Rohit is a ninth grade passout who had accepted drudgery as his fate. He worked in an auto garage on menial jobs. He had no skills to assert his rights and was at the mercy of his employer. Completely lacking confidence, this reticent youth had to be probed to spell out his ambition. “I want to start my own business,” he had said to EDI- faculty, adding, “but I know this will never happen as I am good for nothing.”

Rohit had to be counselled to come out of his shell to believe that he too could start small in an area which perhaps he knew fairly well – Auto-engine-mechanic/Garage – and only needed some additional skills to establish himself.

Several youths like Rohit, with hopes in their eyes, attended the training programme on Auto-Engine-Mechanic/Garage. The core sessions focused on

• Introduction of Automobile and Automobile Engines
• I.C. Engines and Technical Terms used in an Engine Components of I.C. Engine
• Fuel Supply System and Igniting System
• Cooling and Lubricating System, Transmission System
• Suspension, Steering and Breaking System

The youths underwent focussed learning along with hands-on experience to gain knowledge, skills and the confidence needed to enter the market either as an employee or as a micro entrepreneur. To ensure that the youths do not begin with an ill-defined business model, they were introduced to opportunities in the automobile sector; self-employment in auto-engine-mechanic trade and support institutions that aid new enterprise creation.

The programme was received well and this was ensured by personally attending to their queries and doubts. Industry experts debated on various entrepreneurial opportunities to generate viable options after mutual consent.

As Mukesh Parmar puts it, “First and foremost, this programme has impacted my personality positively. I feel good about myself. The confidence that I feel is amazing. I am working with experts to float my auto garage. I knew the basics of this business but this programme gave me detailed knowledge and also opened up new options for me. It has put my scattered, ‘barely there’ idea into perspective. I now understand the requirements of finance and various schemes to raise finance. EDI’s support at every juncture is something that I value the most. In another two months, I should be able to have my own garage.”

Prof. B. B. Siddiqui, a renowned psychologist and Distinguished Faculty with EDI, opened this Skill Development Programme with a session on ‘Soft Skills for Success’ which aimed at grooming their attitude and perception to suit the industry. Prof. Siddiqui says, “I was delighted to see how eager they were to take on new roles. They wanted to explore themselves but suffered from low self esteem. I made them get into the ‘why’ and once they had identified the reasons for it, I gave them the solutions to their problems. They were inspired and encouraged after discovering that their lack of confidence and other problems had clear cut solutions. This set the ball rolling and they were mentally all set to imbibe learning.”

“Ankit Prajapati from Karnali was a daily wage worker with a unit dealing in electrical goods. He had no formal training in the area but had picked up minor tricks of the trade from experience of nearly a decade. He aspired to do something more meaningful but could never muster the confidence to deviate from the humble task that he was engaged in on account of lack of finance, knowledge and direction. Ankit had come for the training on the first day with no high hopes as the idea of getting trained to make it big had not sunk in. Nevertheless he had come, lest it opened up opportunities. However, just after the first session, he said, “I think I can look forward to something concrete. I always concentrated on money alone but today I agree that skills hold the maximum importance in an achiever’s life and I can achieve so much just on the basis of the strength of my skills. I look forward to this training and am highly hopeful of gaining something worthwhile.”

True to the expectation of Ankit and many others, the training programme was planned with the objective of giving them skills so that they could make a living out of it. The inputs covered at length were:

• Introduction to Electricity and Electricity Generation;
• Transmission and Distribution;
• Types of Wiring – Domestic and Industrial;
• Household Appliances Repairing;
• General Safety Working of Motors and Generators.

The technical knowledge was imparted by instructors from ITI Dabhoi. Instructors, Ms. Saroj Waghela and Mr. Mukesh Gohil were highly appreciative of the response they received from the participants. They reflected on how the youths, with their queries and probing arguments, made them cover even the most basic details in the field. Alongside technical training, the youths also learnt about self employment opportunities in the sector and the favourable schemes and institutes that could assist them in new enterprise creation.

Karnali and the nearby villages is a land of temples, the most sacred being the shrine of Lord Shiva in the Kuber Bhandari temple at Karnali. Pilgrims throng to the area on holy days. River Narmada sees multitudes boating upto the village. Boating is a thriving business in the area but is carried out in a routine, traditional manner where the ones into the functioning of it hold little knowledge beyond simply operating it. However, what’s heartening is that the target group understood their inefficiency and expressed their desire to get trained in this area. Hence, Boat-mechanics was demanded as an area of intervention, by the youths. EDI imparted training to the youths around the modules of:

• Working principles of boats
• Types of boat engines
• Mechanics of diesel engine
• Boat systems
• Boat body and engine repairing and maintenance.

