Acumen Bootcamp - 2nd Week Reflection

Part 0 and 1 of Acumen virtual bootcamp series can be found here. 

Creating systemic change always comes from moral leadership and self discipline. Good disciplines is a part of moral leadership that establishes structures, time management, tasks planning, and follow up on action items. I am looking for gradual change in thinking pattern, eventually decision-making, then vision and then leadership. This week started with thought experiments and acting on micro habitual changes.

1. Courageous Space: There is a concept of courageous space to be done in pilot stage inside cohort before rolling out in personal and professional space. The courageous pace gives me freedom to choose a specific issue, scrutinize a habit (self discipline and exaggeration in my case), work on the habit in acts of courage, and ideally grow into competencies in the real world. I have set following tasks for myself.

Within Person: Delay in completing tasks despite making commitments is a bad nature of mine. I will be working on this issue during the next 8 weeks.

Within Organization: Be less extrapolate while pitching for business development. This fault has crept in the sales pitch in the last few months due to my desperation for funds. I will be practicing more restraint and share real scenarios during interaction with other fellows

2. I have to read article on the concept of 'opposable minds' and how holding seemingly different or opposing concepts can open up new ideas and innovation. An optional reading was Obama midterm speech 2018 transcript

Vocational Orientation and Counseling in Skill Development

This will be the second post on skill development sector continuation of Youth Mobilization Process in Skill Development. Vocational orientation and counselling is the logical step post identification of youths in the mobilization process. This is the process in which training center match the youths’ initial vocational ideas with their skill sets, capacities, and interests.

The counseling isn't a one-size fits all solution when it comes to skill development, livelihoods and career options. Understanding the the background of young job-seeker is of utmost importance to assist them in their search for meaningful careers. This is because for entry-level vocational courses, the candidates are a mixed group consisting of school dropouts, unemployed youth, and youth from socially and economically underprivileged background. The entry level job will be the first opportunity to test their caliber and earn decent livelihoods.

Counselling helps in creating realistic aspiration and reduce the attrition rates during training and employment by helping candidates make informed choices. The mismatch between interests, aptitude and aspirations of the candidates and nature of job causes a high attrition rate for employers as well as training centers. Hence, behavioral assessment tests and counselling to objectively assess the capabilities of the candidate is important to recommend appropriate career paths.

There is a context in which job search happens and the complex web of factors influences job search and aspiring candidate. The major factors are listed below:

1. Cultural factors: The youth seeking work is not the only one seeking work, i.e., family and friends are looking for a job alongside the youth.

2. Employment issues: Many youths begin their search with defeatist mindset due to the grim unemployment statistics and local scenario.

3. Personal issues: The counseling must help candidate with an honest assessment of competencies present and what the market demands in terms of worker skills.

Types of Counseling: There five major mode of counseling as per ILO -

1. Career information –provides information on occupations; employment opportunities; labor market trends and employment scenarios; educational programs, institutions, and opportunities; career services; and job opportunities, both local and global.

2. Career education – provides career planning and decision-making; labor market information and other information related to careers and work skills.

3. Career counseling – provides one-on-one or small group help on role clarifications, career decision- making, self-assessment and self-definition, aspirations and dreams.

4. Employment counseling – provides help with setting career goals, writing resumes, interviewing skills and the like, all such activities designed to help the person define the characteristics of the career or job he/she is looking for, assess suitability for it, and identify skills gaps that can be addressed by personal development efforts;

5. Job placement – provides actual job search services intended to connect job seekers and job providers.

In more Indian context, counseling is required to navigate constraints such as family hesitation, transport, inability to pay, accommodation etc. The experiences of past trainees and their feedback shared with the larger community.The scope of counseling is quite vast as candidates require holding hand support on communication skills, presentation skills, and financial literacy. Online portal have opened a new channel for youths even in remote areas access to the information. But there is always need of last mile reach to ensure that the right people, in terms of ability, interests and expectations, participate in skill development program.

Acumen Bootcamp - 1st Week Reflection

Part 0 of Acumen virtual bootcamp series can be found here.

Task: Watch Acumen Manifesto and Behind the Manifesto. And reflect on your work and the audacious vision that you are building toward.

