Women’s Day follow up: 5 A’s of linking skills with work

First, a big ‘thank you’ for participating in our Women’s Day initiative of Exclusive Edition of “Skill Times”. Another big ‘thank you’ for sharing the success stories, interviews and messages on social media channels and various professional networks. In case you missed reading the newsletter, here’s the link to view it. We enjoyed connecting with many individuals and organizations in the skills and vocational space across India to share their work and accomplishments in helping women learn and earn. This one-month project helped us learn many things about skilling initiatives in general, and of course, about the challenges faced and overcome by women, in particular. And we cherish the process of re-creating, compiling, publishing more than 80 stories, working with tight timelines, keeping our quality and standards in tact.

People are at the core of any training or skill development activity; whether they are trainees, trainers, counsellors, mobilizers, employers, entrepreneur, facilitators or others who are in leadership roles. The newsletter helped us in bringing few of them together, by talking to them, writing about them and sharing their success.Though in an extremely small way, we managed to celebrate the achievements of women from diverse cultures, regions, social and educational backgrounds.

A sure fire way to create awareness and promote skilling and vocational education is by acknowledging and appreciating people and their efforts at the right time. And, this is one of the goals of National Skills Network – NSN! Our way of doing this is by sharing the positive impact at the level of individuals , organizations and society at large. We invite you to join our efforts in this direction: #HeForShe, #BeBoldForChange, #SkillsForAll !

I strongly believe that skill-based jobs can become aspirational only when there’s sustained strategy to create awareness and provide access to opportunities to learn, earn and grow. And, when skilling and jobs are easily accessible, people tend to accept these options as alternatives or complements to mainstream education, degrees and diplomas. This is bound to create the right attitude and mindset to explore and embrace new means of livelihoods, jobs and entrepreneurship.

Today, we are at nascent stages of making skilling accessible and acceptable; when this is done the right way, there’s bound to be greater positive results such as reduced attrition in training and jobs. Appreciation comes next. Let’s remember to appreciate in whatever suitable form; this is will definitely make individuals, teams and groups feel special and sustain their motivation. Making skill-based professions popular is a journey that can takes arduous efforts. Awareness, Access, Acceptance, Appreciation and Aspiration – these could be some steps in ensuring success, scale and speed – culminating in diverse sustainable ways of reaching goals and targets without compromising on quality and standards.

Here’s what Brunda and Videhi have to say about their experience with the Exclusive Edition of “Skill Times”.

It was a very unique and special experience working on “Skill Times” for Women’s Day. At the start it looked like an interesting project where I would get to talk and read about women from different backgrounds but as it progressed I realised how challenging and intriguing it was to interact with people from across the country who shared their stories. I developed a lot of respect for these women who despite their tough conditions took the bold step to do something for themselves and their families and as deserved achieved success. Each woman is unique and a winner and it was a matter or pride to write about them. Brunda Murthy