Won the UK India Skills Forum Award (UKISF) 2011!

NF has won the UK India Skills Forum (UKISF) Awards 2011 organized by the UK India Business Council and FICCI! We had applied in the category for "Best Private Sector Skills Provider (Graduates/School Drop Outs/Rural Communities)"

The award is a big morale booster for our teams that work so hard, creating the change we want to bring about in the skill development area. 

Thank you to all our supporters, staff,  volunteers and all our really great students! 

Musings of a new Center Head!

My first impression of the task ahead as drawn by the last Center Head meet was - "This is not going to be easy." Sustainability meant higher capacity utilization, which meant greater mobilization, which meant understanding community, getting visibility, counselling etc. while keeping the quality intact which in turn meant "Multitasking- infact Severe Multitasking". 

I am sure all the other center heads have already mastered the art of multi-tasking. I also braced myself up for it, got some ideas together and for headed Sangam Vihar, where in words of an autowallah, - "the rich and the poor are treated equally.. by the potholes & the traffic madam ji. All are like rockets, either waiting to take-off or to explode." I was convinced that NIIT Foundation could offer opportunities to some of these rockets and probably prevent some of the explosions! 

The conviction became even stronger, as I met the extremely passionate & extremely supportive team - both core team and center team. I don't know many organizations where people filled to the brim with their own work, will patiently help you in yours. And when you're new, this becomes critical in learning & understanding the process. The openness and flexibility to toy with new ideas is an another important thing found in abundance at NF. 

Looking back, the past month has been like a crash course in multiple things, a roller-coaster ride in itself and I'm planning to keep it that way!

Excuse me, I am an Introvert!

For the longest time I confused being an introvert with being shy.  I thought introverts avoided being around people and as a natural consequence were not necessarily good public speakers.  Being an extrovert I thought was a mandatory requirement for being successful in a public role.

Till one of my professors explained the difference between introverts and extroverts with a brilliant analogy.  As per him, we should look at introverts as people born with battery packs – that is where they derive their energy from.  When they wake up in the morning, their battery is fully charged and they are ready to face the new day and any challenge it might bring.  They can be good speakers or bad, shy or friendly – characteristics independent of an introvert nature.  As the day goes by, interactions with another people depletes their battery, till there is hardly any energy left after a long day of interactions.  When the battery is running low, an introvert must withdraw from public (even well meaning individuals) and wait for batteries to recharge.

An extrovert on the other hand can be looked at as a person with solar panels.  So when an extrovert wakes up, they open up their solar panels and eagerly look for people.  They need human interaction to get energy.  With every interaction, their energy increases so after a full day of interactions, they are raring to go!  Again, just because they get their energy from interactions with other people does not in any way guarantee that they are great speakers - so a myth broken.

As part of our company’s recruitment process, we evaluate an individual on many parameters including how the person reacts to people – introvert or extrovert.  This awareness is important. Because if we use our intrinsic nature as reasons for not doing certain things, they become stumbling blocks.  However, if we are aware and understand our intrinsic nature, it doesn’t need to become a constraint leaving us free to be as we choose.

Sapna Moudgil
NIIT Foundation

Me and Social Work

It was the fag end of my graduation. Everyone around me was going crazy with filling up multiple forms for assorted colleges, taking coaching classes for various competitive exams, undergoing counseling sessions. All wanted to get into the top business schools with just one focus in their mind which was to “earn money”. Amidst all this fervor and money being the sole motivating factor for most of the students, entering into the realm of professional social work was a tough decision. You could see eyebrows rising and people bombarding you with verbal arrows. Despite all the pressure around where people were reluctant to accept any opinion contradictory to their idea about social work I decided to pursue masters in Social Work.

Undergoing masters in social work has been an enriching experience. I received exposure to the stark realities of living in Delhi and the strength that various individuals displayed to withstand all these troubles with a smile on their face. Each opportunity to interact with people has been a learning experience and has had a tremendous impact on my thought process.