Acumen Manifesto reflects an attempt to explain the goals of Moral leadership, as well as the qualities inherent underlying the change makers. The story of Kenyan women was containing pearls of wisdom. It was an informal education on how inspirations come in the life, society and career.

The bootcamp is a virtual community coming from the areas of of public policy, entrepreneurship, rights based work and technology. There is a deep intellectual capabilities in understanding where things are going wrong, bleeding heart for empathy and courage in building a strategy for change. The diverse mindset present here will help me to understand how to facilitate systems change and create more inclusive social systems through the use of market forces. I am hoping to understand how each leader is providing services/products to their target community.

The perseverance for the livelihood of individual farmers and the millions who collectively rely on smallholder farmers for food security is an essential component of ours work. But they are more than consumers; they are entrepreneurs and risk takers. I am trying to use interventions to achieve a triple bottom-line: increase farm productivity and incomes gradually, help farmers adapt to climate change and mitigate them with risk of market failures. I always work to transform NGO into social enterprise, developing go-to market strategies, and strengthening the partners ecosystem. Hoping to do this with the support of community of change makers. For, where there is life there is hope.

Thoughtful Present -2!

I was gifted a copy of The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham, Jason Zweig (Contributor), & Warren Buffett (Contributor) from boss today. The Intelligent Investor was first published in 1949, and is a widely acclaimed book on value investing.

The share market is in doldrums and people are exploring for the stocks and sectors that are likely to lead the next bull run. I have neither clue to lap up falling stocks nor money to check unproven models only on hope. Hence, this book is a prudent gift in the next level of personal development. I will be investing next few months in reading of 'The Intelligent Investor' accrued with Safal Niveshak blog, discussing share market with colleagues and  looking for stock tips. I hope this will give me insights on value proposition and investments. Thanks Manab for such a timely gift.

Acumen India Leadership Bootcamp

The number one piece of advice a consultant at World Bank gave to the next generation of development professionals was to invest in skills development and continuously up-skill. Yet, the path of There’s no harm in sharing our failures. The only thing at stake is our egos. But too much embrace to failure suggests a thwarted glory. I pitched my candidacy as a social intrapreneur for 2020 cohort of Acumen India Fellows program. I got rejection in the last stage of flagship program during December 2019. I am learning each day how to be unburdened by historical failure and not becoming ecstatic with a minor success.

Acumen India launched virtual bootcamp in January 2020 going beyond the flagship Program. I got selected today for inaugural Acumen Leadership Bootcamp in India. The Bootcamp will be a 6 – 8 week cohort based learning program, with a combination of individual / paired assignments and group calls. I will be summarizing my cumulative experiences at the end of course from the network of innovative, passionate, and socially minded people.

I am looking towards ideas based on verifiable evidence and weed out bad ideas from thought system. Often ideas that are most significant are bad ideas, but nevertheless exert psychological, sociological, and political power. Other than that I am looking towards networking for a joint micro-venture/study/volunteerism. See, incentive for networking, as you know, is like gravity: all it takes is a little push! Will update the readers with the insights post completion of the course.

Brief about Acumen: Acumen was founded in 2001 by Jacqueline Novogratz with the idea that poverty can tackled by investing philanthropy rather than giving it as a charity. In 2013, Acumen started to synthesize work in both investing and leadership training to offer online courses through Acumen Academy. Those who are more interested can read Acumen Manifesto first to dive deeper.

Youth Mobilization Process in Skill Development

Skill Development program for youth involves a large set of processes among which prominent are: Mobilization of Youths, Counseling and Identification of Youths, Identification of Training Institutes, Management of ongoing training institute, Monitoring and Management of training, Liaisoning with potential employers, Post Placement follow up etc. providing skill training to youth living in rural areas

Mobilization of Youths: Mobilization phase generally focuses on getting people to enroll. The target groups for skilling are candidates in the age group 18 – 35 years from rural poor households. For Training Institutes (PIAs), an inability to mobilize properly results in a failure to meet targets.

