Central Institute
of Vocational Education (PSSCIVE), Bhopal, a constituent of NCERT has
developed learning outcomes based modular curricula for the vocational

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 subjects from Classes IX to XII. This has been developed under the
Centrally Sponsored Scheme of Vocationalisation of Secondary and Higher
Secondary Education of the Ministry of Human Resource Development.
This textbook takes care of generic skills embedded in various job roles
in a comprehensive manner and also provides more opportunities and
scope for students to engage with these common and necessary skills,
such as communication, critical thinking and decision making in different
situations pertaining to different job roles.
I acknowledge the contribution of the development team, reviewers
and all the institutions and organisations, which have supported in the
development of this textbook.
NCERT would welcome suggestions from students, teachers and
parents, which would help us to further improve the quality of the material
in subsequent editions.

Hrushikesh Senapaty
Director
New Delhi National Council of Educational
June 2018 Research and Training

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 About the Textbook

Employability skills can be defined as those soft skills which employers

look for in a potential employee. These skills equip the employees to carry
out their role to the best of their ability and client satisfaction. For example,
the ability to explain what you mean in a clear and concise way through
written and spoken means, helps to build a better relationship with the
client or the customer. Similarly, handling stress that comes with deadlines
for finishing work and ensuring that you meet the deadlines can be done
through effective self-management training. It can also be done by working
well with other people from different disciplines, backgrounds, and expertise
to accomplish a task or goal. In today’s digital age, employers expect
that the employees should be able to make use of elementary functions
of information and communication technology to retrieve, access, store,
produce, present and exchange information in collaborative networks via
the Internet. Students need to develop entrepreneurial skills, so that they
can develop necessary knowledge and skills to start their own business, thus
becoming job creators rather than job seekers. Potential employees need
to develop green skills, which are the technical skills, knowledge, values
and attitudes needed in the workforce to develop and support sustainable
social, economic and environmental outcomes in business, industry and
the community. Thus, as a student you are expected to acquire a range
of skills so that you can meet the skill demands of the organisation
that you would work for or to set up and run your own business.
This textbook on ‘Employability Skills’ covers communication,
self-management, information and communication technology, entrepreneurial
and green skills. It has been developed as per the learning outcome based
curriculum. The employability skills are embedded in the Qualification
Packs of the different job roles in various sectors under the National
Skill Qualification Framework. The textbook aims to provide learning

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 experience through a blended approach of text and video-based interactive
e-learning lessons. Running these e-learning lessons in classrooms
would require a computer with Internet connection, projector and sound
system, which the school should provide to the teachers and students.
The teachers will guide you to actively participate in class — asking
and answering questions and following the instructions to complete the
exercises and activities.

Vinay Swarup Mehrotra

Professor and Head
Curriculum Development and Evaluation Centre
and National Skill Qualification Framework Cell,
PSSCIVE, Bhopal

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 Acknowledgements

The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT)

expresses its gratitude to all members of the Project Approval Board (PAB)
and officials of the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD),
Government of India, for their cooperation in the development of this
textbook. The Council would like to thank Rajesh P. Khambayat, Joint
Director, PSS Central Institute of Vocational Education (PSSCIVE), Bhopal
for providing support and guidance in the development of this textbook.
The Council extends its gratitude to Vinay Swarup Mehrotra, Professor
and Head, Curriculum Development and Evaluation Centre and National
Skill Qualification Framework Cell, PSSCIVE, Bhopal, for his untiring
efforts, skillful guidance and assistance in the development and publishing
of this textbook.
The Council is grateful to Saroj Yadav, Professor and Dean (A), NCERT,
and Ranjana Arora, Professor and Head, Department of Curriculum
Studies, for their sincere efforts in coordinating the review workshops for
the finalisation of this textbook.
The Council acknowledges the contribution of the following review
committee members from PSSCIVE — Abhijit Nayak, Professor and Head,
Department of Health and Paramedical, Dipak Shudhalwar, Associate
Professor and Head, Department of Engineering and Technology, Kuldeep
Singh, Professor and Head, Department of Agriculture and Animal
Husbandry, Mridula Saxena, Professor, Department of Home Science
and Hospitality Management, P. Veeraiah, Associate Professor and Head,
Department of Business and Commerce, Pinki Khanna, Professor and
Head, Department of Home Science and Hospitality Management, Rajiv
Pathak, Professor, Department of Agriculture and Animal Husbandry,
Saurabh Prakash, Professor, Department of Engineering and Technology,
R.K. Shukla, Professor, Department of Business and Commerce,
and Vipin K. Jain, Associate Professor and Head, Department
of Humanities, Science, Education and Research, for
reviewing this textbook.
The Council also acknowledges the valuable contribution of Monal
Jayaram, Core Team Member, Pratishtha Ingale, Program Manager, Anshu
Dubey, Program Director, Bhaskar Lath, Program Leader from Kaivalya

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 Education Foundation, and Manisha Date, Director–People Development
and Life Skills and Annette Francis Parakkal, Program Associate–Research,
Pratham Education Foundation, towards the improvement of this textbook.
The Council also extends gratitude to Aakarshan Chauhan, Program
Manager, Wadhwani Foundation, Aakash Sethi, Chief Executive Officer,
Quest Alliance, Aditi Kumar, Project Manager, Quest Alliance, Amit Singh,
Advisor, National Institute for Entrepreneurship and Small Business
Development, Austin Thomas, Vice President, Wadhwani Foundation,
Deepti Bhomra, Curriculum Manager, Wadhwani Foundation, Krishnan S,
Senior Program Manager, Central Square Foundation, Mekin Maheshwari,
Chief Executive Officer, Udhyam Learning Foundation, Nidhi Sahni,
Curriculum Manager, Wadhwani Foundation, Nikita Bengani, Senior
Program Manager, Quest Alliance, Poonam Sinha, Joint Director, National
Institute for Entrepreneurship and Small Business Development,
Rohit Massey, Consultant, National Institute for Entrepreneurship and
Small Business Development, Satya Nagarjan, Consultant, Wadhwani
Foundation, Shivani Gandhi, Program Manager, Udhyam Learning
Foundation, Sonal Jain, Consultant, Wadhwani Foundation, Sonia Kakkar,
Consultant, Wadhwani Foundation Vijay Siddharth Pillai, Project Manager,
Central Square Foundation, for their assistance in compiling this book.
The efforts of Hemlata Baghel, Consultant (Contractual), Sunita
Koli, Computer Operator (Grade III) and Akshay Sharma, Computer
Operator, (Contractual), PSSCIVE, Piyush Deorankar, Computer Operator
(Contractual), PSSCIVE, Rahul Rajput, Consultant, and Akash Sharma,
Consultant, Lend-A-Hand India are also duly acknowledged. Reema Nath,
Consultant, Wadhwani Foundation, is duly acknowledged for providing
illustrations for the textbook. The images used in the textbook have been
sourced from the Creative Commons License.
Ashish Kohli, State Project Director, Himachal Pradesh and the
vocational teachers of Himachal Pradesh are duly acknowledged for
the feedback to customise the sessions for providing a better learning
experience to the students. The contributions of the following vocational
teachers are also duly acknowledged — Piyush Sewal, Deepak Kumar,
Radhika Chauhan, Sundeep Sharma, Ankur Chauhan, Praveen Meghta,
Ravi Kumar, Yadu Sharma, Reetika Gupta, Pooja Devi, Ritu Raj, Chandni
Mahant, and Daya Ram.
The Council also acknowledges the copyediting and valuable
contribution of Shilpa Mohan, Assistant Editor (Contractual) and Garima
Syal, Proofreader (Contractual), Publication Division, NCERT, in shaping
this book. The efforts of DTP Operators Pawan Kumar Barriar, Sadiq Saeed
(Contractual) and Nitin Gupta (Contractual), Publication Division, NCERT,
for flawless layout design are also acknowledged.

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 Contents
Foreword iii
About the Textbook v
Unit 1: Communication Skills 1
Session 1: Introduction to Communication 1
Session 2: Verbal Communication 6
Session 3: Non-verbal Communication 10
Session 4: Pronunciation Basics 17
Session 5: Communication Styles — Assertiveness 21
Session 6: Saying No — Refusal Skills 27
Session 7: Writing Skills — Parts of Speech 31
Session 8: Writing Skills — Sentences 39
Session 9: Greetings and Introduction 45
Session 10: Talking about Self 49
Session 11: Asking Questions 53
Session 12: Talking about Family 57
Session 13: Describing Habits and Routines 62
Session 14: Asking for Directions 65
Unit 2: Self-management Skills 69
Session 1: Strength and Weakness Analysis 69
Session 2: Grooming 77
Session 3: Personal Hygiene 80
Session 4: Team Work 85
Session 5: Networking Skills 88
Session 6: Self-motivation 92
Session 7: Goal Setting 96
Session 8: Time Management 101
Unit 3: Information and Communication Technology Skills 106
Session 1: Introduction to ICT 106
Session 2: Basic Interface of LibreOffice Writer 110
Session 3: Saving, Closing, Opening and Printing Document 115
Session 4: Formatting Text in a Word Document 118
Session 5: Checking Spelling and Grammar 122

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 Session 6: Inserting Lists, Tables, Pictures and Shapes 126
Session 7: Header, Footer and Page Number 130
Session 8: Tracking Changes in LibreOffice Writer 133
Unit 4: Entrepreneurship Skills 137
Session 1: Introduction to Entrepreneurship 138
Session 2: Values of an Entrepreneur 141
Session 3: Attitude of an Entrepreneur 147
Session 4: Thinking Like an Entrepreneur 150
Session 5: Coming Up with a Business Idea 155
Session 6: Understanding the Market 161
Session 7: Business Planning 166
Unit 5: Green Skills 171
Session 1: Sectors of Green Economy 171
Session 2: Policies for a Green Economy 176
Session 3: Stakeholders in Green Economy 181
Session 4: Government and Private Agencies 185
Answer Key 190
Glossary 195
Further Readings 198

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