By: Bhuvaneshawri Shurpali
(Online Mentoring Program Session)
Vidyadhan always believes that students need guidance and training along with financial assistance since most of them are from rural backgrounds, having faced difficult socio-economic conditions. This belief led to our residential training programs on Career Guidance, Confidence Building, Communication Skills and Job-oriented training at regular intervals. These training programs helped in increasing awareness among the students about different career opportunities available and guided them in gaining the required knowledge and skills. The training also helped them in building confidence and co-ordination skills through peer learning groups. The organization also used these programs to identify and nurture hidden talent.
Suddenly all this came to a standstill when COVID -19 broke out. The telephonic interactions that we started with students to keep rapport with them and to know the financial condition of the students also helped us know the preparedness of students to attend the online training programs. As more than 85% of our students managed to access smartphones to attend the online lectures, we got into action immediately and prepared a curriculum on Career Opportunities and Confidence Building training with focus on ten Life Skills recognized by WHO, since it was not only important to bring awareness but also to build the ability to cope up with stress and emotions during the pandemic. The training program was piloted in Maharashtra and then was expanded to all other states. It was a great success with excellent feedback from students. The online mode of training not only increased the number of hours of training but also brought expert trainers to the doorsteps of the students sitting in remote villages of different states at a time. The groups on social media also improved peer learning.
This initiative of online training also helped in bringing in new activities like V CHARCHA – an interaction between sponsors and students, V ASSIST- a Job-oriented training and Guidance program, V-WISTA – Women in Science and Technology Association, etc. An online mentoring initiative is also an offspring of the online training initiatives.
The pandemic brought in a lot of problems and challenges but the firm belief that “When the going gets tough, the tough get going” helped us in not only maintaining the standards of our program but also making it more relevant and successful.
Vidyadhan India 