During this phase innumerable individuals have impacted my life. One such person has been Pritam. I came in touch with Pritam while I was interning with a school. As a social worker I had to shoulder the responsibility of engaging all the students into various community services and awareness generation programs. Hence I was in direct contact with all the school kids. While on one hand some students displayed special inclination towards the subject, others were a challenge to engage into the various activities. One student who was always there to carry out every task was Pritam. A shy and very polite grade XII student, Pritam carried out any responsibility levied on his shoulders with perfection. I was awed at the amount of dedication he displayed while carrying out the tasks for the community members especially for the youth. Due to this he had become a favorite amongst all the teachers, students and even the community. During the close interaction with grade XII I learnt that Pritam came from a very difficult educational and social background. Disinterested in studies he flunked in grade IX for four consecutive times after which he was expelled from the school. Being the team leader of the local gang in the community he was engaged in all kind of wrong activities such as gang fights. At that point of time using abusive language was a habit he was really proud about. He spent two years being out of the education system before coming in contact with a school run by an NGO. Through the motivation that he received from the NGO people he realized that he could lead a healthy life by transforming himself. Thus he assured his family that he will resume his studies again and joined the school. The alternative methodology of teaching accompanied by the high emphasis on self development paved a way for enhancing his skills and knowledge. Pritam realized the importance of education and thus set an aim in his life too. With constant touch with social workers he also channelized his efforts to work towards community betterment. Today Pritam has been instrumental in helping all the youth in his group to either join school or earn a living by working.

A student like Pritam taught me that where there is a will there is a way. It’s been 3 years that I have been associated with this field professionally. Such instances strengthened my determination to work with the people directly. The driver for work being –‘working with and for others’ helps me in overcoming a lot of dilemmas that I may confront in my daily life because I realized that my commitment towards this cause has brought about some change in an individual’s life.

Swati Kukreti

NIIT Foundation

Nature AND Nurture

This incident goes back to last summer when the Gharoli team and I were conducting home visits. In one of the nearby lanes we saw a group of children, between 5-7 years of age, chuckling in excitement. ‘What fun! How I wish I could join them!’ I thought to myself. However, soon after I heard a yelp, a loud painful one. Again and again! It grew faint, before it finally died out, in the din of the joyful voices of the children. A fearful voice within me screamed, ‘There’s something not right there, run!’ I rushed towards the children.

Around the children lay 6 puppies, maybe I should say 4 dead and 2 struggling to survive. On asking I realized that the children thought the pups were toys and twisting necks of the vulnerable, the voiceless was an exciting activity. I was filled with anger against those children and wanted to actually whack them. Whoever said we were all born kind, like angels and gradually the environment shaped and labeled us as good or bad. In a flash of a second I junked the nature vs. nurture theory. Something was constantly buzzing in my head. No! There were human voices somewhere in the background, saying something that didn’t make sense and just like you snap out of a trance- I broke out of my dark thoughts. A few parents of those children had gathered around me and were complaining how their children didn’t listen to them and look at what they had now done! To ensure that the ‘powerful’ continue to dominate over the weak the parents slapped their children a couple of times and sent them home. A while back, when all the ‘fun’ was happening, the same parents were looking on, basking in the sun, while the pups silently passed away into eternal bliss. All this when I thought the four legged were the animals! In a few minutes I saw who the ‘real, scary, wild’ animal inside each one of us standing there. It seemed like eternity, but all this happened in a flash. I had to save the remaining two pups and I shifted my focus towards that.

Is there heaven on Earth? Yes, we soon discovered that our own center was and the CDC students were the real angels, who I thought didn’t exist anymore. Two boys immediately took charge; they knew a vet close by and decided to take the pups there. They left on a bike leaving behind a cloud of dust, but it cleared soon after, or maybe my mind did! Nature vs. nurture! Maybe a better way of putting it would be nature and nurture! I realized that yes! Each one of us indeed had an animal and a human side to ourselves and the environment just externalized that, for us to see, to know and to change. We are beautiful from within us and nothing will stop us from bringing that forth. Although we couldn’t save the lives of the pups, something in me became alive; I know hope did- to see the compassion in the two youth, I knew that not all is lost. I will always be grateful to them for this life changing experience and for reviving hope in each one of us who were part of this incident.

Tulika Mehra

NIIT Foundation

Social Work the most difficult ‘easiest’ option

I recently got infuriated when I heard someone say that “social work toh koi bhi kar sakta hai”. After having done my MSW (that’s Masters in Social Work folks!) the one thing I understood above everything else was “social work sabke bas ki baat nahi hai”. Yep! I was offended. Not only because I am a social worker  but because it’s not just this one person, it is a disease of general notion that needs healing! From “kachra saaf kar… tu toh social worker hai” to “tum zyada paise kaise maang sakte ho tum toh social worker ho” we have heard it all. So I am going to really roll up my sleeves here and try some “Kachra Safai”, where it really needs to be done!

