Women changemakers featured in Skill Times from NSN in the last one year

To recognize and celebrate International Women’s Day on March 8th, we chose to look back at the last one-years’ e-magazines where we have had the privilege to interact and learn from many women changemakers who demonstrated resilience, adaptability, and exceptional leadership skills during the pandemic.

We make it a point to feature at least one woman in each edition of our e-magazine that is sent out every fortnight. Team NSN has compiled the stories and interviews of women changemakers working in education, skill development, and entrepreneurship promotion. Below are quotes from women in the skill ecosystem, who spoke about their initiatives, outcomes, and impact in skilling the youth, training of trainers, use of technology and supporting entrepreneurship among others. You can access all the content from our Newsletter archives, for which link is given below –

Skill Times from NSN https://nationalskillsnetwork.in/nsn-newsletter-archives/

Our YouTube channel also features interviews with a few of these women changemakers – https://www.youtube.com/NationalSkillsNetworkNSN/

“It is well known that crisis is the time of most innovation. In skilling too, we have to innovate—there is no option. Skill training centres have been closed, all trainings stopped and youth are back in their home – not knowing how to utilize their time and also uncertain about the future. The post-Corona world will have even more challenges and the nature of jobs and work may change. It is more important than ever for stakeholders in the skilling system to brainstorm, prepare and take action.”
Meena Raghunathan, Executive Director, CSR, GMR Varalakshmi Foundation

“Today, as a country we have advanced in the use of technology by 10 years. While we were forced to Work From Home due to the COVID-19 pandemic, on the flip side it became a blessing in disguise for adopting digital tools for continuity in learning”
Neeti Sharma President & Co-Founder, TeamLease Edtech Limited

“Since my childhood, I was quite fascinated with the garments. I use to style my doll, sew garments for them so my interest was always there. During my graduation (clothing and textiles), we learned so many techniques of dyeing, printing, and designing, etc., which gave me an urge to learn more and more and I decide to go for higher studies in design (NIFT Delhi).”
Archana Puri, Principal, ATDC Okhla

“Tata STRIVE believes that a trainer also needs to play the role of a coach, not a Sports Coach or a Life Coach but an ‘Employability Coach’ and ask questions to trainees (youth) to find solutions to their challenges. Let us not forget that we are molding the future leaders and they would require constructive feedback, appreciation of their efforts, techniques to set goals, and more importantly building accountability to accomplish their set goals. I am happy to share that our learners who experienced coaching during the course have taken accountability for their professional development, techniques to resolve their own internal and external conflicts in their journey, break some self-limiting beliefs and see progress in their career.”
Bijitha Joyce, Lead Facilitator Development, Tata STRIVE

“Talking about the challenges in the MSME sector, Ms. Rama Devi, enlightened the audience with many aspects of the MSME sectors. Regarding the skilling needs of MSMEs, she talked about the need for vocational education from the school level. Giving the example of the work-integrated learning in Germany, she focused on the high-level training of women for their better livelihood and not stereotyping them to fit into certain low-level job roles. She emphasized the importance of Dual skilling at the school level.”
Ms. Rama Devi, Founder – ALEAP (in a webinar organized by NSN on the occasion of World MSME Day)

“Skilling should never be discontinued. Since we are a livelihood provider, our students come from disadvantaged backgrounds, for whom learning itself is a challenge, and therefore adapting to an unconventional mode of learning was even harder. However necessity is the mother of all invention, as they say, and the closing down of educational institutions catapulted us into action.”
Monisha Banerjee, CEO, Anudip Foundation

“For innovation leaders, a time of crisis can be a real opportunity to create value and foster solutions to help the community. We discovered many innovation leaders who were ready to come out and not only create innovative masks but also distribute these masks among the needy in their neighborhood.”
Daljit Kaur, Registrar, ATDC

