Skilling underserved Youth for Livelihoods

Greetings to all,

I hope you are all having a wonderful day. I recently joined Udayan Care's Information Technology Program as a Program Coordinator for Graphic Centers. While I bring with me 2.5 years of experience in graphic design and video editing, this is my first full-time position at an NGO. Since I started, each day has been a journey of learning and growth.

Upon joining, I was tasked with leading a social media post-design competition, specially organized for young individuals pursuing Graphic Designing and Desktop Publishing (DTP) courses at Vinod Nagar and Noida IT Centers in celebration of the 77th Independence Day. A total of 35 talented youths participated in this competition, showcasing their creativity using Adobe software. After the submission of their projects, our senior leadership team reviewed the entries, and a design created by a student at Vinod Nagar IT Center was selected for publication on Udayan Care's IT Program's social media platforms.

Following Independence Day, our team was busy preparing for a significant event, the Campus Placement Drive, held at Udayan Care's Noida IT Centre. This was the third placement drive, and it grew significantly with the participation of seven prominent companies: Tech Mahindra, Tatwa Technologies, DigiCommerce, 3i Infotech BPO Solutions, Velocity Xcelerator, My Money Mantra, and Adroit Solutions.

A total of 21 recruitment team members conducted interviews for over 250 young individuals who had completed their training in Data Entry Operator (DEO) and Accounts Executive (Tally Prime) across Udayan Care's nine IT Centres in East Delhi, Noida, and Ghaziabad. This event also saw participation from beneficiaries of Udayan Care's various programs, including Udayan Shalini Fellowship and After Care Outreach.

The event was meticulously planned and executed by 22 dedicated staff members from our IT centers,  and attended by our Executive Director, Trustee, Program Head and Head of HR. The day concluded on a high note, with 167 students securing job offers, and more than 70 youths advancing to the final rounds for positions like data operators, backend support, tally support executives, etc., with initial salaries ranging from Rs. 10,000 to 14,000 per month.

The feedback received from employers emphasized the need to enhance the quality of our training program to help the youth succeed in interview rounds more effectively. To address this, we have initiated collaboration with industry experts who will voluntarily conduct sessions for our students. We were fortunate to connect with Ciena India employees who were eager to provide valuable insights. In September, 110 of our students participated in six specially designed sessions, covering topics such as communication skills, behavioral issues, workplace ethics, personality development, and how to explore job opportunities online.

A few days ago, I had the opportunity to visit the Noida IT Centre to interact with students in the Desktop Publishing program and review their graphic work. During this visit, I met Karishma (Name Changed), who had taken part in the campus placement drive and was selected to join Tatwa Technologies Pvt Ltd. (Noida) for their email chat process, with an initial monthly salary of Rs. 13,000. During our conversation, I learned that she had successfully completed her first month at her new job and received her first salary. This was a moment of great joy for her, especially considering that she hails from a family where her father, who works as a vegetable seller, is the sole breadwinner for a family of six.

I have been inspired by so many our students who have faced many odds in their life, and yet remain positive and aspire for improving their life.  I am grateful that I got an opportunity to work with Udayan Care IT Program.

Sr. Trainer, Graphic Design

About Udayan Care

Udayan Care is a Public Charitable Trust, working for the last 29 years, for the quality care of disadvantaged children and women.

About the IT Center Program

Udayan Care Information Technology Center intends to bring digital media closer to the underserved society of the people to improve their livelihoods. Currently, we are running 21 IT centers in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, and Haryana and have impacted the lives of more than 25,440 beneficiaries.

Our centers offer certificates courses in basic computer knowledge, diplomas and advanced courses in computer application. Workshops on Spoken English, life skills training, and job readiness are also a part of the curriculum.

