Igniting minds of 2888 students!!
2888 students + 60 teachers...
55 parallel sessions..
100+ volunteers...
Two locations..Ooty & Kothagiri...
1 day...
These are some staggering statistics from the recently concluded "Junior Achievement (JA)- Outreach" program conducted in 4 schools in Ooty (2) and Kothagiri (2). This was an experience I would cherish for a long time in my memory, for, 1.)being a part of such a magnanimous event is something you do not get that often and 2.) the opportunity to do something for our community, especially to the children.
On Jul 10, 2010
The entire team visited Ooty and Kothagiri to conduct JA's Careers with Purpose (CWP) program. The program is aimed at aligning the thougt process of students in classes IX - XII regarding their career planning. The program has been designed in such a way that professionals from various streams participate with JA to conduct sessions for students - sharing their knowledge and experiences from a real world perspective. At the end of the session, every student should be able to appreciate the abundant opportunities that is in front of him/her, and garner required confidence to break the jinx that beyond "traditional jobs" :) are the many options available for pursuing a successful career!
The Program
JA CWP is structured very clearly with appropriate tranistion from one topic to the other. The session is interactive, where queries are posted to the students at every instance, and answers are sought in a collective manner. Since the objective of the CWP program is to assist students in choosing right career path - (from a job's perspective) - based on their abilities, interests and expectations - the first step in the program is to understand from the students what they think "jobs" are all about.
My first JA-CWP session
When a mail was sent by JA-Outreach asking for new volunteers I decided that it was time for me to contribute more than just money for social causes. I volunteered to be a part of the JA-Outreach team and attended the orientation @ ASV on June 19, 2010. During the orientation, volunteers were asked to nominate themselves as facilitators and or observers for the forthcoming sessions. There was an easy option to choose.. and that was to choose to be an observer for an event before starting to facilitate. Ooty looked like a good place to start observing :).
However, there was a (pleasant) shock waiting for me @ Ooty. On the eve of the session, my great friend roped me in as a facilitator along with an other "voluneteered observer". After burning the midnight oil and getting a quick training we (the observers turned facilitators) embarked on our mission on the landmark day!
Jul 10, 2010 @ Shanthi Vijaya Girls School
After initial ice-breakers, introductions and expectation mapping we slowly moved to the core activity. Our session was with Commerce students of Std. XII. When we asked them what job is or what they expect from a job, there were a myriad of answers in return. Salary, helping the community, taking care of parents, social status, creating new job opportunities for others - are a few I can recollect from our session. As we tried to understand what they felt about job and expectations out of it, we quickly passed on the "Goal Sheet" - that they could fill in - which is one of the key artifacts that comes as a part of the program. Each student mentions, in this document, what he/she aspires to become and what they intend to take up for higher education that would help achieve their aspiration.
World of Opportunities
After hearing from the students their understanding of a job and their expectations out of a job, we start giving them additional perspectives in this subject. The best way to address this subject is to pick a specific industry and explode it completely highlighting how multiple divisions/departments work coherently to produce results. In our session, the girls chose "Anarkali Chudidhar" :P as the subject they wanted to discuss and we helped break down a garment manufacturing company to the granular levels from cotton farming - weaving - dyeing - designing - producing - marketing - distributing - selling a chudidhar! This was followed by an alignment of various roles/jobs that was associated with each of these processes within the industry and also jobs that supported this industry.
The whole process was very interactive with the students trying to identify jobs that they thought would fit in at some point in the overall value chain. It was very refreshing and encouraging to see the level of participation. At the end of it, when the students shared the fact that they were not aware that such a wide range of opportunities existed, there was a sense of achievement of having helped them get introduced to something new!
Skills, Education, Experience and Knowledge
The WoO is followed by assisting the students understand what is that employers look for when identifying the right candidate for a particular job. During this session we were able to make the students appreciate the fact that its important to know the key parameters associated with a job that ultimately helps them secure it. Every student experiences a smooth transition from knowing the abundant opportunities across industries to associating the specific skills, supporting education, related experience and an indepth knowledge for a particular job that they pick. The exercise is concluded after the students fill their "Career Exploration Sheet" - which is left with them for their own reference. This sheet basically documents their likes/dislikes, values, their strength and so on. The reason we leave this with the students is that - they can work on the key traits the would be shaping their career progression.
Values, Interest, Strength, Talent and Attitude
So now they know what a job is, what kinds of it are available out there across industries...and they know what the employers expect out of them...so what next...? How to choose the right job? Or...how do you know that "this" is my job?! So we tell them, how important it is for each one of us to live by our values... and hence the foremost point is to ensure that the job we identify is mapped to the values that one defines himself/herself with. The second most important aspect is that, the job should very much be aligned to the person interests. Everyone has a core strength and a key talent as a part of his/her personality, and hence the choice of the job should feed these two important traits of the person. Last but not least, the attitude, abundance of the above mentioned qualities will make proper sense only when the person expresses the right attitude. So, we drive home the point that an chosen job is right when the above-mentioned traits are mapped to it.
Think, Research, Plan and Act!
We wind up the session after a quick review of all the points discussed from the start of the session. Finally, the students are educated on the importance of a long term vision. They have now been assisted with the required ammunition to : "Think" what they want to be in future...and how to "Research" more on how they can be what they want to be...the kind of "Plan" they need to weave around their ambitions and finally to "Act" to get there!
Captured Moments....
Students of class 12 E & F @ Shanthi Vijaya Girls School, Ooty
Student's Huddle during the activity
55 parallel sessions..
100+ volunteers...
Two locations..Ooty & Kothagiri...
1 day...