“In the skilling sector, the need of the hour is to have a robust MIS to capitalize on the precious and abundant human resources of India. Besides few generic demographic data points such as 65% of India’s population is below the age of 35 years and construing it as an economic dividend, our policymakers do not have sufficient qualified and stratified data about the various dimensions of demand and supply which can form the basis for creating vision, mission and realistic goals for Skill India programmes.” Deepti Srivastava, Director, MSDE

“The Beauty and Wellness industry is always in need of qualified and trained professionals and even more now, with the COVID-19 pandemic widening the gap by forcing the migrant workforce to lead back to their place of origin. There is also low female participation in the Indian economy which is one of the major challenges. This could be due to a lack of education and other socio-economic barriers limiting the opportunities for women.”
Ms. Monica Bahl, CEO, Beauty and Wellness Sector Skill Council (B&WSSC)

“As most of us aware, fashion is a very live and happening subject and attracts many students. It is evolving every time. Anybody who is creative and likes to create can pursue a career in fashion design. Apparel Manufacturing and Entrepreneurship gives a good opportunity for students not only in India but in other countries too. Many of our students have been placed by our placement cell in Oman, Jordon, etc.”
Gurpreet Kaur, Director, Academic Matters, Apparel Training and Design Centre (ATDC)

“The need for adapting to online learning was sudden and it didn’t give much time to the trainers for preparation. Teachers and trainers are also facing many issues because they have themselves not been trained for the purpose. Online training of trainers should be taken up and prioritized so that trainers are made aware of the challenges and can use technology appropriately.”
Dr Leena Chandran Wadia, Senior Fellow – Honorary, at Observer Research Foundation

“The global talent environment is extremely competitive, and the Indian youth who are aspiring to work in the global workplace, earning 10X or more of the salaries paid to Indian workers, and working shoulder to shoulder with the best of the land globally will need to invest their time, energy and fund their skill development to global standards.”
Ms. Aditi Banerjee, Co-Founder, Magic Billion

“Technology adoption has been absolutely fabulous. The way the skills and education sector adopted these changes has been overwhelming. It was a bulldozer approach as there was no choice. People realized that is not so difficult. One can do meetings and one can also train completely online. There was a mindset issue in adopting the technology. That must stay and will stay.”
Ms. Pritha Dutt, Director, Empower Pragati

“In my interaction with the students globally at some point, it is quite evident that the practical application of studies is well built in their system. In India also we have a number of examples where indigenous technology was developed by kids even who were not going to formal schooling. This does not negate the role of schools; however, it does imply that innovativeness and creativity cannot be just stimulated by an institution alone but demands interest, curiosity, and practice.”
Deepali Raina, National Mission Manager, National Urban Livelihoods Mission

“A single domain of specialization has and requires many skills, it has various job roles and various fields of specialization. However, all these fields are interlinked. For example, in apparel manufacturing, both the trainer and students need to know some parts of finance, marketing, and entrepreneurship to understand the big picture. Just the domain skills are not enough. Therefore, this multi-level knowledge, soft skills, and life skills can be taught to teachers and trainers who in-turn teach the students.”
Ms. Neera Chandra, Chief Technical Officer & GM (ToT, CSR, RPL, and other special projects) at ATDC

“Through Tarini we are dedicated to ethical and sustainable practices. We offer a climate-friendly alternative to fast fashion by promoting handloom. While fast fashion makes clothes more affordable, it harms the environment to a great extent as the dyeing process discharges harmful chemicals hence polluting the land and water bodies. We are making classy garments using handloom textiles so that the nextgen consumers embrace these rather than fast fashion. We also incorporate the use of natural dyes and natural fiber like banana yarns in our designs.”
Ms. Seema Tiwari, Founder, Tarini

“There are two things that will be needed, one is being agile and quickly adapting to the changes in the next 3 – 4 years and the next thing is there is a constant requirement to innovate and re-think. We cannot be rigid with our models. When I say forward-looking, there are a couple of things that are going to happen because of the migration. Rural jobs are going to be of significance.”
Ms. Anita Rajan, CEO, Tata STRIVE

