empowerment i n i t i a t i v e · pdf fileempowerment i n i t i a t i v e first dignity ......

WomenCareer Counselling&

October 2015

WOMENEMPOWERMENTI N I T I A T I V E

FIRST DIGNITYMany Voices, One Vision

empowering women through learningAICWETE believes that if a woman is to be empowered, this empowerment should be by providing right and effective means of economic and social upliftment. In this age of credentials and high esteem attached to educational qualifications if a woman also competes enough to acquire a degree which will assure a position for her in the job market then more than half of the bridge between man and woman is filled. Therefore AICWETE has taken this initiative of empowering women through learning. In this step towards uplifting women from their miseries AICWETE took the tool of career counseling and career development to ensure a bright future of girls fearing to lose their aspirations due to financial limitations.

The concept of career counseling has been seen by AICWETE as an effective way in which the girls who want to achieve many things in future but are not able to because of unawareness about the world and also about them. Most of the girls in the adolescent age grapple with several issues which constantly try to take them away from higher education. This is very much true for girls who live in slum areas where cultural as well as economic capital to support higher education especially for girls is lacking. AICWETE thus has pledged to help the girls in slum areas all across the country, so that these girls who hold capabilities and right aptitude do not stay behind in the race of higher education. Through several programmes which have been already executed in Delhi, Assam, Mangalore etc places AICWETE has started its venture of career counseling and aims to do various such programmes in near future.

AICWETE also believes that these girls who aspire to become something must also be helped with proper assistance in reaching that goal. These girls should not remain entangles in the clutches of age long discrimination which has kept them subjugated and poor both socially and economically. Therefore AICWETE aims to uplift these girls by helping them achieve their desired career and life of dignity.

AICWETE Newsletter October 2015 2

table of content

TITLE CONTRIBUTED BY PAGE

Editorial 4

Theme Address Justice MSA SiddiquiFormer Chairman, NCMEI

6

Counselling for better education and career choice

Prof. Mohd. Akhtar SiddiquiProfessor of Education, Institute of Advanced Studies in EducationFaculty of Education, Jamia Millia Islamia Central University

7

Fatima Zahra (A.S) Daughter of Prophet Mohammad(P. B.U.H)

Dr. Shabistan Gaffar,Chairperson, AICWETE

10

What is career counselling?Dr. Kamal KhuranaFounder, Kamal Teachings& Inner Self Integration Worldwide

11

CBSE Counselling: An Effective Tool to Support the Students

Dr. Sanyam BhardwajJoint Secretary & Officer-On-Special Duty (AIPMT)Central Board of Secondary Education, Delhi

12

Psychometric Assessment Mr. Mohan TiwariCo-Founder, Students Destination

14

Career and YouMs. Evita SoodDirector, Modo Meo

15

Making India A Better Informed Career Hub

Mr. Amit GargFounder Trustee, Institutional Excellence Forum&Mr. Gautam Raj Jain Ph.DPatron, Institutional Excellence Forum

16

Life CoachMs. Insha MirDirector – International Chapter, USA

20

My StoryMs. Tanveer Khan Advocate

21

Career Excellence Centre:Giving Wings to the Dreams of Young Minds

Ms. Arti AhluwaliaHead-Alliances, Institutional Excellence Forum

22

Programme Proceedings Ms. Juhi Singh 24

Buniyad Educational and Social Welfare Society

Ms. Gazala Hashmi 29

Empowering Women Through Career Development

Mrs. Sangeeta NatarajanMotivational Speaker Mentor, Life Coach

30

Empowerment and EntrepreneurshipMr. K. Natarajan Thinker & Strategist

32

Ajmal Foundation Experience with IEF Training Programmes 34

Press Releases 37

editorialThe degree of suffering among women is directly proportional to their inability to participate in traditional market sector or even modern job market. The core reasons as discussed at various forums and scholarship behind the backwardness among women is that they are not economically empowered. In this modern era where a drive to turn literacy into digital literacy is taking place, the women in India still stand below the bottom line from the touch of this initiation and the case of Muslim women seems even worse.

However the goal of making women empowered can also be achieved only if we make them educated and employed.Economic independence improves the confidence of the women marking their separate identity formation.

This in turn brings in the much desired amelioration in the persona of the women which gives the much desired hike to the notion of women empowerment.

This can also be understood very cogently through the recent statement made by Ban Ki-moon the Secretary General, United Nations. According to him, this initiation thus also recognizes the upliftment of women from the age old subjugation and breaking the shackles which have kept them behind men all across the humanity. To celebrate the freedom and equality which is the basic birth right of every woman and girl in this world 12th October has been declared as International Day for Girl Child by UN.

Our organisation AICWETE along with the whole world also celebrated this day promoting empowerment of girls through education. Under the broader philosophy of ‘Dignity First’ which also defines the core ideology of every endeavour which AICWETE takes up, the celebration of this International Girls day also took place on 10th October 2015 in its Delhi office.

AICWETE in many of its programme has tried to understand the issues causing backwardness in education among the girls in India in general and Muslim girls in particular. Following the core elements of being ‘action-oriented, concise and easy to communicate’ of SDGs promoted by UN, AICWETE also organized a short term programme of career counseling for few girls who aspire to reach out very high in life through education but are not able.

The newly adopted Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) offer an opportunity for a global commitment to breaking intergenerational transmission of poverty, violence, exclusion and discrimination and realizing our vision of a life of dignity for all.


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Most of the girls in India have to drop out from their schools and are not allowed to pursue higher education which can help them in becoming financially independent. They become the victims of early marriage killing their childhood and the aspirations they hold as an individual. However the explanation given by guardians for this mostly lies in their financial constraints to support their higher education. With this understanding AICWETE focused in this programme on the career counseling of the girls in the first step. It was chosen as the step of initiation regarding development of these types of girls because career counseling is understood to include services and programme designed to facilitate individual development and their ability to make optimal choices regarding roles in occupational, familial and social structures.

Thus AICWETE selected 30 girls and conducted their psychometric test. Based on the result of this test, the 20 girls who passed this test were provided proper career counselling and one time stipend of Rs. 1000 so that they can work on that particular area which will suit their personality to the maximum possible extent. 3 girls who performed the best were chosen, based on their merit and economic condition and AICWETE will provide proper assistance to them in achieving their higher education goals like LLB, B-Tech and Medical Courses.

Through this initiative AICWETE will fulfil its next step of career development of these girls. The major motive behind this is to advance their skills which would help them develop their personalities and ready for the job they aspire for. However in its programme of empowering these girls through education it also recognized the importance of happiness quotient while choosing a career.

The growing competition and the rat race for certain jobs have made people discontent and unsatisfied. Therefore to seek career that use our creative spark and desire to make a difference, a career that too often have heart but not much financial remuneration, so finding the right career or competing for the new well paid position is tough for many women. Therefore this programme also focused to help the girls to choose career not out of compulsion but interest and happiness.

AICWETE holds a history of taking initiation in this field which is evident through its work done in April in (Hojai) Assam, (Mangalore) Karnataka, (Moradabad) U.P. Now we have also started to recognise the various slum areas of Delhi and have worked with the different NGOs too. In this programme as well these 30 girls were recognised through the BuniyadFoundation. Our organisation has collaborated with knowledge partners like Students Destination, IEF (Institutional Excellence Forum) to work together in this initiative of career counselling and career development.

