Imagine this scenario: There is a young teenage girl, Ramya, who has just completed her second year PUC course where she has garnered the requisite theoretical knowledge. However, when she goes in search of employment, she appears to lack the requisite confidence and communication skills for suitable employment. The result is that she fails to secure gainful employment and her parents regard her largely as a burden on them.
This is not a scenario taken in isolation, but it could be a very real problem for youngsters just out of school or college, particularly those who come from rural or urban vulnerable backgrounds. What is their plight in our fast workday world where employment for the underprivileged is a dire necessity?

In such scenarios, it is heartening to note that the International Youth Foundation and the GE Foundation have collaborated together to promote healthy lifestyles, employability and community amelioration for young people. During their pilot project initiated in the year 2003, more than 3,000 young people, aged 14 to 17, benefited from the development and implementation of this employability skills’ programme. Youthreach, an organisation in India, was selected to manage the programme with local youth serving NGOs. Youthreach has worked with over 75 Indian NGOs who have worked for the benefit of children, women and the environment.

For the year 2007-08, Youth Reach has partnered with Dream-A-Dream (among many other NGOs), a professional non-profit organisation based out of Bangalore, which reaches out to children from diverse vulnerable backgrounds. Dream-A-Dream’s focus is to help assist children and youth, like Ramya, who have the requisite knowledge but would be required to be more proficient in life skills in order to be employable. Keeping this in mind, Dream-A-Dream has partnered with Youthreach to bring the `Udaan Life Skills Program’ to children from its various partner NGOs. The programme will be executed by a committed volunteer team from Dream A Dream who will be trained in the methodology of training youngsters.

One of the `Udaan Life Skills Program’ training workshops was held recently where during two weekends the trainers of this course, Ms Amrita Bhashyam, Mr Murtaza and Mr Ranga, trained 12 participants in training methodology for imparting life skills. The 12 participants are volunteers from Dream A Dream who are keen to work with children from vulnerable backgrounds and who aren’t necessarily from a training/teaching background. 
More like a `Train the trainer’ course, the course eventually aimed at training the participants by using an apt training methodology. By using the appropriate methodology, the participants could use their training for instructing children on a wide range of life skills. For this, the participants were instructed on several very vital aspects, such as making a good first impression on the children, listening carefully to them and endeavouring to understand and empathise with their emotions and sentiments.

In order to make the workshop interesting, participative, creative and practical, the participants were trained to enact role plays to drive home facts on life skills. In order to facilitate discussions where everyone could participate, the large group was further divided into small groups to brainstorm issues. Additionally, the participants made posters and charts to show their views, ideas and perceptions on various topics. This could make for better understanding, particularly for children who understand concepts better if there is a visual appeal to it.

Towards the end of the workshop, the participants actually held live presentations for which elaborate feedback was given. This would probably enable the participants to learn from their mistakes, like not being articulate enough, not being clear, or display of ambiguity.

All in all, this workshop provided the participants with valuable insight into the world of training methodology which will be tested once the participants actually take to the field and bring the `Udaan Life Skills for Employability’ classes for the children from Dream A Dream’s various partner NGOs. The clinching deal would be if the participants are of actual tangible assistance to teenage girls and boys seeking employment. And this would particularly help youngsters, like Ramya. For more details about Dream A Dream, please call 6534 9980 or visit www.dreamadream.org