“Forty-two ATDC hub centres across India and the skill camps attached to them participated in the competition. ATDC received submissions from around 124 students. All the students rose to the situation and came up with innovative solutions using the resources available to them at home since they were under lockdown. For innovation leaders, a time of crisis can be a real opportunity to create value and foster solutions to help the community. We discovered many innovation leaders who were ready to come out and not only create innovative masks but also distribute these masks among the needy in their neighborhood.”
Daljit Kaur, Registrar, ATDC (talking about mask making competition organized by ATDC)

“Engaging the SME sector in training and skill development is so critical because most jobs are created by the SMEs sector. This is where having simple policies are important. Because we can’t over burden an SME with a very detailed quality assurance system. We must ensure that the training is done at the relevant standards but we have to simplify it.”
Ms. Nazrene Mannie, Executive Director, GAN

“LabourNet recently launched SAHI platform which is India’s largest gig business platform. The platform will aggregate skilled workers from across the country and connect them to temp and gig opportunities. It is a one-of-a-kind platform built to solve on-ground problems that are unique to the Indian context. It will not only fulfill the industry’s demand for quality labor comprehensively, but also will protect workers from underpaid work, non-payment of dues, and poor quality work.”
Dr. Gayathri Vasudevan, Chairperson, LabourNet

“It is a dream come true for me to see the progress with SANKALP. Back in time, I was looking at an outcome-based skilling approach across the spectrum of education and not something limited to skilling alone. Working with SANKALP at the national level is quite a challenge and also an opportunity one rarely comes across.”  Ms. T Jayasudha, COO, SANKALP Cell, NIMI, MSDE

“Taking cognizance of the people who have returned from urban employment hotspots to their native towns and villages, the Government has launched the PM Garib Kalyan Rojgar Abhiyan with a total outlay of Rs. 50000 crores in June 2020 to ensure continuity of their livelihood. The program not only has several policy measures for strengthening economic activity and employment but also has a component for skilling, reskilling and upskilling.” Ms Sunita Sanghi, Consulting Adviser, MSDE

“Apprenticeship training is one of the best and most efficient ways of developing youth by on-the-job training and making them industry-ready. In fact, it is one of the most promising vehicles to promote skill development and training, on-the-job, in a real environment. In fact, ILO also says that apprenticeship is something that is very systematic, very structured and it needs to be related to the occupation.”
Ms. Veena Swarup, Former Director (HR), Engineers India Ltd (EIL)

“Over the years, Apparel Training and Design Centre (ATDC) has been availing direct funding/bridge funding from various CSR/ National Corporations/ Public sectors towards its various training program, to support the marginalized and weaker section of society especially women for imparting employment-oriented skill training in the apparel sector.”
Neera Singh Parihar , Registrar and GM, (Sponsorship Trainings), ATDC

“There is going to be a shift back from specialized skills to holistic learning and beauty professionals will have to be competent to provide multiple services. Hence, multi-skilling of beauty and wellness professionals will be in demand. We have already transitioned into this mode where our students working as apprentices in salons are being guided by trainers while following social distancing norms. I see the industry opening its arms and offering such opportunities”  Dr. Blossom Kochhar in an article from LabourNet on NSN

“SANKALP, in its unique approach, does not attempt to implement skill programs at a large scale but designs and implements different projects as pilots. These pilots further serve as blueprints for the States and Districts to adapt and customize, based on their local needs. SANKALP through its concerted efforts aims to integrate inclusion in the design and implementation of skill training, at all stages of the skilling ecosystem.”
Sayani Basu, Consultant, SANKALP PMU, MSDE

“Interactive online classes require a little more preparation than offline. We have a portal where the students can upload their exercises and we can assess them. Meetings are conducted on the platform. I was taking a class on Critical Thinking. In this session, I generally deliver in person in college. For those students facing difficulties, we have other modes of communication such as email interactions. We share study material via email for the students to go through at their own convenience.”
Ms Vathsala, Faculty, TalentSprint