Presentation and Public speaking skills - Workshop

Normally, whenever, we think of Co-operative Banks, we assume to be old dilapidated buildings with improper maintenance. But, I was pleasantly surprised to see the Agricultural Co-operative Staff Training Institute (ACSTI) at Madhavaram, in the outskirts of Chennai. I had the opportunity of visiting the Institute on 6th October 2009 to conduct half-a-day workshop on "Presentation and Public speaking skills" for their trainees.

This Institute is managed and run by Tamilnadu State Apex Co-operative Bank Limited. The Institute situated in 5 acre natural green environment provides a conducive atmosphere for training. The dining hall, hostel rooms, class rooms and conference halls fitted with modern gadgets, library, etc. give the look of corporate training centre. They provide all types of training from freshers to senior level management executives on banking. Very unfortunately, they are not known outside.

I wondered when I was invited by Mr Manohar, Principal of the Institute to conduct a half-a-day workshop on 'Presentation and Public speaking skills' for their trainees. Probably this is the first time, this Institute had thought of inclusion of this workshop in the regular training schedule. Even when the Nationalised Public Sector Banks and Corporate giants have not thought of exposing heir employees for the much needed presentation skills, this Institute had pro-actively planned to prepare their trainees to face the competition from the public and private sector banks.

Around 50 trainees participated in this workshop. The purpose of this workshop was to create confidence amongst the trainees for presentation skills. After 45 minutes of introductory session, I asked a few participants to talk on theme of their choice for 5 minutes. Some people were asked to speak extempore. All the speeches of the participants were recorded in video and later played and reviewed. Surprisingly, many of the trainees, who had expressed 'stage fear', 'lack of fluency'. 'lack of confidence', etc. have all done well, belying their own apprehensions. Ultimately, this exercise has proved that people had only false fear or apprehension about themselves without any base and when they were given an opportunity they performed better.

Public Sector and Private Sector organisations should take cue from this little known 'Co-operative Training Institute' to train their own employees.