Vidya Poshak's Employment Readiness Camp Report
Background:
Vidya Poshak has supported thousands of students to
attain their dream of graduation. Most if not all the students that VP supports
are from a rural background or are financially challenged. They do not have
skills that would make them employable. As a step in this direction, we have
launched a program to help the graduating students to gain skills that would
make them employable. The program was
launched with a target of 408 non-professional
course students who will complete their graduation in 2014.
Activities so far:
VP planned and launched a series of 7 day residential
camps to reach our final year students. Before that, we came up with a survey
form that collected data from the students. This form was administered to a
sample set of final year students based in Dharwad by the three senior
personnel of Vidya Poshak viz Prof. Tikot, Venkatesan N and Girish Naganur.
This sample of approximately 30 students gave us the idea to optimize the form.
We then grouped students studying in various streams like
Arts, Commerce and Science. We also planned on camps in areas close to the
larger group of students. We came up with venues and plan for conducting camps
at Devara Hubballi and Siddapur.
The first camp was kicked of on 30th
July 2013 at Devara Hubballi. The last camp was also conducted at Devara
Hubballi from 26th Sept to 2nd Oct 2013.
Month-wise Activities and Plan:
Our activities for the ERP were planned month-wise and the table below
shows the plans in detail.
|
Sl.No.
|
Planned time
/ Month
|
Activity
|
Status
|
|
1
|
June 2013
|
Plans drawn for Employment Readiness Program. Lists
of students drawn based on their streams and locations.
|
Completed.
|
|
2
|
July 2013
|
Pilot phase of counselling completed for students
from Dharwad. Counselling on this
sample leads to revision of the survey form.
Venues and logistics for the camps finalised.
Students sent invitation to attend the camps near their home locations.
|
Completed.
|
|
3
|
Aug 2013 - October
|
Conduct ERP Camps.
|
Completed
|
|
4
|
Oct – Dec
|
Online follow-up training using our Blog &
Mobile Internet technology
|
Completed
|
|
5
|
Jan 2014 – Feb 2014
|
Follow-up workshop & assessment
|
Planned
|
|
6
|
Mar 2014 – May
|
Finalize resumes of all students & Start to approach
the companies.
|
Planned. TBD.
|
|
7
|
June 2014
|
Conduct a 2 day Final workshop
|
Planned. TBD.
|
|
8
|
July 2014
|
Schedule campus recruitments for the students who
have completed their last semester exams.
|
Planned. TBD.
|
Methodology:
We planned to provide the employability skills in phased
manner. The first phase was to meet with the students and understand their
dream and aspirations. The next part of the same phase was to help create a
path to achieve their dream. It started with an introduction to the students on
skills like Resume writing, English speaking and comprehension, interview
skills and aptitude skills. This training was done in 7 day residential camps.
The second phase is to continue the training remotely by means of online tests
and reading material. Once the students completed their graduation, we plan to
get them into another residential camp and provide the finishing touches to
their training in employment skills.
We planned activities in our first training camps in the
following manner.
|
Day
|
Activity
|
|
One
|
Arrival of students from various areas to the camp.
Counselors addressed the students and explained the
survey form.
Students completed the survey form providing their
family details and aspirations.
|
|
Two
|
Individual counseling based on the various aspirations
described in the survey forms.
The other students awaiting counseling learn about
Resume Writing. A Resume Template is provided to students.
|
|
Three & Four
|
Training on Aptitude skills.
Solve question papers collated to offer various
numerical aptitude skills.
|
|
Five and Six
|
Training in English Comprehension.
Provide questionnaire that exposes the students to the
real life questions in tests.
|
|
Seven
|
A test that includes Aptitude and English comprehension
conducted. This test gives a quantification of the students learning during
the camp and gives a heads up to the students about their study path. Students
leave for their home by the end of day.
|
Online Tests and resources.
Soon after the camps started, we designed a set of question papers that
would test the progress of the students. We have sent more than 25 tests till
mid-Dec 2013 using Google forms. We have
received responses from students and these responses are gradually increasing.
There are a few challenges in using the Google forms. They include connectivity
and cost of internet access. We were trying to have people donate their used
phones with GPRS facility so that we could send these questions using mobiles.
In the meanwhile we have created several online resources for students.
Blogs that provide Aptitude tests, English language tips, information on jobs
etc are being used by both VP students as well as their friends.
Link for online tests: http://vpcareeroptions.blogspot.in/2013/10/new-aptitude-worksheets.html
Link for various materials:
Results so far.
We reached all the final years students of
non-professional courses; a total of 408 students.
Of these, 365 were able to attend our first step camp (boot camp). Of these
nearly 100 students indicated their desire to pursue further education or take
up competitive exams like KAS, IAS. Some others from commerce stream aim to
become Chartered Accountants or Company Secretary. The remaining students want
to take up jobs either at local levels or in big cities. The details are
provided in Table below.
|
Course Streams
|
Private Job
|
Govt. Job
|
Professional
Education (CA, CS, IAS etc)
|
Post Graduation
|
Total
|
|
Commerce
|
172
|
25
|
31
|
15
|
243
|
|
Arts
|
37
|
26
|
4
|
6
|
73
|
|
Science
|
56
|
5
|
1
|
30
|
92
|
|
Total
|
265
|
56
|
36
|
51
|
408
|
Some images from the
ERP Camps
CONVERSATION