Links:

• Udayan Care Website
• Details of the IT Training Program
• Film about Udayan Care IT Training Program

Greetings of the day to all,

Hello everyone, my name is Meghali, and I work as an IT Trainer at Udayan Care's Vinod Nagar IT Centre in (East Delhi, India). It's been 2 years since I joined the organization, but my journey with Udayan Care began 2.5 years ago when I enrolled in the Accounts Exe (Tally Prime) course. During the training, I volunteered to manage the classes in the absence of the trainer, and I found that I enjoy teaching. After the completion of my course training, I asked Vikas sir (Centre Coordinator - Vinod Nagar) if there were any vacancies in Udayan Care that I would like to join; fortunately, I was able to join the same centre as an IT Trainer. Since my appointment, I have been part of many workshops, activities, capacity-building trainings, events, etc., which really help me to groom myself to add quality to my work. Recently, I got a chance to be a part of a four-members committee that was formulated to organize the activities in Udayan Care’s all IT Centre on the occasion of World Menstrual Hygiene Day 2023. After a detailed discussion, we decided to run a campaign across all IT centres to empower the girls to manage their menstruation cycle safely, hygienically, and confidently without feeling any kind of shame. As per UNICEF’s statement, "Every month, 1.8 billion people across the world menstruate. Millions of these girls, women, transgender men, and non-binary people are unable to manage their menstrual cycle in a dignified, healthy way".

To keep in mind the day-to-day observations, we helped to the IT Centres team to plan various activities with the help of internal as well as external resource persons, NGOs, hospitals, etc. More than 600 girls across all IT centres attended the specific sessions, which were designed to elaborate on the use of menstrual hygiene kits, do’s and don’ts during the menstrual cycle, how to keep ourselves and society aware to break this taboo, why we need to avoid myths about menstruation, etc. Apart from the session, we also introduce the menstrual hygiene box in our centre, where our female students can access the sanitary pads during an emergency. We are thankful to Ms. Nikita from Parivar Seva Sansthan Stree Clinic (Lajpat Nagar), Ms. Geetika and Mr. Vivek from Mission Lal Rang (Rewari, Haryana), Dr. Anamika (Gynecologist, B.D. Pandey Hospital, Nainital), and Dr. Pushpa (Sat Krishna Charitable Hospital) who spared their time to educate the Udayan Care’s IT Centre youth. These activities were uploaded on social media, which was really appreciated by the followers. A few days ago, I visited the head office for my video shoot required by Udayan Care’s communication team to upload on social media handles. When I met with Kahkkashan Ma’am (Head of communication team), she congratulated me with a shaking hand for the successful inauguration of Udayan Care’s 20th IT Centre in New Kondli (East Delhi, India) and 21st IT Centre in Jogeshwari (Mumbai, India). Both centres are well designed project to provide training to the underserved community youth who fall between age 18 to 24, pursuing or complete their graduation through distance learning, and looking for a platform where they can be associate with the short term skill development training which helps them to grab an entry level job opportunity in growing sector for sustaining their livelihood, The centre inauguration ceremony is a well-planned event with the cutting of ribbons and the lighting of the lamp ceremony. At the same time, our guests interacted with the newly enrolled students to collect their feedback for the facilities and method of training. Though I did not attend both events but saw glimpses on social media, while I was scrolling the images, I also saw the success story creative that was pasted in our New Kondli IT Centre. In the creative, we have covered the story of Manisha, who completed the IT course from our Dundahera (Gurugram, Haryana) IT Centre. She beautifully shared her experience since she decided to move into the metro city with the purpose of starting a job to help her father. His earnings are small, but she found him an ambitious person who wants to make his daughters financially independent. She travelled alone from the small village in Ayodhya to Gurugram, where she started doing a temporary job in a factory to survive in the city. After a few months, she got connected with the Udayan Care Computer Learning Centre (Dundahera, Gurugram). The centre helped her to be equipped with the command of MS Office tools and enabled her to get placed at "Interface Microsystem" in Gurugram as a Data Entry Operator with a salary of 15000 Rs. Per month. She is feeling blessed to be independent, and now she has also called her younger sister here, who is in the process of learning to build a career in the growing IT sector.

About Udayan Care

Udayan Care is a Public Charitable Trust, working for the last 29 years, for the quality care of disadvantaged children and women.

About IT centres programme

Udayan care Information Technology centre tends to brings digital media closer to the underserved society of the people to improve their livelihoods. Currently we are running 21 IT centres in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana and have impacted the lives of more than 24,306 beneficiaries.

Our centres offer certificates courses in basic computer knowledge, diploma and advanced courses in computer application. Workshops on Spoken English, life skills training and job readiness are also a part of the curriculum.