Newsletter for October to December 2014

Dear Friends,

We take this opportunity to thank our volunteer Dr.Subhadra Vedula, Mr.Kalyan Kumar and Unnati Team for putting this together.

Volume 4: Oct – Dec 2014|www.unnatiblr.org

Welcome Note

The new year always brings in new hopes, cheer and optimism- we always usher the new year with renewed energy, enthusiasm and positivity. New year is a time to revive old memories, reminisce the positive events, enjoy the success achieved, count our blessings and set new resolutions for a better and brighter year ahead. While it is the time for a lot of new things, there are certain old habits/acts/deeds that we still need to adhere to that make the new year even more pleasurable.

The year 2014 was a great one for everyone associated with Unnati. Team Unnati is very happy to reminisce the success of multiple centres, new associations that helped in creating new avenues, the awards and recognitions, extremely satisfying placement track records, ever dedicated staff/volunteers/teachers, confident young faces that walk out of its campuses every quarter ,among many others. While we continue to enjoy our successful journey, we constantly remind ourselves of our commitments, goals and vision, based on which this incredible journey started a while ago.

Hence “Youth Empowerment” is the evergreen new year resolution that Team Unnati commits and executes year after year. This is because of our firm belief in the fundamental principle that “empowerment is the key to success” irrespective of the level of education. Along with empowerment comes employability which is vital for the success of our students in their chosen vocation. While the vocational training helps them to acquire the hard skills required for a job, the soft skills or what we call as Life skills help them to strengthen their abilities further. Dedicated focus on improving their soft skills and values has been the primary focus of Unnati that has been helping our students to be very successful in their professional and personal lives..

Our 100% placement track record, across all Centres, our students’ success in their respective jobs stands as testimony to the impact of the Unnati Program. We at Team Unnati continue to work on this aspect to make our skill building and employability quotients better. With this note, Team Unnati wishes all its patrons, well wishers, friends, volunteers and all its extended family members a very happy and prosperous new year.

Warm wishes for a happy and prosperous 2015..

“Soft skills may get little respect but they will make or break your career”– Peggy Claus

Editorial:

There has been significant growth in educational institutions in India over the last decade resulting in increasing number of engineering, management, pharma and other graduates passing out year after year. The brighter side of this is that professional education has reached the common man, as against a few privileged people earlier. While this spoke about the rise in the supply thankfully there was a rise in demand too. The job sector also grew parallelly to the educational sector to promising levels with Information Technology (IT) being the chief employment provider. There has been significant increase in jobs in Bio-medicine/Pharma, retail, construction engineering and other sectors too, providing opportunities for job seekers. The phenomenon of globalization opened doors to opportunities in umpteen other sectors like hospitality, healthcare, manufacturing and others.

Employability skills can be termed as general skills that are required not just to get a job, but also to stay in a job and reach the top. While a degree from a reputed institute is highly essential to secure a job, it probably is not enough. The employers look for a few special skills that make the students better employable, irrespective of their level of education. These skills are essential to meet the stringent timelines, stay abreast with the emerging trends in the field of interest, work in a competitive environment, plan and organize multiple tasks with ease, be a successful team player and last but not the least manage personal/professional stress levels.

Many universities/institutes across the world have recognized this need, created a few key programs which are aimed to enhance the general skills which in turn would help the students to become more employable. Many corporates across the world also have designed programs for their employees to enhance their skills to become better employees, managers and leaders.

These skills often termed as ‘soft skills’ cannot be simply learned through books as opposed to hard skills that are easily quantified by one’s level of education. They have to be acquired through experience and constant coaching. Preparing ahead of time in these skills is often essential as it helps in facing the real work life with great ease and comfort. While the Hard skills get you in the running, it is your soft skills that get you noticed, and both are required for you to achieve success! Unnati with its core vision of “youth empowerment” recognized this gap as early as its inception, incorporated the most important soft skills into the curricula of different vocations. Our Life Skills program takes care of the most important soft skills that are essential for a successful career.