Thus our programme which celebrated the freedom and empowerment of girls through education poses a larger aim of

Empoweringtoday’s youth to

become tomorrow’sleader of change.


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addressBy JUSTICE M.S.A. SIDDIQUI

Women are being discriminated in all the spheres of life across the globe since time immortal. They have to primly sacrifice everywhere be it in their career or for their family. Even with the advancement of time and technology, the situation of the women has changed a little and they still have to fight for their rights to lead a life of dignity.

From my lifelong readings and various experiences in life, I have understood that the patriarchal norms that have dominated our societies since ages are the main culprit behind the sorry state of women across the globe. These norms actually created a false sense of superiority of the male gender among the mindset of the human race. This faulty sense of superiority actually helped to maintain the hierarchy in gender in which women have always been kept at the bottom.

Moreover, this male dominancy comes mostly from economic perspective rather than any religious and social perspective. This is because the male counterpart is often entrusted with the responsibility of earning bread for the family. This bread earner attribute misleadingly gives them the authority to take the final shots in all family matters. While pondering over this core idea behind the discrimination of women for many years I feel that we can derive the solution from here only. Thus for me the only way out of this misery of the women is to become financially self-dependent. Furthermore, in my long journey of life, I have had the privilege of meeting number of educationists and students across the country. Since, the last 10 years (from the various positions and responsibilities I am entrusted upon), I have got the opportunity to cultivate the field of education.

In these years, I am engaged in the proceedings of working and dealing with several issues of education. I happened to attend a number of convocations and seminars. In those seminars or other programs, I have observed and understood that out of the total girl students; almost 80% of the girls are committed towards their studies and have been mostly on the fore front in the merit list. While talking with many of these students, I found the high intensity of rigor and hard work that these girls put in their studies. However, their capabilities and desires hold little significance as most of them has to discontinue their study just after primary or secondary school. Scrutinizing across all the government reports regarding the status of girls’ education in India, unsatisfactory statistics can be found regarding this issue.

However, my main concern here is that this phenomenon of school dropouts especially among the girl’s population could have been minimized but very few steps had been taken to do it.. History has shown us examples of legendary women who have uplifted the meek status of women with their vision and might. Therefore I want all of us to move beyond the discussion of women emancipation to women empowerment. This empowerment I feel can be brought by providing proper guidance to these girls to achieve higher level of education. However to achieve this, in my view they need a proper career counseling.

This is because, during my several conversations with the girls in schools and various seminars, I have found that though these girls want to put effort in their career but are not aware of what and where they should proceed. In this respect the only way out is proper counseling of these girls. This process will help them with analyzing their capabilities and will guide them to the right direction. The constraints which these girls face at the economic as well as social level can also be tackled well if they are clear about where they have to proceed.Therefore the way to empowerment of women through learning has to pass the stage of career counseling to achieve the most out of one’s personality within the right time and right space.


counselling for better education and career choice

ByPROF. MOHD. AKHTAR SIDDIQUIEx-Chairman, National Council for Teacher Education, Govt. of India) Professor of Education, Institute of Advanced Studies in EducationFaculty of Education, Jamia Millia Islamia Central University

Many decades ago the Kothari Education Commission (1966) had observed that there is a high incidence of underemployment and unemployment among the educated youth which is affecting the growth and development of the country. This may be due to unplanned provision of education and its programmes being irrelevant to individual and societal needs. Concerted efforts had followed the recommendations of the Commission to bring reforms in the system of education and link it more meaningfully with the economic and social development of the country. Since then manifold expansion has taken place in employment market and newer employment avenues of a complex and changing variety have been created. As a consequence, growth and change has been experienced during the last five decades. However, despite these achievements, the pace of development cannot be termed as satisfactory and fully equitable. One of the main reasons of this unsatisfactory development may be found in the observation made by the Education Commission as referred above which still holds true, if not fully, at least in part. Even today we find a great deal of mismatch between the demand and supply of educated youth in almost all sectors of employment particularly, in the newly emerging areas of industrial and service sectors. The situation puts both the national economy as well as the individual citizen at a loss. Neither of them is able to take full advantage of the talent and potential that individuals are endowed with, irrespective of the socio-economic setting in which they are born and groomed.

It is because the kind of education they acquire is often not in sync with their talents and interests. In fact, people drawn from weaker socio-economic contexts are always at a greater risk of facing such disadvantage for variety of vicious reasons including the educational deficit from which their families have been continuously suffering for generations.

No doubt, after independence of the country access to education has consistently improved to respond to people’s aspirations for education which is worth appreciating. Enrolment at elementary level has reached to almost one hundred percent and the goal of universal elementary education seems to be within reach, the target of universal access to secondary education is stipulated to be achieved by 2020, and by the same year enrolments in higher education are likely to cover more than a third of the eligible age group youth in the country. However, the moot question that still remains unanswered is, what proportion of these educated young people have been transformed into productive responsible adults through the means of education which is based on their interests, needs, aptitudes, preferences, and on the basis of their own independent and informed choices. And even if those who could get an opportunity of taking informed and conscious decisions to pursue education of their choice, what proportion of them could really develop the desired understandings, skills and attitudes that would help them confidently join and progress in vocational and professional careers of their choice.


Perhaps, the answer may not be very encouraging. The reason is that in our society, still almost entire focus is on imparting or rather supplying education, both at secondary and higher levels, to concerned age group persons, as per their demand for education. This demand often comes without much understanding and awareness of individuals’ own strengths in terms of hidden talent, innate abilities, traits, aptitudes, etc and without much awareness of the variety of existing and emerging employment and fruitful engagement opportunities. The disconnect lies here, between what kind of education a young person should ideally get and based on it should subsequently pursue a particular career, and what education he or she really acquires and lands up in a career which is not ideally and optimally suitable for him. It neither allows him to capitalize on his treasure of talents nor helps actualize his possibilities and thus many dreams of his life remain unfulfilled. It is clearly not the young people who can be entirely blamed for this state of affairs. The blame lies with our unresponsive system of education, parental ambition driven choices for subjects and careers for their children and with the educational planners who lack creative ideas and a political will to invest resources on unconventional demands on education and to find a solution of the problem.

In a recent public interaction, Sam Pitroda, the author of the National Knowledge Commission (2007), talked about linking country’s talent with the fast changing technological world to solve country’s major problems like elimination of hunger, alleviation of poverty, etc and to use this technology connect to the advantage of the masses and improving their standards of living and quality of life, by reducing the cost of communication, energy, food production, etc. For this to happen, he argued for bringing structural changes in every institution in the country, be it schools, colleges, courts, or governments. He emphasized that all these organizations have to be fully readied to take full advantage of the technological upsurge happening around.

All organizations are manned by human beings. If they change and their talent and aptitudes are linked with technological and other needs of the organizations, technology mediated revolution in different spheres of life would become a reality. It has to begin with a systematic process of uncovering and discovering the talent hidden in the young people and channelizing it by helping them self-direct and groom their talent in the direction it ought to be pursued. Delors Commission (1996) terms this process as ‘unearthing by the individual of the ‘treasure hidden within him’ and full development of his personality. Our job is to illuminate the paths the individuals may possibly tread with relevant variety of information to facilitate them choose a suitable direction in education and vocations for them.