These are some staggering statistics from the recently concluded "Junior Achievement (JA)- Outreach" program conducted in 4 schools in Ooty (2) and Kothagiri (2). This was an experience I would cherish for a long time in my memory, for, 1.)being a part of such a magnanimous event is something you do not get that often and 2.) the opportunity to do something for our community, especially to the children.
On Jul 10, 2010
The entire team visited Ooty and Kothagiri to conduct JA's Careers with Purpose (CWP) program. The program is aimed at aligning the thougt process of students in classes IX - XII regarding their career planning. The program has been designed in such a way that professionals from various streams participate with JA to conduct sessions for students - sharing their knowledge and experiences from a real world perspective. At the end of the session, every student should be able to appreciate the abundant opportunities that is in front of him/her, and garner required confidence to break the jinx that beyond "traditional jobs" :) are the many options available for pursuing a successful career!
The Program
JA CWP is structured very clearly with appropriate tranistion from one topic to the other. The session is interactive, where queries are posted to the students at every instance, and answers are sought in a collective manner. Since the objective of the CWP program is to assist students in choosing right career path - (from a job's perspective) - based on their abilities, interests and expectations - the first step in the program is to understand from the students what they think "jobs" are all about.
My first JA-CWP session
When a mail was sent by JA-Outreach asking for new volunteers I decided that it was time for me to contribute more than just money for social causes. I volunteered to be a part of the JA-Outreach team and attended the orientation @ ASV on June 19, 2010. During the orientation, volunteers were asked to nominate themselves as facilitators and or observers for the forthcoming sessions. There was an easy option to choose.. and that was to choose to be an observer for an event before starting to facilitate. Ooty looked like a good place to start observing :).
However, there was a (pleasant) shock waiting for me @ Ooty. On the eve of the session, my great friend roped me in as a facilitator along with an other "voluneteered observer". After burning the midnight oil and getting a quick training we (the observers turned facilitators) embarked on our mission on the landmark day!
Jul 10, 2010 @ Shanthi Vijaya Girls School
After initial ice-breakers, introductions and expectation mapping we slowly moved to the core activity. Our session was with Commerce students of Std. XII. When we asked them what job is or what they expect from a job, there were a myriad of answers in return. Salary, helping the community, taking care of parents, social status, creating new job opportunities for others - are a few I can recollect from our session. As we tried to understand what they felt about job and expectations out of it, we quickly passed on the "Goal Sheet" - that they could fill in - which is one of the key artifacts that comes as a part of the program. Each student mentions, in this document, what he/she aspires to become and what they intend to take up for higher education that would help achieve their aspiration.
World of Opportunities
After hearing from the students their understanding of a job and their expectations out of a job, we start giving them additional perspectives in this subject. The best way to address this subject is to pick a specific industry and explode it completely highlighting how multiple divisions/departments work coherently to produce results. In our session, the girls chose "Anarkali Chudidhar" :P as the subject they wanted to discuss and we helped break down a garment manufacturing company to the granular levels from cotton farming - weaving - dyeing - designing - producing - marketing - distributing - selling a chudidhar! This was followed by an alignment of various roles/jobs that was associated with each of these processes within the industry and also jobs that supported this industry.
The whole process was very interactive with the students trying to identify jobs that they thought would fit in at some point in the overall value chain. It was very refreshing and encouraging to see the level of participation. At the end of it, when the students shared the fact that they were not aware that such a wide range of opportunities existed, there was a sense of achievement of having helped them get introduced to something new!
Skills, Education, Experience and Knowledge
The WoO is followed by assisting the students understand what is that employers look for when identifying the right candidate for a particular job. During this session we were able to make the students appreciate the fact that its important to know the key parameters associated with a job that ultimately helps them secure it. Every student experiences a smooth transition from knowing the abundant opportunities across industries to associating the specific skills, supporting education, related experience and an indepth knowledge for a particular job that they pick. The exercise is concluded after the students fill their "Career Exploration Sheet" - which is left with them for their own reference. This sheet basically documents their likes/dislikes, values, their strength and so on. The reason we leave this with the students is that - they can work on the key traits the would be shaping their career progression.
Values, Interest, Strength, Talent and Attitude
So now they know what a job is, what kinds of it are available out there across industries...and they know what the employers expect out of them...so what next...? How to choose the right job? Or...how do you know that "this" is my job?! So we tell them, how important it is for each one of us to live by our values... and hence the foremost point is to ensure that the job we identify is mapped to the values that one defines himself/herself with. The second most important aspect is that, the job should very much be aligned to the person interests. Everyone has a core strength and a key talent as a part of his/her personality, and hence the choice of the job should feed these two important traits of the person. Last but not least, the attitude, abundance of the above mentioned qualities will make proper sense only when the person expresses the right attitude. So, we drive home the point that an chosen job is right when the above-mentioned traits are mapped to it.
Think, Research, Plan and Act!
We wind up the session after a quick review of all the points discussed from the start of the session. Finally, the students are educated on the importance of a long term vision. They have now been assisted with the required ammunition to : "Think" what they want to be in future...and how to "Research" more on how they can be what they want to be...the kind of "Plan" they need to weave around their ambitions and finally to "Act" to get there!
Captured Moments....
Students of class 12 E & F @ Shanthi Vijaya Girls School, Ooty
Student's Huddle during the activity
Team Activity : To identify job opportunities in specific industries
"We have ignited minds of 2888 students and 60 teachers across 4 schools in Ooty and Kothagiri, in a single day. This is a joint execution by Chennai and Coimbatore JA-Outreach team. This success came through 250 person hours of detailed planning and 250 person days of perfect execution. The 7 hours of JACWP in-class-program was conducted in 55 classrooms simultaneously in 4 schools covering 2888 deserving students by ~100 volunteers."
From the man of the moment - Mathivanan Elangovan
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From the man of the moment - Mathivanan Elangovan
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