Social work course is wrongly thought to be the easiest option for those not interested in studies or those who want to do a “not so serious” Masters. Why? - is the question. If anyone can do social work then why doesn’t everybody come forward to do what we do? Why do people hesitate in stepping into a dirty slum? Why are people clueless when it comes to interacting politely with fellow human beings who may not be matching up to their “class”?  Why do people not want to work on lower salaries?

Above four lines already state some things that most people cannot handle in a lifetime. Let’s face it – ‘calm and quiet in an air-conditioned office’, ‘a cabin with a lot of office space’, ‘a couch to work on’ - is not what a real social worker aspires for, what he/she really aspires for makes no sense to those who really ARE looking for making their lives easier!

Social workers are needed in every field be it children, families, youth, elderly, women, health, disability or even research and writing! And all that is more recognized in developed countries, where development is not the real issue but people and society are – a little hint as to where a social worker studies to do ‘Kachra Safai’!

Rest of the economy is either waking up to the need for similar ‘Kachra Safai’ or is being forced into it by Govt. or pursuing it diligently to impress the likes of Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation – They call it by a different name – Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)! The corporate trend to give back to society has caused a paradigm shift from charity to profession; there is a new sector on the block -social development sector.

Now let us examine whether a social worker is industrious enough to be counted alongside the ‘Serious’ Masters like Economics, Engineering or MBA.

Sustainability is as much an issue in an NGO as it is in any business set up, so a social worker faces no lesser financial responsibility than a corporate employee.  In fact social work is the only profession that has rich resource pool of all kinds of skills – sales, financial management, HR. A social worker needs people skills, good psychological skills because they look after everything from ‘growing  a team of people’ to ‘growing an entire community’ all in a day’s work!

Maybe then my answer could be “social workers are magicians jo sab kuch kar sakte hai”. And that I feel proud about being a magician who can do it all. From having worked with differently-abled kids, to HIV prone sex workers, to domestic violence victims to now working for the education of the underprivileged youth and children I do see myself as a magician.

On second thought, I should now thank the person who made me realize I am one who can do everything. I did not have a specialization in my course may be because we social workers are special enough to do it all.

Cheers then to us…..the Social Workers “jo sab kuch kar sakta hai” :-)

Jocelyn Jose

NIIT Foundation

NGO Accreditation Program: A well known Mystery

I would like to welcome those who do not know NIIT Foundation cover to cover to read this article as much as those who do, because we have talked of NGO Accreditation Program in meetings, in success stories and in telephony, but it still remains a mystery that most of us have not quite been able to disentangle or clip on in the memory.

I will risk being a little philosophical and talk like a subject matter expert (though I am not one… but I am well connected with them… and this is my article so I will write as I please!). So, coming back on the subject, anyone who knows anything about development issues - talks about all the social welfare agencies working hand in hand. The big idea is that if all organized efforts to bring up a nation were coordinated, it is going to do away with duplication, fill the skill/resource gap and will help with connecting so many dots that the whole thing will become a maze of synergetic development (Something like an opposite of ‘Vicious circle of poverty’). Yeah it’s utopian but it’s worth staking our egos on because lately we have been discovering that our bright distant promise is achievable. Really? You might wonder! Well, we did get rejected (sometimes violently) by 129 NGOs so far but we did get accepted by other 45 who have signed papers, started the program, handled frustrations and time-lags in corrections offered as much as us and have still carried on. That is success, so our utopia is 34% achievable. 

So what is NGO Accreditation Program of NIIT Foundation?

It is something that is enabling us to test waters in the idea called ‘NGO partnerships’. We offer structured IT course and certification as of now. We intend to offer much more, our experimentation has already started with ‘Web Designing’, ‘Hardware and Networking’ and ‘Advanced English’. Our vision compels us to achieve gainful employment of at least 2 million underserved youth by a set date, so I can safely say that we intend to offer employability training as well.

Why am I so excited about NGO Accreditation?

Because it separated us from the well heard and well repeated and well accepted – that though NGOs should partner with each other, they generally don’t. The initial rejection weighed heavy, every rejection does, but then every acceptance soars high in our spirits. Those students who receive an NIIT Certificate and value it, more than make for a month of frustrated efforts.

These NGOs are challenged in terms of resources, sometimes there are only 3 systems for a class of 16, it’s an effort on everyone’s part. But what comes easy? Certainly not development! And we are not retreating because like I said, it IS worth staking our egos on!

Last but not the least, my congratulations to our flag bearer Jocelyn Jose and plan man Vikram Kumar for achieving these feats and carrying on forward harder than ever. 