Psychologists say that the most important phase of an individual’s development falls between the age 15 and 25 which is defined as exploratory stage of life. In this stage the individual attempts to discover himself, tries to understand himself, tries to develop right and realistic attitudes towards work, explores the possibilities and opportunities in the world around and tries to find a place for himself in the community. It is the stage of transition from fantasy to realism and from school to work. If in this stage, at the earliest possible, he is equipped with the knowledge of his strengths and made conscious of his limitations as also of the kind of avenues which may possibly serve to suitably satisfy his interests, talents, potentials, etc, he is likely to link himself with an area of learning and occupation which may be most beneficial and rewarding for both, the nation and the individual. While our country is said to be, and rightly so, over populated yet an important feature of India’s population is that its major chunk falls in the category of productive young age. This means, if people are sufficiently and suitably educated and trained, population problem would be easily converted into a population dividend for the nation.


So, the call is, we should organize education as per a plan which caters to the interests and aptitudes of young learners.

The foregoing discussion suggests that the task of guiding and giving educational, vocational and career related counsels to children and young people is as important as education itself and rather one notch higher in significance as it is counselling that would make the enterprise of education contribute more meaningfully and effectively both, in individuals’ self actualization and in the realization of the national goals.

Ideally, the task of counselling must start at the end of elementary school, unlike the present practice of providing this guidance at late school stage and at the graduate level. Early start of educational and vocational guidance and career counselling services in schools would require a huge army of professionally trained vocational counsellors and establishment of institutional structures with reasonable investment of resources. Career counselling is not an isolated one off event that may be organized by any one amongst the teachers who is able to lay hands on some information about career choices at the culmination of secondary or senior secondary classes. Today, when the world of work has become so complex and dynamic that at short intervals entire skill-sets get changed and every day new job forms are taking birth, it has become a highly specialized field of professional work which has to be continuously updated by its organizers and has to be recurrently and repeatedly organized for the stakeholders.

At present, contrary to the need as underscored above, a highly negligible level of arrangement has been made to produce a handful of vocational counsellors. This is indicative of the fact that our educational planners and policy makers have yet to rise to the occasion and appreciate the need and value of this complementary aspect of education.

It is also important from the point of view of providing equality of opportunity for education to all particularly the weaker sections in the society that the welfare state takes greater interest in this neglected aspect for better development of the citizens.

Some private entrepreneurs seem to have realized the significance of career counselling and the need to have more and better trained educational and vocational counsellors. They have begun to take some initiatives to fill this gap. These efforts certainly need to be multiplied and expedited. Possibilities of the State partnering with them in this enterprise should also be explored.

Besides expanding guidance and counselling services for children and young people on a large scale, there is also a need to educate parents and more particularly those who are uneducated and often live on the margins of the society and fail to appreciate the value of education for its own sake and the significance of allowing children to acquire education of their own choice which is based on their own talent and interests, especially when it comes to educate a girl child in the family. It does not mean that educated parents for having possessed an educational endowment are always helping their children choose their career freely on the basis of their interests and aptitudes. Our society is replete with examples where parental aspiration and ambition for the career to be pursued by children takes precedence over children’s interest and choice and thus it curbs appropriate grooming of the hidden talent of these children too. So, even these educated parents also need to be continuously educated and informed by the school authorities and by trained career counsellors in the interest of their own children as well as for seeking their greater contribution in building an economically, socially and emotionally stronger nation.


Fatima Zahra (a.s)

Daughter of Prophet Mohammad (p.b.u.h)

Prophet Muhammed (P.B.U.H) was the last apostle send by Allah to communicate to mankind. His divine code (i.e. Islam) because this code was a comprehensive one, it also dealt with the needs of women throughout the history, and assigned a perfect example for them to prove beyond doubt that what Islam preaches is practical and if properly followed, leads to everlasting felicity. This example set by Islam to women was manifested in the person of lady Fatima (A.S) daughter of Allah’s message Prophet Mohammad (P.B.U.H) Fatima Zohra (A.S) is perfect example of how daughter, wife and mother should act while keeping their decency and pure character; she also shows us the Muslim women’s role in the Social field. Within the limits of religion and virtue Her life confirms that Islam does not deprive women of acquiring scientific, cultural and literacy knowledge granting that they safeguard themselves from nudity, recklessness, unrestraint and such actions which would bring sorrow upon them and destroy their identities.

From the study of history we find the fact that in the previous age women was considered to be the part of wealth and property. She used to do business but unfortunately illiterate people of the pre-Islam era considered women the cause of bad luck & misfortune and buried that innocent child alive. But Islam declared women equal in society and Prophet Mohammad P.B.U.H fought strongly against such injustice with women folk & such wrong conceptions. He considered she too is human being just like man and can exercise her freedom and rights.

Regretfully, the western countries and so called modern society even today imagine her to be the medium of enjoyment and time passing. On the other hand few scholars who claim to know full knowledge of Islam restrict from schools, colleges or they do not have any ties and relation with the society. They make lot of hurdle to groom her as a good human being by restricting her opportunities. Consequently such absurdities and superstitions came into existence pushed women into the cave of ignorance and darkness.

But Islam by the training provided by ladies such as Khatifa (RA) Fatima (RA) Zainub (RA) Ayesha (RA) highlighted the greatness of women, explaining and illustrating the meaning of woman’s life and turned it into an example and specimen for the future races.

Fatima (RA) was brought up and trained in the family of prophet P.B.U.H and took advantages and share of knowledge and wisdom of the prophet P.B.U.H. and got busy with the idea and concept of self-training and becoming a complete and real human.

ByDR. SHABISTAN GAFFARChairperson, AICWETE


what is career counselling?

It’s not new that career guidance is importance. The only difference is that earlier head of the families used to explain to the younger family members in detail stuff about work. They used to share their experience in form of stories and that’s how the learning process used to happen. But because of the materialisation and busy lives there is a lack of sharing that the young ones end up being clueless about their careers. Also another aspect is the information explosion that there is too much confusion about too many careers to choose from. So by the early seventies in the west professional orientation and career guidance has developed as an organized system of social and professional work on providing continuing help to the individual for the entire duration of his career. The career counselling services help the individual to exercise a free choice to pursue education and professional activity with the goal of developing a sound professional identity that matches with personal traits and the demand in the industry for that career.

Career Counselling in the modern times can be described as an organized process that helps an individual to realize respective competencies such that he/ she can plan the needed steps to develop critical skills which will lead to personal, educational, economic, and social advancement.

Career counselling essentially helps the individual to make decisions about the choice of occupation and educational paths. It is keeps in mind the individual’s career life cycle and extends all kinds of professional support and activities that he needs for making well-founded decisions about his career and activities that contribute to his personal development.

A career counselling process includes services and activities intended to assist individuals, of any age and at any point throughout their live, to make educational, training and occupational choices and to manage their career. Career counselling services are best in form of face to face sessions but now the advancement of technology and internet it can be done online and in a group as well. The process includes psychometric assessment, counselling interviews, and counselling sessions that facilitates the individual with self-awareness, opportunity awareness and career management skills.

A certified career counsellor is a trained professional ( having formal training and experience in the domain) aids the individual with exercising career choice to individuals. A career counsellor interviews the client to evaluate their personality, interests and aptitude and helps them identify the best path for career development.

