Soft Skills Development

For achieving its aspirations of occupying a recognized position among the institutions of quality higher education and becoming a University of ‘Preferred Choice’, DU strives to ensure that its students are properly guided in selecting their career and the majority of its graduates are gainfully employed. Career guidance and employment services play a vital role in this regard.
Career services at DU aim to guide and assist new students in selecting their career through the right choice of program and specialisation. Likewise, employment services aim to improve the skills, personality and employment prospects of graduating students.

DU has a “Career Guidance Section” (CGS) in the DSA to provide a range of career guidance and employment services. The staff providing these services are adequately qualified. The section deals with both career guidance and employment services. It is ensured that the CGS provides adequate services for students.

a) Career guidance

Career guidance is especially for new students and is usually through guest-lectures and orientation sessions. Students are informed about career opportunities available in various specialisations. For that purpose, DU has prepared booklets for various specializations, clearly showing career opportunities available in that specialisation. DU has also developed a questionnaire which helps the staff in CGS in assessing ability, liking and inclination of the student so that he/she can be properly guided.

b) Employment services

Employment services are for all DU students with the main focus on graduating students. Graduating students are encouraged to take advantage of the services provided by the CGS. These services are available at University level and at College level.
The activities of the CGS include organizing resume-writing workshops, job interview coaching personality development programs, conducting mock interviews, arranging guest lectures etc. The CGS coordinates with academic departments and the “Soft Skills Cell” for providing these services.

DU has a “Soft Skills Cell” (SSC) to supplement the activities of the CGS. The SSC works in close coordination with the CGS and helps in enhancing the employment potential of DU graduates. The SSC conducts workshops for graduating students to improve their soft skills and arranges guest lectures by experts on various topics. DU encourages its graduating students to take advantage of services provided by the SSC. Through this SSC, DU provides an opportunity to its alumni (who are searching for jobs) for improving their soft skills and increasing their employment potential.

Career advising services at DU are made available centrally at University level through CGS and also in a decentralized manner at individual Colleges and Academic Departments within the College. All Academic Department Chairs in the Colleges, Master Program Coordinators and the College Assistant Deans are assigned this job and are available to students for career advising every day as per pre-notified schedule. These are the people with specialised knowledge in their academic field and are in a much better position to advise the students in their specialised area.

Work placement is supervised and assessed work carried out by students, with the approval of the College, in a social, business, industrial or other organisation. DU perceives work placement as a valuable experience for students, which enhances their employment opportunities.
Work placement is an integral part of the majority of the programs at DU. The objective is to acquaint the student with a real life workplace environment. It provides them with opportunities to put into practice the theoretical knowledge gained by them in the classroom. The Colleges have a “Training and Placements Coordinator” to arrange practical training for students.

a) Arrangements with Business organisations for work placement

DU has informal agreements with a number of societies, businesses and industrial organisations in public and private sectors, governmental agencies, schools, hospitals and NGOs, where work placement training are given to its students.
DU maintains a database of such organisations, which is reviewed and updated every year. The most prominent among them are: Omantel, Dhofar Power Company, Oredoo, Bank Muscat, Bank Dhofar, Hilton Salalah, Crown Plaza, Raysut Cement, Salalah Port Services, Oman Air and Octal Company.
For social work students, DU has informal agreements with a number of social services providers. The most prominent among them are: The Ministry of Social Development, Court, Sultan Qaboos Hospital, Al Wafa Centers, Autism Center, Omani Woman Center and the DU Hostel.

b) Duration of Work Placement

The duration of internship in CCBA and practical training in CE is for two months, whereas practicum internship in the Department of Education is for one semester and the field internship in the Social Science Department is for two semesters in the case of the Bachelor Program.

c) Supervision, Monitoring and Assessment of Work Placement

Student interns are supervised by an assigned faculty member who makes site visits to follow up on the students’ progress. The interns also have a mentor (supervisor) within their workplace. Students and work supervisors submit their internship reports on the work experience, which subsequently counts towards the program requirements. Records of work placements are maintained by the respective academic departments.