Tamil Nadu HSE Second Year Employability Skills cheat sheet

Communication process chain: sender → encoding → message → channel → receiver → decoding → feedback; interference at any link is called noise or a barrier.

Seven Cs checklist before sending any message: Clear, Concise, Concrete, Correct, Coherent, Complete, Courteous.

Verbal means words (oral or written); non-verbal divides into kinesics (body movement), proxemics (space), haptics (touch), chronemics (time) and paralanguage (tone, pitch, pace).

Hearing is passive sound reception; listening is active - attention, interpretation, response. Active listening uses paraphrasing, questioning and summarising.

Barrier types: physical/noise, semantic (jargon, ambiguity), psychological (emotion, prejudice), cultural, organisational. Remove each barrier at its own level - define jargon to clear a semantic barrier, move to a quiet room to clear a physical one.

Feedback rule: specific, timely and behaviour-focused. "The report reached me on Monday, one day after the deadline" works; "you are careless" does not.

Channel choice rule: face-to-face or phone for complex, sensitive or emotional messages (richest channel); email, memo or notice board for routine factual messages (leaner channels).

Formal email structure: subject line stating the purpose, salutation, short body, closing, signature with name and contact details.

When words and body language contradict each other, receivers generally trust the non-verbal cue, so tone, face and gesture must match the spoken message.

Goleman's five emotional intelligence components: self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, social skills.

SMART test - Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound; a goal failing any one element is rewritten before work begins.

Eisenhower decision rule: urgent + important → do now; important but not urgent → schedule; urgent but not important → delegate; neither → drop.

SWOT split: Strengths and Weaknesses are internal and controllable; Opportunities and Threats are external and not controllable.

Johari Window quadrants: open (known to self and others), blind (others only), hidden (self only), unknown (neither). Asking for feedback shrinks the blind area.

Stress types: eustress is short-term and performance-enhancing; distress is prolonged and harmful. Problem-focused coping changes the stressor, emotion-focused coping changes the response to it.

Habit loop = cue → routine → reward; a habit is changed by keeping the cue and reward and substituting a new routine.

Pomodoro cycle: 25 minutes of single-task work, 5-minute break; a longer break after four cycles.

Common file extensions: .docx (Word), .xlsx (spreadsheet), .pptx (presentation), .pdf (fixed-layout document), .csv (plain comma-separated data).

Every spreadsheet formula begins with = ; standard functions include =SUM(A1:A5), =AVERAGE(A1:A5), =COUNT(A1:A5) and =IF(A1>=40,"Pass","Fail").

A1 is a relative reference that shifts when copied; $A$1 is absolute and stays fixed; $A1 fixes only the column and A$1 fixes only the row.

Email fields: To = receiver must act; Cc = information copy visible to all; Bcc = hidden recipients, used for large lists and privacy.

Password rule: at least 8 characters mixing upper case, lower case, digits and symbols, unique per account, never shared; enable two-factor authentication wherever offered.

Phishing decision rule: unexpected urgency + link or attachment + request for OTP, PIN or password = stop, verify through an official channel, do not click.

Before entering personal or payment data check for https:// and the padlock; avoid banking on public Wi-Fi; log out and clear sessions on shared computers.

Search operators: "exact phrase" in quotes, minus sign to exclude a word, site:gov.in to limit to a domain, filetype:pdf to limit to a format.

3-2-1 backup rule: three copies of data, on two different media, with one copy stored off-site.

Core entrepreneurial functions: idea generation, opportunity spotting, feasibility study, resource mobilisation, organising production, risk bearing, innovation.

Entrepreneur types: business, social (mission before profit), serial (ventures one after another), portfolio (several run at once), intrapreneur (employee-innovator inside a firm).

Business plan order: executive summary, business description, market analysis, marketing plan, operations plan, management team, financial projections.

Primary market research = surveys, interviews, observation, pilot sales; secondary research = census data, industry reports, government portals, published statistics.

4 Ps of marketing: Product, Price, Place, Promotion; a change in any one forces a review of the other three.

Break-even quantity = Fixed cost ÷ (Selling price − Variable cost per unit); sales below this volume produce a loss.

Udyam (MSME) registration gives access to priority-sector credit, subsidy schemes, protection against delayed payments and eligibility for government tenders.

Intellectual property mapping: patent for a new invention (20 years), trademark for brand identity (10 years, renewable), copyright for literary or artistic work (life of the author plus 60 years in India), design registration for appearance.

Funding ladder: own savings and family → bank or MUDRA loan → angel or venture capital → crowdfunding; each step trades ownership or liability for money.

Brundtland definition: sustainable development meets present needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet theirs, balancing economic, social and environmental pillars.

Waste hierarchy order: prevent → reduce → reuse → recycle → recover energy → dispose; disposal is the last option, never the first.

Renewable sources: solar, wind, hydro, biomass, geothermal, tidal. Non-renewable: coal, petroleum, natural gas, nuclear fuels.

Carbon footprint = total greenhouse gas emissions of a person, product, event or organisation, measured in kilograms or tonnes of CO2 equivalent (CO2e).

Air pollutants to know: carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, methane and particulate matter; PM2.5 is fine enough to reach the lungs and bloodstream.

E-waste rule: phones, batteries, CFLs and circuit boards go to authorised recyclers or take-back points - they contain lead, mercury and cadmium and never belong in household bins.

Energy-saving decision rules: buy BEE 5-star appliances, replace incandescent bulbs with LED, switch off at the plug instead of standby, set air conditioners near 24–26 °C, use solar water heating.

Green jobs include solar technician, wind turbine technician, waste and recycling manager, water treatment operator, energy auditor, sustainability or EHS officer, organic farm supervisor.

Five main biodiversity threats: habitat loss and fragmentation, invasive alien species, pollution, overexploitation, climate change.