Advice is most abundant and is freely available. Everybody can advise everyone on every topic. But a professional understands that it impacts the life of the client. A certified career counsellor is a trained professional who considers all the aspects critical to counselling and guidance any individual on a career. Only a trained and certified career counsellor can facilitate an individual to take an informed decision, develop the strategy and handholds the individual towards implementation of the strategy aiming at creating success in career.


ByDR. KAMAL KHURANAFounder - Kamal Teachings &Inner Self Integration Worldwide

CBSE counsellingAn effective tool to support the students

CENTRAL Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) started this pioneering community work 17 years back in 1998 for the first time by offering tele-counselling. For CBSE counselling is an outreach programme which is carefully designed keeping the heterogeneity of students’ population and geographical spread in mind at national and international level. CBSE is the only Board in the country which provides psychological counselling via multiple modes to the students and parents, such as Tele-counselling, Question Answer Columns in national newspapers, online counselling.

Highlights of CBSE Tele-counselling

CBSE Counselling

Services

Tele Counselling

Question-Answer Columns

CBSE website

Online Counselling

1. Tele-counselling is offered by trained counsellors and Principals from within CBSE affiliated schools located in and outside India

2. It is a voluntary, free of cost service provided by the counselors and principals

3. It is offered twice in the year: Phase I- Pre and during Exam, Phase II- Post Result.

4. Prior to the annual counselling, feedback and training sessions are conducted regularly with the principals, experts and counsellors. Such sessions are meant to enhance the student and parent counselling skills of participants.

5. Preparing and updating support material in the form of FAQs for students and parents, Training Manual Operational Guidelines for Tele-counselling for the counsellors is a regular feature under this project.


ByDR. SANYAM BHARDWAJJoint Secretary & Officer-On-Special Duty (AIPMT)Central Board of Secondary Education, Delhi

Tele-counselling 2014-15Like previous years, Tele-counselling was done in following two phases in 2014-151. Post result Tele-Counselling 20th May - 10th June 2014: Phase of counselling was

started with the announcement of results on 2014 20th May till 10th June 2014 by the board. Focus of the counselling was mainly on the results related stress anxiety and career choices. During this phase 54 Principals, trained counsellors from CBSE affiliated government and private schools and few psychologists participated to address psychological problems of the students. 44 of them were available in India while 10 were located in Kuwait, U.A.E, Nepal, Saudi Arabia and Sultanate of Oman.

2. Pre and During Examination Counselling (2nd February -20th April 2015): This year 74 Principals, trained counsellors from CBSE affiliated government and private schools and few psychologists participated in Tele- Counselling and addressed exam related psychological problems of the students. 62 of them were available in India while 12 were located in Nepal, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (Al Khobar, Jeddah),Sultanate of Oman, UAE (Sharjah, Ras Al Khaimah), Doha, Qatar and Kuwait.

Brief Analysis of Tele-calls 2014As the tele-counselling was conducted via Centralized Access System (CAS), a brief analysis of call data was done in-house to gauge the utility vis-à-vis requirement of callers for further improvement of the services. A total of 34755 calls were received in the two phases of operation of CBSE Tele-call centre in 2014, out of which 2685 calls were related to psychological counselling. The total calls increased by 56.81% in 2014 from the last year whereas a marginal increase of 1.62% was seen in calls referred for psychological counselling in 2014 from the last year. Calls from males were recorded 32.38% more than the females. However,callsreceived from parents were18.86% less in comparison to the students. Calls from Specially able students were also recorded at 0.19% in this year. Maximum (70%) calls were received from XII class students and private students (57%).

18th CBSE Annual Interactive Workshop on Counselling -2015The 18th CBSE Annual Interactive Counselling Workshop was held on 29thJanuary 2015 which saw the participation of a number of principals, teachers, counsellors and experts from different parts of the country. The experts and participants exchanged views on themes like “Parental Counselling and Identification of Problems amongst Students”, “Important Changes in Examinations 2014- 2015”, “Immediate Concerns of High Risk and Specially Able Students” and “Enhancing Tele-Counselling Skills”. Presentation on Live (Audio) case studies were presented and suggestions for improvement were shared by the technical expert Prof. A. K. Behera, CIET, NCERT. Strategies for the upcoming CBSE Tele Helpline were also discussed.

Release of the Manual and CDThe manual entitled ‘Operational Guidelines For Tele-Counsellors’ was released in book and CD format by Dr. Aruna Broota, Clinical Psychologist & Prof. (Retired) of Psychology, Delhi University, during the workshop with the intent to help the counsellors participating in Board’s annual Tele-counselling sessions. This manual covers issues pertaining to counselling in general and tele-counselling in particular.

Counselling through Multiple Modes

1. Centralized Toll Free Access in India: Like previous years, the facility to dial a toll free number 1800118004 from any part of the country was provided for better accessibility and convenience. The Students and Parents could avail this facility from 08:00 am to 10:00 pm to get centralized access to CBSE helpline for queries in both the phases. The general queries were answered by the operators. In case of exam related issues, concerns, anxiety or stress, students/parents were connected to the trained principals or counsellors.

2. Access for tele-counselling in foreign countries: The local contact numbers were also circulated in the foreign countries for tele-counselling.

3. Counselling for Specially Able Children: This year also CBSE arranged counselling facility for specially able children to take care of their needs and anxiety. Experts to attend to the queries and dilemma of specially able children were also designated by the board.

4. Question-Answer Columns: CBSE experts answered queries of students through weekly Question Answer columns published in national newspapers like The Hindustan Times, The Hindu, Malyalam Manorama and Amar Ujala during the month of February 2015.

5. On-Line Counselling: CBSE also provided the facility for the public to ‘Interact with the Chairperson’ and senior officers on exam related issues through on-line counselling.

6. CBSE website: Information related to examinations and techniques to cope with exams related anxiety were also provided at the CBSE website www. cbse.nic.in through micro link Counselling/ Helpline. Exam stress related help was also available on bulletin board at the homepage of CBSE website.


psychometric assessment

Measuring attributes like height and weight is reasonably simple. These are physical and observable traits that can be assessed objectively. Traits such as personality, intelligence, attitude, aptitude and interests aren't so easy to measure but are important characteristics. Whether it is about choosing a career or trying to figure out what you want to do with your life, it's useful to assess these types of "hidden," attributes. A psychometric tests which covers a wide range of skills, interests and values of people and can be used effectively in career counselling. The word ‘psychometrics’ comprises of two words: ‘psycho’ means mind and ‘metrics’ means measurement. So, they look at ways to measure things relating to the mind. It is the study of educational and psychological measurements. It includes the tests that are standardized as well as proven to be reliable and valid measures of areas like personality, ability, aptitude, values, intelligence and interest.

When an individual wants to take decisions about career choices, the psychometric assessments provide an objective measure of aptitude as well as the likelihood of career satisfaction and success. These assessments help a person to know oneself – not just what he/she is good at but also to make one aware of those important areas that can be worked upon. Though, the psychometric assessments can be used to make choices at any stage of life but is recommended that it be used by students while selecting the streams after class X

The majority of students in schools and colleges are often confused about their choice of career. This is due to lack of awareness about self, about the opportunities available as well as the lack of proper guidance. They have no idea of where to go for advice. While psychometric assessment is helpful, students and their parents must remember that it’s just one of several tools available and that it must always be used in conjunction with competent professional guidance counselling. The assessments can assist a person and provide insights that may have eluded him/her, but one must be aware that psychometric testing.• Will not make decisions for a person• Must be supported by adequate

professional guidance and counselling• Will not rule in or rule out careers. It

can only propose suggestive careers• Will not take into consideration the

economic realities of your situation• Will not remove the hard thinking

required when making career decisions

To complement the insights provided by the psychometric assessments, proper career counselling is very important. It is during this process that the counsellor can guide the child about the suggested careers considering the socio-economic status as well as the cultural preferences. The use of psychometric testing within the field of Career and Educational Guidance is on the increase. This is partly because, when used correctly, psychometric testing is wholly consistent with the aim of providing a high quality, non-discriminatory, independent, and objective Career and Educational Guidance. The use of psychometric tests can bring benefits to both the client and the Guidance providers.


