1) The document describes prototypes for training fresh graduates on soft skills through practical workshops that simulate real-world work scenarios. 2) The second prototype, which involves students designing and building rockets in teams, receives positive feedback after incorporating suggestions to allow students to regroup and improve their design before evaluation. 3) When tested, assigning specific roles to students based on their skills and having them focus only on those roles, along with including regular quality checks, helps the student team optimize their process and outcomes.

1. PROTOTYPING AND TEST
Poornima Venkataramanan
18th August, 2013

2. PROTOTYPE
Employers NEED a way to find the right skills in freshmen graduating out of schools since it helps
corporates concentrate in furthering their business rather than spend time preparing them for their
careers.
Problem Statement
Curriculum design for soft skill training
Topics:
• Business Etiquettes
• Communication and Interpersonal
Skills
• Presentation Skills
• Team Building
Career Lab:
• Practical workshop on working
scenario with a corporate.
Prototype 1 Prototype 2

3. RESPONSE FOR THE 2 PROTOTYPES
Stakeholder
Employer
Director of Engineering
in a Software company
with 15 years of
experience
Prototype 1:
“This curriculum is what we have when
we onboard anyone joining the
organization. This would help when they
immediately can put this in use. Giving
this as part of education curriculum might
not be a great idea although I am not
against it. I am not sure whether this
would be successful.”
Prototype 2:
“Yes this is a practical workshop.
The design of this is wonderful.
One feedback to make this
successful- you are asking the
students to execute the project.
You should also allow them to
regroup and deliver before asking
the corporate perspective. This
would be more practical and will
drive home the point. Otherwise I
think this design would work. I
can test this with freshmen joining
and see how this can work”
Choosing the Prototype 2 based on
the feedback

4. PROTOTYPE 2: DESIGN
Step 1: Define the activity
Students are grouped into 3 of them in a team. The team has to make the rockets as per the
design in the picture below. There are 5 folds in all and each member can only make 2 folds
for making one rocket. Team is given 5 minutes to complete making rockets according to
their own estimates. The rockets have to hit a target from a specified distance to make it to
the finished number.
1
2
3
4

5. THE SKETCH

6. TEST 1
Time Starts: Total time 5 minutes
“Lets make the
rockets as
directed. Each of
us will start
making a rocket
and the next
person will pick
up from wherever
the other person
has left. After
making rockets till
4 minutes we will
test the rockets
by hitting the
rocket at the dart
board. We can
target making 20
rockets.”
Result:
Tom, Mark and John made the first 2 folds. Then each of them
took the other person’s 2 folds and continued the next 2 folds.
The team made about 20 rockets in 4 minutes and each of them
took the rockets and hit the dart board. 8 rockets hit the target
and 12 rockets failed the test. Team did not achieve the target
set by themselves which is 20 (60% failure)
Team: John, Tom,
Mark

7. TEST 2 REORGANIZED TEAM
If the team is given a choice as to what could have been right then how can this be redone.
“John will make
only the first 2
folds, Tom will
make the next 2
folds and Mark
will do the final
fold. As soon as 5
pieces are
complete by Mark
he goes in to test.
3 out of 5 should
be successful.”
Result:
This methodology allowed 15 rockets that passed the test and
with repeatable process the team ended up making 25 rockets
more than the target in anticipation of failure. With this the
team achieved 75% success
Team:
John, Tom, Mark

8. TEST 3 – CORPORATE ORGANIZED TEAM
Skill assessment
 Mark is good in making the first 2 folds and test the finished pieces by
hitting the dart board.
 John is good in making the rest of the 2 folds
Process:
 Tom marks the folds with pencil and scale in the paper. He should mark 10
rockets and keep passing it on to Mark and subsequently to John.
 Once Tom marks 10 rockets, he should start making the final fold and
complete the final pieces.
 Once Tom completes the final fold for 5 pieces and by which time Mark and
John completes the 4 folds for all the pieces marked, Tom should start
marking the next 5 pieces.
 Mark should start testing the completed rockets - the check point at every
5 pieces completed.

9. TEST 3 – CORPORATE ORGANIZED TEAM
 Result:
 20 pieces pass the test at the end of 4.5 minutes. Total rockets made
was 23
 The success rate is 87 %
 Lessons learnt:
 Spend some time in planning out the execution of the task
 Identify the team skills and take the job accordingly
 Work as a team and compliment each others abilities
 Design and precision is very important to optimize the effort (marking
the folds)
 Building too many is not as important as the ones that actually make it
to the finish line
 Quality check should happen at regular intervals instead of at the end.
(at the end of every 5 pieces completed). This would help in correcting
course half way through
 Repeat activity optimizes productivity till a certain point (Mark, John
and Tom only did specific folds that were assigned to them)

10. OUTCOME
 The message to be conveyed at the start of the exercise
was - by giving a scenario to the freshmen out of college
where they can directly and easily correlate to the skills
and expectations of the employer.
 The first feedback from students was that it was simple and
direct to be able to correlate than the lectures on each of the
topic
 The Director could visibly see that he could penetrate the
students mindshare right away and sped the onboarding
process of students.
Note: The video could not be taken since this was at the office
premises and any videos or pictures are strictly forbidden.