Meenakshi, aka Mona, has just opened a Salon in a Gurgaon village. It is the first salon started by a woman. Her staff is divided into three teams – hairdressers, spa therapists and make-up artists. All of them are well-trained in their area of expertise. Mona, who passed out from Shivpuri Government School last year, always wanted to be a part of the Grooming industry. Thanks to the skill-development training provided at her School, she has been able to decide her career option early in life. “In our Village, girls get married as soon as they pass out from school. They hardly get an opportunity to go to college and work on their career options,” says Mona. Not only was she provided training in grooming skills, she was also offered guidance on various financing options and taught customer-handling techniques. All this helped her in obtaining a business loan from Gramin Bank.
The Skill-development Programmes that are being run by a few government schools in the City are definitely a welcome move. Education, combined with skill-development, aims at increasing the productivity and employability of the youth. Life-skills Development also plays an important role in deterring adolescents from succumbing to vices like alcoholism and drug abuse. Principal of Shivpuri Government School, Dr. Hari Yadav, agrees, “We were facing a big challenge in trying to lower the drop-out rate in our School. Children who come from economically poor backgrounds are generally expected to earn after the age of 13. Girls face a lot of pressure to get married soon. Many times such pressures and compulsions force the teenagers to take extreme steps, and some take to drugs abuse and alcoholism. To tackle this, we decided to introduce skill development training. It is an efficient way to keep teenagers engaged in productive activities.” Skill-development training generally includes Carpentry, Grooming, Stitching, Tailoring, Pottery, Handicrafts and Computer-Aided Designing, to name a few.
The Government School in Basai and Saksham School in Sushant Lok also offer efficient Skill-development programmes. Neha Bhandari, a volunteer at Saksham School, feels, “Skill-development training is very important for students of government schools, since it helps develop a talent in them. It not only helps them in gaining employment after completing school, but they can also earn while studying. As a volunteer with Saksham for more than six years, I have noticed a big change in the overall development of students, with the help of these Skill-development programmes. Students gain enough confidence at school itself, and they can easily start their business or work as trainees in parlours and carpentry firms as soon as they pass out from school.” While the School invites skilled carpenters, electricians and other technicians to impart training, students who are interested in the grooming industry and designing can visit parlours and boutiques after school hours. The Government School in Basai works on a temporary training model, wherein a group of students are trained on Life-skills through a series of workshops. These students later impart training to their peers. Interestingly, brainstorming sessions, role plays, educational games and simulations, case studies, story-telling, debates and sometimes audio-visual activities are used to impart Skill-development training to the students. “Children in government schools generally have better concentration levels. They learn skills faster, as they are less distracted by external factors like the media. Moreover, they see their mothers doing tailoring or pottery. Their fathers and uncles work as electricians and carpenters, and so they generally don’t suffer any ‘inferiority complex’ or see a stigma attached to such professions. This makes it easier to train these children. There is just a need to make the training interesting. We incorporate plays and story-telling, and tell them about various success stories, to encourage them to learn such skills,” informs Aman Mehra, an instructor for Computer-Aided Designing at the Government School, Basai.
Mini Chaudhary, a Mathematics teacher at Shivpuri Government School, feels that participation in Skill-development courses, especially Carpentry, also improves the mathematic skills of students. “For many students, Mathematics is a hard nut to crack. The challenge before us is to arouse the interest of students. It is hard to do so with just books. Unlike private schools, we can’t offer any audio-visual aid to the children. In this scenario, training in Carpentry makes geometrical concepts and calculation skills quite clear to the children. The concepts are explained practically, which makes a huge difference.”
Furthermore, various laws and government policies are part of a Skill-development training. All this is important to make a child an all-rounder and an entrepreneur. Children learn about land laws, policies relating to Human Resource Management and Accounting, and how Administration functions in their City. Such lessons help them in academics as well.
The role of a school is not just to prepare children to gain entry into desirable careers, but to help in the personality development of children, so that they can deal with real life issues through negotiation skills, building rapport with people, creative thinking and the right human values. A Skill-development Programme is designed to cater to the personality development needs of students. For instance, during Grooming classes, children are taught about the importance of hygiene. They are taught to sterilize needles and other equipment. Rajat, who is learning Carpentry, says, “Carpentry is not just about making furniture, it is about offering comfort to the customer through the furniture they use. We are taught about the comfort level of customers. For example, a high table with multiple drawers may be a good choice for a customer who wants to buy a computer table for the home, while a simple workstation-like table with just two drawers is good enough for office use. The design should be in accordance with the needs and tastes of customers. We have been taught about all these aspects.” Presentation skills, customer-servicing and etiquette are also a part of Skill-development training. “One doesn’t only need money and human resources to run a business; one needs to maintain a certain etiquette and standards, so that a one-time customer becomes a regular client,” feels Mona, who dropped out of school after the eighth standard and joined back just to learn Grooming skills. While studying, she also used to work in a parlour, to earn some money, so that her parents didn’t pull her out of school.
By creating awareness about etiquette, gender sensitization, health and hygiene, laws, public services and the environment, Skill-development programmes have helped students become responsible citizens. Recounting an incident, Aman says, “Once I was working on my laptop and suddenly got a call from the Principal’s office. I left my laptop open and rushed there. When I came back a few students mentioned to me that my open laptop might have consumed enough electricity to light a bulb for five hours. I appreciated their feedback.” The objective of these programmes is to help children learn a skill, assist them to tap their full potential and develop a holistic approach to life. It is an important step towards making today’s youth our national assets.
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