ByMR. MOHAN TIWARICo-founderStudents' Destination

In general, psychometric testing can help students by:

1. Providing an objective measure of hidden abilities and form a robust foundation for making career decisions.

2. Helping them to understand what motivates you.

3. Focus on their strengths and approaches their weaknesses.

4. Discover their occupational interests.5. Helps them to identify your dream

career.6. Recognise their cultural preferences.7. Find out more about their personal

behaviour.8. Providing insights into aspects of work.

career and you

In today’s fast growing world, the term ‘Career’ has undergone a paradigm shift in terms of people’s outlook at the new and experimental ways of the young generation. Owing to the majority myopic vision, the traditional respectable careers were Doctor, Engineer, IAS and Armed forces. However, with the advent of technology we have witnessed a bloom in options, from selling old furniture online to hiring domestic help services at the click of a button. The landscape is painted with millions of financial investment for those who have a vision.

Passion and entrepreneurial skills are the two key elements to establish a successful career. It is said that “find a job that you like and you would never have to work a single day.” That is the power of passion! It fuels a person to achieve the impossible by sheer hard-work and conviction. You and only you need to be convinced about your choice, vision and the means to achieve the goal. Most of us have a vision and a purpose in life but are afraid to share it with others out of the fear of rejection and ridicule. But what you need to remember is that it quintessential to share your vision as it helps you to fine tune the project and execute with less hurdles.

Entrepreneurial skills entail the ability to make sound and robust model that generates revenue and also the ability to communicate and connect well, it is also called networking. Our government has rolled out many financial schemes that empower am individual to start up their own enterprise. It is highly beneficial to know about them as it accelerates the realization of your dreams!

It is a collective vision of All India Confederation of Women Empowerment Through Education (AICWETE) and ModoMeo (an undertaking of Thought Process Trainers and Consultants LLP) to empower and uplift minority population. As Dr.Shabistan Gaffar says that the minority doesn’t need alms but the arms to lift themselves! Our constant efforts are to create an awareness in the masses about the different government schemes, train them on requisite skills- vocational and soft, and to present them platforms and options that will enable them to stand and further support their community.

In the same light, it was realized that most of our youth is clueless about which career to pursue and what courses to take. It is most unfortunate that many students do not know about the new courses and the greater avenues that they subsequently open up. Joining hands with AICWETE in this endeavour, it is resolute to conduct awareness programmes and provide one-on-one career counselling sessions to the students to help them realize and understand their aptitude and true potential.

We believe that our nation’s youth is abled and skilled but a little lost. Picking a career is a lifelong commitment and one needs to make an informed decision regarding the same. One advice to all the young and dynamic is to find their calling and follow their passion. As only passion is the energy that drives you and gives you the internal motivation and hope when life will put you in testing waters!

MS. EVITA SOODDirector, Modo Meo


making Indiaa better informed career hub

Students…• Get educated with a sense of relevance

to their future well-being, • Formulate an education and career plan

prior to commencing senior secondary education,

• Have access to quality career information and receive career guidance services

• Learn the skills associated with career management that can be applied to career transition throughout one’s life.

Workers…• Have the skills to cope with changing

demands of the employers, occupations, and skills,

• Have confidence in their ability to advance and develop their careers and

• Understand the importance of fit between an individual and the person’s work and work environment.

ByMR. GAUTAM RAJ JAIN PH.D.PatronInstitutional Excellence Forum

ByMR. AMIT GARGFounder Trustee,Institutional Excellence Forum


Efficient utilisation of education resources, increased student engagement, high productivity, great job satisfaction, low unemployment, high levels of education, better fit between individuals and their work, less work-related stress, depression, violence and significant savings of public and private resources - That’s the world where informed career decisions are the norm!

Investing in career information and services to ensure universal competency in making informed career decisions will enable the formation of an efficient work force.

Such investment would ensure that

Can India reap the benefits of having 64% of its population in the working-age group? Perhaps not! Experts are of the view that one of the biggest spoilers of the party is the lack of excellence in India’s higher education system, which could jeopardize India’s opportunity of reaping the benefits of being the ‘youngest country’ in the world.

India has an opportunity to amplify its economic growth by intensive exploration of the power of its human capital. The ‘youngest country’ in the world has only a decade to reap the benefits of having 64% of its population in the working-age group. However, posing a serious threat to India’s ability to reap the benefits is one enormous challenge – lack of Career excellence in India, which fuels economic growth and innovation.

It is this urgent need to channelize efforts on excellence orientation that catalysed the inception of Institutional Excellence Forum, with a single-point agenda of ‘EXCELLENCE’ (Discovering, Nurturing and Celebrating). Driven by passionate leaders from the fields of academia and industry, IEF is a not-for-profit organisation pledged to ideate, invoke and inspire excellence in career.

The Findings

• Influenced Career DecisionsStudents Careers are significantly influenced by Parents, Guardians and Family members & not on authenticated factual information

• Skewed view of “Formal Education”Enforced perception that formal education means ‘Graduation after Class XII’ thus making vocational studies non-aspirational

• Disparity between STEM and non-STEM coursesSignificant enrolments in STEM fields, leading to negligence of non-STEM education

• Chaotic Student Intake Process for Higher Education & Skills TrainingStudent Acquisition currently follows the “Filter” method and not on “Talent-fit”


• Narrow focus of ScholarshipsEligibility to scholarships are purely on the basis of “Merit” or “Means” & not on inherent Aptitude or Talent

• Unemployable WorkforceIncreased workforce entrants ‘By Chance, than By Choice’ leading to occupational mismatch & career dissatisfaction

• Limited Sphere of Corporate Social ResponsibilityCorporate CSR for Education is currently aligned to Primary or Elementary Education in India ignoring the urgent needs of Higher Education

The Challenges

• Competitive Inter-School CultureThe “Me-better” attitude of individual schools hampers collaboration on the Common Welfare goals for the students at the Educational Block / District level

• Disparity in Quality of Education between School BoardsThe perceived quality difference between the education imparted at All India Boards as compared to State Boards holds back schools from working with each other towards common goals

• University WoesEducational Institutions focus on attracting students from the “narrow serving” Central Boards while ignoring the State Boards that serve close to 80% of the student population.

• Industry WoesA lot has been pointed out by the Industry on the lack of Employability of the workforce passing out of Indian Educational Institutions, but little is being done by the Industry in learning more about the preferences, aspirations and attitudes of young people.

• High Talent Assessment & Counselling CostTalent assessment and counselling is paramount to the objective identification of a student’s inherent talent & guiding them into right career paths. The Cost of implementing these tools and service is prohibitively high, considering the average annual income of a student’s family.