Process of Mobilization:

1. Identification of Potential area, Target Audience, Nature of job affinity of the youth and willingness for migration by candidates

2. Identification of Pro Active people ( Sarpanch/ primary school headmaster/ SHG members/ PRI members/ GPLF & CRP associated with NRLM/ Religious opinion leaders of the area)

3. Awareness Campaigns – Road-shows, Banners, Fliers, Video van campaigns, Panchayat meets, Rozgar Mela, Nukkad Nataks

4. Direct Campaigns – Holding regular informal discussions through local team, peers, Rozgar Mitra

Challenges in Mobilization

1. The biggest challenge is low willingness to migrate and low salaries at entry level.The employer does not distinguish whether an employee has picked up skills on the job or he has acquired them through formal training.

2. Youths and their parents are dealing directly with an unknown entity (Training Institutes), without any assurance of good job. As a result, there is a possibility that they don’t completely trust the program.

3. Training Institutes face problem as local staff didn't have strong relations with higher administrative bodies, and local leaders. This can also be attributed to not getting proper response from government side. Credibility of the Training Institutes and personal reaching out to potential trainees is a big factor.

4. The attrition rate in skill development programs happens due to poor quality of counseling that can be attributed to low budget operations of Training Institutes.

5. The Skill gap assessment at district/block level is mostly done on either secondary data backing 7+ years or a quick 'back of the envelope' counting on experience. There is an urgent need of systematic skill gap study with stratified sampling to understand the aspirations of the candidates.

6. Especially in DDU-GKY, there is mandatory coverage of socially disadvantaged groups (SC/ST 50%, Minority 15%, Women 33%) and 3% for Persons with Different Abilities (PwDs). District wise targets should be based on data captured by the Socio Economic Caste Census
(SECC).

Best Proven Examples [Source: Samhita Report]:

1. Tata Strive's unique approach to aspiration-mapping is composed of three steps: interest inventory, career discovery and self discovery.At the first step, a picture-based assessment of student interests is done by showing them 60-65 pictures and gauging their reaction to doing the jobs shown. At the second step, the trainees are shown audio-visual material that helps them better understand the jobs to which they showed an inclination to. Parents are also invited to be a part of this process. At the last stage, trainees are required to introspect on their lives and aspirations. Throughout the day, they also attend sessions on beliefs, emotions, self-confidence, and mindfulness, among others. Thus, at the end of the process,trainees and the trainer are well-placed to begin a fruitful training program

2. Ambuja Cement Foundation: Training courses require participants to relocate for jobs, which is often a barrier at every stage of the program. Against such a background, ACF realized that the role of a parent is extremely important, especially when the participants are girls. ACF conducts counselling for parents at three junctures—at the beginning and end of the training, and before placement. Through these sessions, parents are counselled to shed their inhibitions on sending their children to work outside and are reassured on the safety of their children as ACF sends its trainees in groups to any workplace. This group placement proved effective in improving retention not only with girls but with boys as well. Additionally, the foundation also arranges a visit by parents to the workplace where the trainees would be placed. These practices help improve a trainee’s performance during the program and to retain the trainee in the job placed.

3. UNDP Diksha: A Skill Sakhi, as the name suggests, becomes a friend and a mentor to many of these girls, creating a career road map for them, offering information on various skills, connecting them to relevant courses and also negotiating family dynamics in some cases. Hailing from the same community and having mostly experienced similar circumstances as many of the potential trainees, a Sakhi is able to communicate with the girls in their language with empathy.

4. DB Tech uses a village saturation model. Operating in some of the most under-developed and conflict-prone regions of India, DB Tech essentially focuses all its mobilization efforts in one village, creating acceptance and enrolling all eligible youth in the community, before moving to a different location. The advantage of “saturating” a village through mobilization is that a large section of the village community—parents, spouses, friends of all the trainees— automatically become invested in the program; thereby ensuring trainees regularly attend classes, complete the course and value the employment opportunities they obtain. Mobilizing a large group helps remove inhibitions that parents may have about sending their children to different locations for training or work. Even when placed, most of the trainees are together, helping to reduce the woes of migration.

5. Castrol initially found it difficult to reach out to an adequate number of trainees for “Eklavya” program. It thus reached out to local trade unions and mechanics’ associations to create an element of trust and credibility within the youths.

Thanks to Dhirendra Singh Bagri and Dr Gagan Roy for their inputs.