Rinky Sharma

NIIT Foundation

Mismatch……….Management!

Of the total graduate youth population annually, less than 1% is considered employable by the industry. Unfortunately, our educational system fails to equip the students with industry required skills. These students may possess a degree but lack appropriate professional or industrial skills required to be productive in a work environment.

So what is the mismatch?

Highly theoretical courses leading to poor skills and no practical experience in the courses are just the tip of the iceberg! It means that when you come out of regular college you are a fresher in every sense of the word as far as industry knowledge, work ethics, pressure handling and responsibility taking is concerned. Scary! If you put yourself in shoes of an employer who is looking for someone reliable. No wonder then that the fresh graduates from private institutions and foreign universities are given first preference over their local counterparts.

As if this wasn’t enough, peer and parents mess up the minds of our youngsters pretty well too!

For one thing, they keep pushing for the tried and tested, even when it has become redundant. So a youngster would rather waste money, time and energy on something that everyone else in the community is doing instead of trying something new given the lack of support. We have numerous girls working in one-room-community-beauty-parlors earning a fraction of salaries that a retail store would pay, but would they reconsider? No, their correspondence graduation courses and beauty parlor jobs seem safer than a service industry certification.

Knowledge of the English Language is generally minimal and it generally comes with an attitude problem attached i.e. I’m waiting for the right job (read better paying). It is good to be ambitious, but when you still have a lot to learn, wouldn’t getting started be a good idea? If this job doesn’t pay well, next one will.

Management….. :-) Yes I am not here to just crib!

Starting my work here at NIIT Foundation as a placement officer, did give me a dry throat when I realized the above, one by one, through painful shots of experience. But as an organization we firmly believe that the task of assigning and correcting this unfortunate situation is an intricate one, NOT an impossible one!

So we start with the mindset i.e. developing a broader outlook towards their career and mentally preparing them for the challenging jobs once the training is over. While we are at it, we do Parent Teachers meeting/Home visits/ Counseling

to bring about a change in the mindset of the parents as well. And off course the training is industry based.

Little later in the training we introduce Job Shadow Days. It’s like the Industry visit/HR talks where professionals speak to students about the changing environment and what must be done to excel at interviews and jobs. Internship programs come towards the course completion; they are two months on-the-job and totally practical.

Last but not the least regular Pre placement workshop and Career fairs give HR’s feedbacks, allowing the students to plan their career path ahead.

A well known Goethe’s couplets states:

The moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too.

All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred.

A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance which no man could have dreamed would have come his way.

Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it.

Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.

We have begun…… the magic is not far either!

Sameer Kumar

NIIT Foundation

Open School – School is Open!

I decided to help Gopal, a 9^th class dropout, to prepare for his Class 10 Open School Exams.  He’s from Orissa, so the first decision was whether he should take the exams in Hindi or English – neither of the two languages he was very comfortable with.  After much deliberation and convincing, he agreed to go for English.  The subjects he chose were English, Oriya, Business Studies 1, Business Studies 2, Accounting.  We decided to start the preparation with Business Studies 1 - a subject I thought I could handle without embarrassing myself too much. So the first session happened – more a familiarization activity. I was quite zapped by the content though – it just reinforced how theoretical our education system is.  Did you know that human beings do two types of activities – economic and non-economic?That there are many nuances that separate the two. What are the different types of Occupation? Apparently they are Professional, Employment, and Business.   What are the different characteristics of each, attributes of each, and differences from each other…do we really care? 

What was interesting was the place where he was struggling in studies.  So instead of reading a word completely, he would read only the beginning and then try and guess the meaning – more often an incorrect one. He had hearing recognition but lacked reading recognition.  So when I asked him to read the word aloud, he was able to tell me the correct meaning, but when I asked him to read and explain the meaning, he struggled.  Also, he struggled with understanding the essence of a question. When asked to write two characteristics, or write two differences, his question to me was how should I start the sentence?  He religiously made notes once I proposed that he could possibly start answering the ‘differences question’ using the phrase “Although these two  items look similar there are some differences….”

I can see how challenging it is for this young man – struggling to understand the question, finding the right words to explain, a subject he doesn’t know.  I am filled with admiration for him, for his courage to continue challenging a situation that seems fraught with potential failures.  I guess he has learned to focus on what lies ahead, beyond this mountain - a better paying job, more self-esteem, and the confidence to climb any mountain that comes in his way.

Sapna Moudgil

NIIT Foundation