“ Unnati’s programs are designed to address the following important soft skills in a very systematic and organized manner:

1. Communication:Reading, writing, listening and speaking form the four major aspects of communication which are taught to all the students of Unnati which help them to become confident and comfortable in their interactions. Emphasis is laid on both oral communication and listening. It is always a pleasure to hear students speak in English, a language that they fear at the inception of the program.

2. Teamwork:Team Unnati believes in the fact that being a good team player is a non negotiable skill and is a sure shot mantra for success of self and the team. We ensure that the students are trained well in improving their interpersonal skills with both the workmates and external contacts. This is achieved by regular workshops, debates, role plays and other team based activities

3. Problem Solving:Students are taught to face problems with a clear and logical approach to solutions than to get hindered by them. We try to impart alternative thinking to address the setbacks/hardships in a suitable manner that will help them forge ahead.

4. Initiative and Enterprise:We at Unnati try to educate our students about the importance of being self starters that will help them overcome their inhibitions, take initiatives that will help them and the team.

5. Planning and Organising:Planning and organizing the given tasks and timelines is the most important step for the success. We believe that ownership and being accountable bring in not only a great sense of responsibility but also a lot of planning and organizing. We help students in mastering this by letting them own a few tasks, plan and mange them well. We are extremely happy to notice that our students plan many events during the training program including the valediction function.

6. Self-Management:We at Unnati believe that this is possible only with a very disciplined and methodical approach towards a task, irrespective of the magnitude of the task. All our students are trained in punctuality, discipline, time management and an orderly approach to achieve any given task.

7. Learning:Learning is a continuous activity which helps to stay abreast with the latest developments in the chosen field. As part of this we encourage our students to stay informed of the latest trends, events in their field of choice.

8. Technology:Most jobs these days require the use of some form of technology or the other, so it is important to know how to use a computer. Our computer training helps them to gain expertise in operating the systems with ease and also the use of some of the basic and advanced programs as well.

There are many success stories of how soft skills helped both students and professionals to excel in their chosen fields and emerge as winners. The workshops/role plays/assignments provided as part of the soft skills training programs give them a gist of the potential real life scenarios, help them manage the projects well.

We at Unnati are extremely happy about the fact that our curriculum focuses on enriching the soft skills/ Life Skills/values of the youth to make them more empowered and employable. Our Life Skills/values help them deal with different situations, not just in their work, but also in real life, thus helping them achieve a fine work-life balance too.

“Take advantage of every opportunity to practice your communication skills so that when important occasions arise, you will have the gift, the style, the sharpness, the clarity, and the emotions to affect other people.” – Jim Rohn

Events at UNNATI:

1. Voluntary Projects by Thomson Reuters :(Thomson Reutors undertake several Volunteering  projects every year at Unnati – the following are the volunteering projects during the year 2014-15)

a. Go Green :

On 29th September 2014, Volunteers from Thomson Reuters joined the staff & students of Unnati to plant trees and make this planet a better place to live.

b.Sparklean

On 19th October 2014. Spring cleaning of Kitchen was undertaken with students of Unnati. The idea was to make the kitchen ‘spic and span’ for providing clean & healthy environment.

c. Rang De

‘Rang De’-on 31st of October 2014. Painting of Unnati classrooms by Volunteers from Thomson Reuters and students of Unnati, was undertaken.

d. Tagging of Assets

‘Tagging of Assets’- Volunteers fromThomson Reuters identified, numbered and entered details of assets like chairs, almirahs , Computers etc in the register. This inventory helps unnati to protect its assets better.

2. State Street Global Advisor :

Employees of State Street Global Advisor visited Unnati on 30th October 2014. A presentation was made on topics on ‘Communication’, ‘ Basic email etiquette’ and ‘personality development’ which were very useful to the students. State Street Global Advisor is a regular donor to Unnati.

3. Dasara Celebrations at Unnati:

Dasara was celebrated on 1st of October 2014, sweets were distributed to all the students and staff after a simple pooja at Unnati centre.

4. Train the Trainers program:

Unnati has a strong team of in-house Master Trainers that periodically trains Volunteers and Staff in different aspects of mentoring. A Training of Trainers was conducted on 18th November to 21st November 2014 for Unnati volunteers and Faculty.

Mr.Praveen, a faculty at Unnati, Bangalore, was deputed to Delhi from 27th October to 5th December 14 to oversee/train new students and assist in opening a new centre (Kirtinagar) at Delhi.

Ranga, a senior staff of Unnati, Bangalore was deputed to Delhi from 25th November to 2nd December 14 to conduct Trian the trainers program for the newly recruited faculty staff at three Delhi centres (Kiritinagar, Badarpur & Shalimarbagh). Mr. Praveen ably assisted Mr. Ranga.

5. Selection of students for the 46th batch: 29th November 2014:

A total of 85 students were selected (28 girls 57 boys) spread over 4 vocations viz. Admin Assistant, Retail Sales & Marketing, Guest Care and Beautician.

6. ‘ICP’ in CSR by Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs:

Training of Students enrolled for ICP-CSR course (for which Unnati partners with IICA) got off to a grand start on 15th Oct 2014. There are 11 students undergoing the 9 month online ICP-CSR course at Unnati Centre. Trainers from Unnati are Mr. Ranga, Ms. Girija Krishnan and Ms. Anita Dubey.

7. Blood Donation Camp by Rotary Club:

Students and staff of Unnati donated blood.

8. DEBATE:

Unnati conducts Debates on ‘Employment’&’Social Issues’ for every batch. This debate for the 45th Batch was conducted at Unnati on 18th November 14.

9. ART OF LIVING workshop:

One day ‘Art of Living’ workshop was conducted on 5th November 14 by Mrs& Mr. Rajagopal.

10. LEADERSHIP PROGRAMME:

For all the trainees, apart from the regular class room sessions, Unnati provides one day Leadership Programme. The day long programme was conducted by Mr. Shashidhar(of rotary club) on 10th November 2014. He handled various topics on leadership, marketing techniques, effective communication. This is a activity based program. Students enjoy this.

11. Financial Literacy:

A Financial Literacy programme was conducted on 28th October 2014 by Mr. Vinod for the benefit of the students. Mr.Vinod is a financial marketing professional authorized by SEBI. (Security Exchange Board of India).

–Harold S Geneen

Awards and Recognitions

1. MOU with San Engineering:

CSR legislation is an important move by the Govt for sustainability. It is beyond donations, grants and charity. Unnati has signed their first MOU with San Engineering & Locomotive Co. Ltd who have been part of the Unnati movement for many years. The MOU gives sanctity and long term participation opportunity. It’s not just about financial support but participation in training, adding value to their employees, hiring etc. Unnati is extremely thankful to Mr. Ramanathan Narayanan (CEO) and Mr.Kishore of San Engineering. Picture shows the MOU and cheque being handed over to the Trustees.

2. Dr.MC Modi service award:

Unnati program received the ‘ Padmabhushan Dr.MC Modi service award’ from the Senior Citizens’ Club (Govt) for the year 2014 and the chief guest was Justice N Santosh Hegde. Unnati is grateful to the club for recognizing its contribution to the underprivileged youth.

3. Sangeetha Sevanidhi Award:

Our lead Trustee Ramesh Swamy was honoured by JSS Sangeetha Sabha Trust, Mysore, with the title’Sangeetha Sevanidhi for yeoman service rendered to the cause of music, under the banner of Sree Guruvayurappan Bhajan Samaj Trust , for over 30 years now. The journey of holding concerts began at the OdakatturMutt , near the Halasuru lake and at present continues at the Unnati Centre.

–Larry Bird

Visits

Mr. Mahesh, social worker:

Mahesh, a youngster from Belgaum was awarded for his great work in the field of HIV and Aids awareness and rehabilitation by Govt of Karnataka. Mr. Mahesh visited Unnati Centre and spent a few moments with the students. We are planning to work with him and start a centre at Belgaum in the next 2 months.