• Availability of Qualified CounsellorsAssessment & Counselling is in its nascent stages in India and thus services are concentrated in and around Metro & Tier-I Cities. This presents a huge challenge to bring the benefits of objective assessment of individual talents to the vast majority of students in the semi-urban & rural areas of the country

Extensive research and working on-ground with educationists, counsellors, academic bodies and voluntary organisations in over 2 years have provided some insights.

The Excellence Journey

Every student has the right to dream about their future as per their inherent abilities & interests. It is the collective responsibility of the community to fulfil this dream. With this background Inclusive Education Program was conceptualized as a comprehensive, multi-pronged & transformational platform focusing on:


• Establishing a state-of-the-art Career Excellence Centre (CEC) with-in the school premises enabling the reach of Career Counseling to the rural, semi-urban, urban areas as well as the disadvantaged sections of the country

• Implementation of Comprehensive Capacity Building for School Teachers and make them Career Counselors

• Mapping of Students’ Aptitude, Personality & Interest, giving them maximum opportunities to pursue a fruitful career

• Multiple programs like Career Guidance Seminars, briefing sessions on higher education programs, higher educational institutions, etc.

• Setting up Career Library in every school, with materials providing detailed information about careers, list of institutions, courses, fee details, admission criteria and eligibility to help generate comprehensive career awareness in students

• Awarding Scholarships to increase the Gross Enrollment Ratio (GER) of non-STEM fields of study

• Showcasing the importance of Skills in nation building and bring aspiration value to vocational training.

A social movement of this scale requires believers. Like-minded Voluntary Organisations such as All India Confederation for Women's Empowerment Through Education and Ankur Yuva ChetanaShivir extended their commitment to work towards the cause of career counselling.

Philanthropic organisations found synergies with IEF & its philosophy.

Rashid Foundation Trust of Moradabad, Uttar Pradesh pledged to Career Excellence Centre at Moradabad, acknowledging the two tenants of ideal Scholarships…• Incorporation of Aptitude, Personality &

Interests parameters along with merit & means as a criteria of eligibility

• Flexibility for the scholar to pursue further education at an institution of their choice.

Mr. Mansoor, Trustee - Rashid Foundation Trust extended Scholarship support of INR 10 Lacs for Students towards Celebrating Scholars Program through Justice MSA Siddiqui to Mr. ManabMisra, Secretary IEF in the presence of Dr. Shabistan Gaffar – President, AIWCETE


Recognising the urgent need to work in collaboration towards common welfare goals for the students at the state level, YMK Memorial Educational & Charitable Trust brought together schools in its vicinity to be a part of the Inclusive Education Program in Mangalore, Karnataka. The program now aims to eventually cover more schools in other areas of the state.

Beginning with the 3 CECs at, Moradabad-UP, Hojai-Assam and Mangalore-Karnataka, IEF aims to reach over 1 million students in 2020, in collaboration with like-minded organisations at the local level - an education system in India where nurturing of students are based on Aptitude along with the existing Academic Merit.

Memorandum of Understanding signed byMr. Y. Abdulla Kunhi - Chancellor of Yenepoya University & Trustee, YMK Memorial Educational & Charitable Trust and Mr. Manab Misra - Secretary, Institutional Excellence Forum

It will aid development of methodologies to improve data collection by identifying district growth indicators based on preference to the student communityThe program will act as a case study in adding value to existing statistical systems by assisting the understanding of skill preferences by the students’ post-secondary enrolments.

The program outcome will also help in indexing:• the aspiration of students for full-time

higher studies, post-school level• the preferences of students towards

certain professions/sectors & factors influencing these choices

• gender differences based on sectoral career preferences

The Program aims to be an integral part of the Indian Education Landscape in 2020, by reaching out to a million students every year. IEF understands that a single platform may not be enough to bring a total transformation. But a start has been made!

For more on Institutional Excellence Forum & its programs please visit www.iefglobal.org

The Program Outcomes

The program will help contribute to bridging the gaps in official statistics by presenting sectoral differences between students’ preferences and projected employment growth

Memorandum of Understanding signed by Mr. Manab Misra Secretary, Institutional Excellence Forum & Mr. Sirajuddin Ajmal, MP & Managing Trustee, Ajmal Foundation

Believing in need to align CSR to Higher Education & the social impact of the Inclusive Education Program, AjmalFoundation extended their philanthropic experience and CSR strength and brought it to Hojai, Assam

life coach

After living my early years in India and now living in USA for past 15 years, I have had the privilege and honour of seeing and understanding the life on both sides of the planet and on above that coaching has added a much deeper meaning to it all. Finally understanding that we are all the same at our core...where we are all trying to do the best and reach the peak of our individual potentials. I will try my best to explain how coaching helps although focusing more on career coaching with regards to our younger generations.Coaching typically refers to methods of helping others to improve, develop, learn new skills, find personal success, and achieve aims and to manage life change and personal challenges. Coaching commonly addresses attitudes, behaviours, and knowledge, as well as skills, and can also focus on physical and spiritual development too.

Coaching is a form of training or teaching, normally involving one-to-one support (a coach and a learner or 'coachee'), aimed at helping a person improve, often in a very practical.

A career coach is a person who is being trained to help other persons to develop their career goals. If a person is not aware about her career then a career coach works closely with that person Even if you are unsure about your career goals, a career coach will work closely with you in order to help you determine where you would like your career to go and to develop a plan for achieving those goals. Coaching can range from one situation to another and from one age group to another.

Coaches work with young adults who are working on to find their purpose and fulfil dreams or you could have coaches working with people on the other side of the table, people in jobs at any level and wanting to reach their full potential. If you have dreams of landing a job as a manager or executive, you might want to work with an executive coach. An executive coach is a specialized type of career that focuses on helping a person work up the chain of command within his or her field with the help of an executive coach.

Basically, if you have a question like who needs a coach then I would say anyone could use one to improve the quality of their life. Different coaches have different ways and styles and you will find coaches with different designations as well. Trained and specialized persons in their fields are pretty much with one belief to make you reach your full potential.

Who needs a Career Coach? Anyone who wants to advance in his or her career or that is looking to make a career change can benefit from the services of a career coach. Whether you are just getting started in your career or have been working on your career path for many years. A career coach can help you with your skills and make the right career decisions. Even if you are in college or are trying to determine your major in college, it can be beneficial to consult with a coach. This way you can get assistance with choosing the classes that will put you in the best position for landing the career of your dreams, once you graduate. The ultimate core virtue of career coaching is to help people assess their professional situations with a greater degree of honesty, curiosity, empathy and compassion.

My belief is that good career coaching in the early years of college or immediately post-college can put individuals on more solid footing. Nothing compares to having clients gradually recognize what is important to them rather than what is important for the rest of the society.

ByDR. INSHA MIRDirector USA ChapterAICWETE


my story

Finally I would state that we all are here to serve a purpose and we all have our journey to take and If we are doing something we really, truly enjoy, it shouldn’t feel like work at all. Ideally, we should feel a sense of alignment between our work and our values, and when we are aligned with who we are and what we do gratification and fulfilment becomes possible.

If we want a job that brings fulfilment, then aligning your work with your values is essential.

That is where people like me who are trained to align your values and with your day to living and the choices you make come into play. Our goal as coaches is to see our clients reaching to their fullest potential and enjoying a fulfilled life.


