Information and communication tools (ICT) were the answer to the crisis created in imparting education due to COVID-19. Many precautionary measures were introduced to combat and prevent the spread of the pandemic. The learning process was affected to a great extent because of the pandemic-induced lockdown of educational institutions, among others. The traditional teaching and learning process was significantly impacted, and educational institutions had to adapt to online teaching. Information and communication tools played a major role in replacing the vacuum created by the shutdown of schools and universities through online teaching. It also played a significant role in imparting uninterrupted education to students. The online education tool meant for students has also proved to be a learning process for parents and teachers. Despite its various challenges and initial hiccups, online learning using ICT platforms such as Google Classroom or Zoom demonstrated that remote learning and teaching were possible. Further, the boom in app-based learning, such as Biju’s, WhiteHatJnr, or Udemi, proved that ICT could augment formal education and offer quality education that is accessible to many students with varied capacities. In this paper, we explore remote education during COVID-19 and how those teaching experiences could be utilised beyond the pandemic period to fill the continuing need for soft skills and communication training among students who lack language proficiency which further impacts their employability. We undertook a survey with 140 respondents (120 students and 20 teachers) and found that a majority of the students agreed that the online classes were effective and feasible; while some of the teachers found it easier to adapt to online teaching using ICT, few senior teachers found it difficult to adapt from traditional teaching methods to remote teaching. We conclude that Google Classroom and Zoom can be effectively used for online teaching and recommend the use of these proven technologies to fill the language proficiency gap among job aspirants.

COVID-19, Google Classroom, language proficiency, Zoom, ICT, online learning.