–David Starr Jordon

Placement Record

All the students from 45th Batch have been placed keeping our 100% placement track record intact. We are grateful to all the corporates who keep supporting us in placement of our candidates. Here is a list of organizations that have provided employment opportunities for Unnati Students:

Numbers in the parenthesis indicate number of people employed in a particular organization.

–Thomas More.

Teacher/Volunteer’s Corner

Ms. Tara Narayanan:

Ms. Tara Narayanan is associated with Unnati since inception. She handles Value classes for the students. She takes active interest in many of Unnati activities. Ms. Tara is the driving force of the trust’s other project “Shiksha”– the scheme through which hundreds of poor families are benefited by obtaining school fees for their children from SGBS Trust.

–Tom Stoppard

Know Your Team

Ms. Ganga

Ms. Ganga is a Post Graduate in Social work, she has been with Unnati since December 2013. She is the Student Co-ordinator and takes care of all issues relating to students like conducting assembly, leave, absenteeism, disciplinary issues etc. Ms. Ganga brings in the much wanted enthusiasm and energy and motivates the students in their day to day activities.

–Mireille Guiliano

Students speak

NAGAMALLIKA C

Batch & Vocation : 45th Batch Qualification: 7th passAbout My Family I have three members in my family, my husband who works as a security guard. and a 10 year old son. Before Training at Unnati Before training at Unnati, I didn’t know about the computer I didn’t know English. Training Report I was part of Unnati’s Batch no 45 and underwent training in Beautician stream during in 13/09/2014 to 26/11/2014 .During the training I underwent training in the core modules for my vocation. In addition to this, I was given training in Spoken English, Life Skills, Values & Basic Computer skills. After Training After training I know about basics of computer and functions of keys. I learnt manicure & pedicure. I know about massaging and I am able to face customers. Placement Details Company Name: Katherine’s gallery Date Of Joining:01/12/2014 Designation: Asst. Beautician Salary: 7500 per month

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ARUN JOSEPH

Batch & Vocation: 45th Batch Qualification: PUC About My Family My family consists of four members. Father, mother, sister and myself. Sister is married. My father is working in a small shop, mother is a home maker. Before Training To Unnati I had stage fear, I was hesitant to talk. I had no job and no friends. Training Report I was part of Unnati’s Batch no 45 and underwent training in Admin Assistant Stream during in 13/09/2014 to 26/11/2014. During the training I underwent training in the core modules for my vocation. In addition to this, I was given training in Spoken English, Life Skills, values & Basic Computer skills. After Training Now I have a Lot of friends. No Stage Fear. My Hesitation has gone Placement Details Company Name: Vindhya Date of Joining: 01/12/2014 Designation: Customer Support Executive Salary: 7000 per month

Function

45th Batch Valedictory Function:

Valediction of our 45th Batch students was held on 27th November 2014. The following were the Guests of Honor :

Dr. Krishna Kumar (Boeing), Ms. Subhadra (Unnati Volunteer), Mr. Ganesh (Trustee), Ms. Sugandha Joshi (Alcatel Lucent), Mr. MahanteshSajjan (Rotary Hubli), Dr. Saravanan (Swati Institution), Mr. PratapRamdas (Tata Gobal Beverages), Mr. AnujSuri (Derrick Petroleum) & Ms. Parvathi (Unnati staff)

The entire function was organized and executed by students. All students actively participated in decorating the hall, welcoming the guests, sharing their experience at Unnati, participating in skits and proposing a Vote of Thanks.

–Ralph Waldo Emerson

Obituary

‘Unnati regrets to share with all its wellwishers that Mr.Rebello who was volunteering at unnati for the past several years passed away after a brief illness on 7th Jan.15.

Mr.Rebello was a retired WingCommander and partipcated in Indo-pak wars of 1965 and 1971. Mr.Rebello used to handle spoken english classes and was very popular with the students. Unnati salutes his attitude of volunteering to help the underprivileged. Unnati conveys its condolences to the bereaved family.’