I am Tanveer Khan, a girl born poor but chose not to live poverty forever. I was born in a family living in the remotest end of Delhi which is known as Jheel Khureji. My father was a tailor master with extremely low income to support his family. Our family was large and the support system was only our father. But inspite of all the difficulties and limitations it was my father’s modern vision that never stopped us to gain education. My father did a lot of hard work so that our education would never stop and always encouraged us to aspire for a career and explained the importance of education to change our fate. This was the driving force that never let me stop from aiming high and continue my studies. I completed my graduation and in 2008 I met Dr.Shabistan Gaffar.

To her I expressed my desire to prepare for IAS exams. I was supported by her financially with an amount of approx Rs. 50000 to start a coaching in Mukherjee Nagar.

I was also encouraged thoroughly by her to study hard and proceed towards my dream. In this course of preparation and writing exams I reached upto prelims level. But God had other things decided for me. I then moved my focus to law studies and now I am a legal advocate. I saw a lot of adversities in life but never let myself get affected by it and stop in this journey of struggle. The guiding light of my life my father left us all in this struggle of life. I am now looking after my younger sisters and brothers and my mother. I feel happy when I see them happy. With my experience of life and the struggle I did all through I would say that nothing is impossible in this world. I will say that no barrier, be it financial, cultural or societal can stop a girl to achieve anything he aspires for.

ByMS. TANVEER KHANAdvocate

Career Excellence Centres:giving wings to the dreams of young minds

Every year over 20 million students pass out of class XII in India as per the records from various School Boards. The number changes significantly if we factor in the drop-out student population. This along with the nature of social & cultural influences on a student’s career decision makes it a complex task to choose a relevant career driven by their inherent talent & abilities.

Institutional Excellence Forum (IEF) has been addressing this agenda for over 2 years through a program which not only structures & relays information around the growing variety of career options but also identifies and nurtures inherent talent and interests of the students, encouraging them to make informed career decisions.Extensive research and working on-ground with educationists, counsellors, academic bodies and voluntary organisations in the last 2 years have provided sufficient insights to help build a nurturing platform for students, teachers, school management and the parents.

One of the key findings during these conversations has been the promotion of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics) courses as the most desirable careers to pursue, irrespective of whether the student has Aptitude, Personality, Interest (API) or passion for it. This invariably has pushed vocational education or Non-STEM courses into “marginal-credibility” zone, further creating large scale talent imbalance, performance inefficiency, personal dissatisfaction and even drop outs. The program thus developed aims to enable every student to make right choices about their careers based on their inherent talent.

Career Excellence Centres (CECs)

Career Excellence Centres is a dedicated physical space within the school premises, providing one-stop-solution for students and their career related queries. Each CEC will bring together schools from its locality and work collaboratively towards the cause of Career Excellence. These CECs will over the years become the pivotal outreach and counselling platform for the students from the rural, semi-urban, urban areas as well as from disadvantaged sections of the society.

The CECs are equipped with Audio Visual equipment to help facilitate interaction between schools & IEF counsellors via video conferencing. It will also host a library specific to information pertaining to various career building options in both physical and virtual format.

Integrating the use of technology and information is certainly a necessity and an important enablement to ensure operational continuity. At a fundamental level however, to nurture talent, refining the quality of human interface is extremely essential. Every aspect of the current education system and the CEC Model involves interaction among stakeholders. Considering the lasting impact of these interactions, sensitive management and monitoring of the quality and content of interaction is imperative.

The stakeholders at CECs undergo various workshops, small group engagements and individual discussions to discover, map and invest in talent among students; and as teachers, parents and the school management improve the support mechanism to help surface the API –Aptitude, Personality & Interests among students. One of the key processes to establish therefore is Talent Mapping and subsequent counselling.

MS. ARTI AHLUWALIAHead-Alliances, Institutional Excellence Forum


Regular interactions at the CEC with every student is documented in a structured feedback format by the IEF counsellor to form a Talent Scorecard. For the Teachers, this Talent Scorecard help establish better quality of connect with students and their parents. It gives teachers more than the academic merit and provide a holistic assessment about the student to inspire the required support system for ‘Talent Nurturing’.

Parents wanting to know more about how to support their ward can walk into a CEC in their locality. The information will range from the feedback to tips on parental handling and available financial aids for students.

Teachers undergo an Excellence and Mentorship workshop at CEC to become Teacher-Mentors capable of supporting and mentoring their students towards understanding and achieving excellence. Simultaneously, feedbacks are shared through standardized formats & short sensitization workshops with the school management to ensure changes and resource optimization are carried out at an administrative level too.

Various student engagement activities will also run as per a mutually identified activity calendar with the school to set in motion the wave to let students become more dynamic and express authenticity within their thought processes and choices.

CECs works in collaboration with local foundations and individuals to facilitate this scale of activity in compliance with IEF’s standardized methodology defining the required temperament, clarity of documentation and the counselling activity.In the space of talent assessment at the academic level, not much data about holistic practices and outcomes is available in our country.

Through CEC, Institutional Excellence Forum aims to make a study based value-addition, inviting greater collaboration to facilitate assessment through a human interface.It will aid development of methodologies to improve data collection by identifying district growth indicators based on preference to the student community and help indexing the preferences of students towards certain professions/sectors & factors influencing these choices

Moradabad in Uttar Pradesh, Hojai in Assam and Mangalore in Karnataka hosts 6 Career Excellence Centres. The experiences has generated greater confidence in the IEF Team to seek more alliances and create more awareness to make India a better informed Career Hub.

For more on Institutional Excellence Forum & its programs please visit www.iefglobal.org


Making of the “Expression Wall” at Career Excellence Centre, Hojai, Assam

program proceedings

A skill development program has been initiated by AICWETE in Delhi towards empowering women by initiating the process of career counselling to the Muslim girls from weaker economic background in the age group of 14-20. The focus of this initiative is on those girls who had to put a sudden stop to their formal education. AICWETE selected 20 girls who has passed the psychometric test and decided to provide them with some stipend and from among them help the top three students to achieve their higher education goals.

To kick-start the women empowerment program through learning, AICWETE organised a day long round table discussion on career counselling on 10th

October, 2015 around 10.15 a.m.

Dr Shabistan Gaffar, Chairperson, AICWETE initiated the programme by briefing on the motive and insight of the career counselling programme initiated by AICWETE. Her role in the field of Muslim Girls’ Education is far known by all of us. During this programme also she mentioned about her working towards proper career development of many girls in various region of India through career counselling.

Along with knowledge partner Student Destination she said AICWETE had worked in Moradabad, Ajmal Foundation in Assam and Yenepoya University in Mangalore. The motive behind all these initiative she said was to make the students aware about their own capabilities and help them achieve what they aspired for.

However while talking about such programmes in Delhi she said was a challenging task. But inspite of all the barriers she was happy to announce that this career counselling programme could be started in Delhi with BuniyadFoundation. She ended on a very positive note and said that the sole idea behind this initiative was to make these students so much capable that they do not have to rely on reservations and move ahead on their ability and hard work.

She then invited Prof Akhtar Siddiqui, Department of Teacher Training and Non-Formal Education, Jamia Milia IslamiyaUniversity, and very renowned dignitary who has served on many posts in various institutions like MHRD, NCERT, and UNESCO etc to give the key note address of the programme.