The participants went through a mix of theoretical and technical inputs. At the end of the programme, the participants were enthused with the idea of undertaking meaningful activities in this area, beyond routine. They were confident and particularly appreciative of the trouble shooting abilities that they had developed. Nanabhai Tadvi (from Vadya), echoing the voice of many said that till now they had been working in the area but now they will enjoy their work as they can could see innumerable opportunities in the engagement that they considered monotonous till a day before.

The Karnali Group Panchayat and nearby villages lack people with trade specific skills. The areas in maximum demand are carpentry and welding. For all small requirements, they have to be at the mercy of people from the nearby towns who charge irrationally even for small tasks. The youths felt that if their skills were developed in these areas they could make a useful contribution to their village and their career. The programme was well received and the inputs were termed as ‘practical’. The participants appreciated the depth of knowledge and the exposure they received at the training programme. The areas covered included:

• Introduction to welding
• welding hand tools
• Types of welding – arch and gas welding
• Metal joint methods
• Basic joint welding
• Metal shaping method
• Types of flame
• Types of flame

Such indepth exposure with a balance of classroom and practical training prepared them for, as they termed it – ‘a new life’. They were also given all information to ensure that they set out on the path of self employment.

Development of computer technology has impacted practically all aspects of our life – business, health, environment, education and almost every task that we take up in our day-to-day life. Sadly, the youths in the villages are still bereft the advantages that mastering this discipline could bring to them. They need more opportunities that bring them closer to the world of computers to discover the inherent potential of this mammoth discovery. During the diagnostic study, EDI experts discovered that the youths were aware how they could enhance their prospects with this knowledge but regretted the lack of openings and their own inability to travel out of their village to pursue computer education. Against this feedback and based on the chance for better prospects that they could avail with this education, EDI conducted a programme on Basics of Computer. As Gaurang from Karnali puts it, “We were on the bright road of educating and empowering ourselves. We were excited right from day One and looked forward to making a new beginning.”

The youths were delighted to delve into the areas of:

• Introduction to Computers and its types
• Detailed description of computers
• Computer: hardware, software and networking
• MS Office: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, MS Access
• Internet Operating System and Computer Virus

The technical training inputs were imparted by Ms. Sangeeta Parekh and Mr. Ravi P. Tadvi, instructors from ITI Dabhoi. They threw light on how the training had positively influenced each and every participant and how they had started to figure out ways of implementing their learning to accomplish their dreams.

The ambit of every training programme was enhanced by supplementing the participants’ know-how with skills to awaken their motivation, rekindle in them the aspiration to look beyond conventional options and enthuse them with the confidence to identify and seize opportunities.

As Mr. Prakash Solanki, Faculty-EDI says, “ The participants were very excited about learning and exploring new domains but somewhere at the back of their mind they did harbour the fear of failure. We realised that the ‘what if’ apprehension did not let them open up and explore themselves to their full potential. We targeted this by mentoring and counselling them on one-to-one basis. We could extract questions and doubts from them after a couple of sessions and wiped them off right away from their mind through soft skill training, and a variety of psychological methods and strategies. I am glad to mention that they are a different lot today, filled with the spirit to make it big.

Adding to this, EDI Faculty Amit Dwivedi says, “Over and above the training, to hone their persona to face the world headlong, we focussed on imparting them specific skills that prepared them for employability and also self employment. For the first time they learnt how to prepare their resume and identify Companies and Govt./Non-Govt. organizations for jobs. As regard entrepreneurship, they learnt how to amalgamate resources, apply learning and align it all to set up their own successful enterprise. Here I wholeheartedly acknowledge IDBI Bank Ltd’s credit support to trainees.”

With support of EDI experts, the trainees prepared bankable Detailed Project Report in their selected areas. The youths comfortably branched into their speciality areas through focussed learning. Hands-on classroom experiences and internships for technical training which formed a part of the educational process brought them into the mainstream.

The Bihar Skill Development Mission (BSDM) has launched a unique skill training programme by the name of “Kushal Yuva Program” which would enhance the Soft Skills of youth in the age groups of 15-25 years who are 10th or class 12th pass outs but have dropped out of formal education and are looking for jobs. Soft Skills training would focus on life skills, communications skills (English & Hindi) and basic computer literacy which in turn would enhance their employability and act as a value add to the various domain specific training endeavours currently being implemented in Bihar. Kushal Yuva Programme (KYP) is a part of one of the “7 commitments” namely “Aarthik Hal, Yuvaon ko Bal”.

EDII has been allotted 8 blocks by Bihar Skill Development Mission to conduct the training programmes. The 8 blocks include: