By Vishal Talreja | Co-Founder
Hemavathi is a 21-year-old who has been a part of the Career Connect Programme from past 2 years.
Hemavathi’s mother left her at a very early age driving her father to become a single parent who has to look after two children by himself this was an overwhelming experience for her father.
When Hemavathi turned 18 her father saw this an opportunity to reduce his responsibilities and wanted to get her married; Hemavathi took a stand and told her father she wanted to pursue her studies and she will pay for her own education.
Hemavathi and her brother left her village and came to Bangalore to live with her uncle who was generous to take them in while they pursued their education. As promised to her father Hemavathi took on a part time job to pay for her education while her father paid for her brother’s education.
Hemavathi was eager to work on her skills and wanted to become independent as soon as possible; while traveling back home from college in bus she came across a graduate from Dream a Dream who spoke to her about the programmes and how she had benefited from the programme.
Hemavathi joined the early morning Life Skill Development batch at Career Connect. Sharing her experience “It was in the session I felt completely heard; at home I have no one to talk to and in college I never could share my past and the things that had happened to me with anyone. In the session where I am from I was able to share my feelings and gain friends who understood me”.
While the Life Skill Development programme gave Hemavathi a supportive community to share her feelings; it was in the skill development programme that Hemavathi found her calling for Animation.
Hemavathi shares “It was in the skill development programme where my interest is animation became a passion; I reached out to Dream a Dream staff seeking support to join a full-fledged animation course and received scholarship to pursue a diploma in animation”.
Hemavathi continued college, attended a diploma course in animation and at the same time had a part time job she was reaching her dreams; all this came to a halt 6 months back when Hemavathi ‘s father passed away due to an heart attack and her uncle refused to support her.
To make matters worse Hemavathi was laid off from her part time job due to the pandemic and wasn’t given a salary; with problems pilling up Hemavathi with her never give up attitude decided to take matters into her own hands and moved back to her village with her younger brother.
To make ends meet Hemavathi and her brother started working on a small plot of land that belonged to her father growing ragi and producing enough ragi to feed themselves and be self-sufficient during this crisis.
In a situation where most people would have given up Hemavathi was able to ADAPT, EVOLVE and THRIVE.
The Career Connect programme equips 14-23-year-olds with information, skills and access to opportunities to make a healthy transition to adulthood. We conduct career awareness workshops, run short-term modules in English, communication skills, money management, and career guidance and provide access to internships, scholarships, vocational training and jobs.
The programme is delivered from two learning Centres, based in Bangalore in India. The two most important insights that we have learnt over the years are - the first learning is that turning 18 is no guarantee that you are prepared for a career; the second is that just because you are younger than 18 and can’t get a formal job, doesn’t mean you are not expected to be the bread-winner for your family. Career Connect is focused on developing the life-skills that young people need to navigate this complex phase of adolescence and ensure they are prepared for life.
Our modules include career awareness workshops, communication skills workshops, English communication workshops, money management and career guidance. At the next stage, young people can choose various skilling programmes as per their interest and need such as Beautician, Hospitality, Painting, etc. We close the loop by providing youth access to internships, scholarships, vocational training and placement. Each of these modules are strategically categorized into
Sharing some of highlights with you -
- We kick started virtual sessions by enrolling 164 young people into our programme and had 155 young people complete the programme.
- We had an overall average attendance of 88% and 95% retention in the programme which showcases that young people are accepting new challenges and adapting to online facilitation.
- We have collaborated with Tseek which is a digital platform for gap assessment, skilling, employments and Micro Entrepreneurship to support us with Placement opportunities; we were able to upload 54 young people employment profiles in Tseek.
- We have young people attending our online sessions all across Karnataka which showcased the need of our programmes.
- We have digitalized our mentoring programme which will give us an opportunity to train mentors all across the world and bring in more mentors to support our young people in their journey.
- Career Connect Program helped Young people to normalising themselves and their families by conducting re-integration sessions that address the new normal.
Testimonials from our Programme-
“With the lockdown I have been anxious about my future and my family. The online life skills sessions I attended at Career Connect gave me a sense of relief and take a break from what was happening in the outside world. This Programme motivated me a lot it made us believe in our self and thinking positively, it helped us in managing the situations (refers to Lockdown) improving our self-confidence”– Neha P attended our online Life Skill Development Programme
“I would like to thank Dream a Dream for creating this Safe Learning Space for us during this panic situation. I had an interest to learn Digital Marketing’s when I got this opportunity from Dream a Dream I immediately joined the session. Our Facilitator Shahid he is very knowledgeable and friendly. During this Pandemic I wanted gain new skills in this session I was able to learn engine optimization, engine marketing content marketing, email marketing, online advertising and landing page marketing’s. this knowledge helps me to market and develop my business”. – Trishool 19-year-old attended our Skill Development Programme
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