Accenture, a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company, has come up with a unique tie-up with academics to teach students these soft skills at the college level.

The students of College of Engineering Pune (CoEP) are going to benefit from this initiative as Accenture has tied up with CoEP to introduce a course in Attitudinal Leadership, which seeks to develop soft skills in students. Anil Sahasrabuddhe, director of CoEP, and Mahesh Zurale, senior director, Accenture, signed a MoU on Friday.

“It will be a two-way advantage as the students can learn the basic soft skills required for the industry at the college level itself and the industry will get battle-ready manpower from colleges,” said Zurale.

“In this world of globalisation, soft skills are considered an asset and thus companies have to invest in training their employees. We thought if we can introduce a course like this at the college level it could help the industry,” said Shrikant Maniar, senior manager, Accenture.

“We have shortlisted 60 students for the course,” said Sandeep Meshram, training and placement officer, CoEP.

“According to the MoU, the Accenture will conduct soft-skills sessions in the CoEP and the college will provide the infrastructure,” said Meshram.

The subject is introduced for the third-year students. “The Accenture staff will be faculty for the sessions to be conducted on weekends. We propose to conduct lectures for 40 hours in a term and there will be continuous assessment of students based on how they acquire the skills,” said C G Prakash, senior manager, Accenture, who is a faculty for the course.