He initiated by shedding light through hisexperience in NCTE and his research in2006 on Empowerment of Muslim throughEducation. Prof. Siddiqui emphasized thatthe schemes to be implemented for Muslimcommunity after NPE 1986, have failed,hence there is a need for the wholecommunity to come above for thebetterment and for this awareness isneeded. He said that despite the fact thatit has been declared by Govt. of India thatMuslim community is backward oneducational front but everybody in thiscommunity is not as such. There are welleducated eminent personalities in everyfield from this community who can act asinspiration for the others and also work forupliftment of the backward. In this lightaccording to him proper guidance to thecommunity and setting up of institutions isnecessary. He also brought out the issue ofnot allowing minority institution to beestablished and in many cases due to meregaps only. Therefore if the community istrying to move ahead also there areseveral barriers and they don’t know howto go forward.

Here he again says that career counsellingbecomes extremely important. Heexplained that between 0- 14 years of agethe growth is very much the same. It isonly after 15 years of age that childrenstart exploring about their capabilities andthus the career counselling which is doneat the fag end of secondary education thewhole process becomes futile as by thatage the time is lost. He also raised thepoint of counselling among the parents tooas in India most of the career choices forthe children are imposed by the parents.

So they also have to be made aware of the capabilities of children. After parents teachers too have to be educated in this direction. He said that we cannot leave this job to the psychologists alone. Moreover the capacity building of the counsellors should also be done so that they can further contact parents. He said that while doing a research in the rural areas of UP, he found that the parents have a very negative attitude towards education especially for girls. Thus he said that merely teaching girls would not help but teaching parents, brothers etc is also needed in area of adult education. He also pointed out that how many girls come for enrolment in teaching programme but are not aware of the basics of becoming teacher in this case career counselling may help them a lot and then they might apply for other courses too. In the end he said that this process will take time but we all have act as volunteers and initiatives taken by agencies like CSR can be successful if we all work in coherence.

After Prof Siddiqui, Dr. Kamal Khurana(Trainer of innovative skills, partner of student destination) took over the talk. He said after Prof Siddiqui talking on the same topic would be like showing candle to sun. With this beautiful start he also said that we if scholars like Prof. Siddiqui would have this level of sensitivity for the issue being addressed in this programme then it would be of huge impact. However he also brought up that in this light only his organisation also tries to reach the last needy student.


In his view career is an energy within. It should be like something which we if asked can do at 2.30 am also without being paid for it. He pointed out that most of the people are not happy about their current job and hence he advocates career which will make people happy about their job. He said that through psychometric tests they bring above the interests of students and help them reach to the career which they actually want to pursue by heart. The idea of respect was also explained by him associating with ones career. The real empowerment of girls can only take place if the girls able to have a dialogue of integrity with her parents and explain her move towards education and career in terms of respect and honour derived from that step.

Next to him the programme was taken up by Dr. Sanjay Saluja (CEO of Centre for Leadership). Dr. Saluja initiated by mentioning that how everyone present there was driven by one idea of career counselling as a tool of improvement in education system and situation and said that through we all have not met physically but are connected metaphysically.

He emphasized on the career counselling of the parents. He explained this issue by saying that most of the times parents are not aware of the new career opportunities and also what their children are having interest in. He also said that there are number of career opportunities of which we are not aware of and most of career which will be present by 2020 have still not been created. Thus he said that we should expand our horizon of thinking and seek our career beyond our defined geographical limits also.

Another important point he raised was initiating a career by attaching a sense of purpose to it. Though we gain certain capability to a career but we do not know what is worth behind doing it. He further explained the importance of career counselling by saying that the various psychometric tools help us understand our personality, aptitude and interest. This knowledge provided by the tests on terms interest will help them be happy and analysing aptitude will help them be successful and with personality the bridge between happiness and success will be maintained. Thus he emphasised on making a dent in millions students career by helping them choose the career which will keep them happy and successful but for this he said everybody has to work in this direction.

After him Mohan Tiwari (consultant in the area of Human Resource Consulting) was invited to take the discussion further. He talked about the effects which these psychometric tests do on the career development of the students. He said that there are many psychometric tools and one can have an insight about who I am through a psychometric test I AM. He said how they have worked day and night to develop this tool so that the task of career counselling can happen in the best possible way. He very cogently said that while talking about empowerment one should focus upon two factors which are sense of purpose and joy of sharing. These two factors he said can be achieved as these psychometric tests help us figure out who we are but also help us build ourselves to how we can proceed towards it while remaining happy. He also said that their organisation aim to do a Career Launch Certificate programme in 100 cities doing 100000 career counselling.



Next in the speakers’ line was ArtiAhluwalia heading alliances in IEF. She shared her own experience stating that students after doing a professional degree also are not clear about their career. But rightly she also pointed out that we cannot do away after taking a professional degree as a lot of investment of time and money has gone in that. In this case she says that students should try to bring out the best out of that training. They can think of interesting ideas of career which will help them use their training and also not be unhappy with the conventional job and they can do other things which will further lead to help make India better. While explaining this point she also mentioned about the present money-oriented mind set of the students and that they cannot think about multiple career options beyond the conventional ones. Thus highlighted the much needed change in mindsetshaping career orientation and choices.

After her, Amit Garg the Founder Trustee of Institutional Excellence Forum took the discussion ahead raising very crucial points. Through IEF he was taking career counselling to the rural & semi-urban areas in India, as a continuous five year long process. The first challenge he mentioned in the field was to bring the schools together for the cause of career counselling. According to him, there is so much competition between the schools that they feel that only their school should be benefited by this programme. Hence due to this the larger cause of helping students in India at a mass level in career development through career counselling is being hindered.

He said that IEF works to sensitise the students in decision making process of their career and also reduce the influence of parents in this respect. He also mentioned that IEF is continuously working to establish a new mind set in India that graduation should not considered as the minimum formal education but class XII should be, as many students are not able to get into the job market due to the lack of a degree. He raised the issue of giving importance to vocational training. If a mindset towards embracing vocational career opportunities is promoted and looked upon with same respect as conventional jobs then it will help many students to opt for vocational careers.

Then the discussion was taken to a new direction by Sangeeta Natarajan. She is founder – director of Evolve India, a training company of soft sill and life skill. She pointed that while we talk about capacity building of people there are different stages that have stressed upon. In this process one should understand if the student can relate with this career his/ her future and while pursuing this career can relate to environment too. According to her a mindset has to be created so that they can give their best in worst conditions too. She very interestingly raised the issue that a proper teacher should be that who is very much careful to know or find out the uniqueness of a student and should make him or her aware about this uniqueness. Thus by analysing this uniqueness the students would be definitely successful and empowered.

After her, Evita Sood & Akansha Chandeletook the talk further. Evita and Akanshaare psychologists by training and director of MODOMEO and Co-founder of firm called I Am respectively. Evita talked about how students in India do not dare to dream. They would always talk about taking up career on the traditional defined lines only. According to her this mindsetshould be overcome and we should promote entrepreneurship. She then said that the students should be encouraged to dream and achieve those dreams through entrepreneurship. Akansha initiated by focussing on career counselling with a reality check. She said that one should dream but at the same time be aware of the reality and constraints in that path. With this they will be aware of what other things they can definitely achieve and according to her the mostly benefited with this would be the drop outs from school who can have clear picture of what they can pursue as career with their minimal qualification also and thus be successful.

Apart from these speakers Mrs. Ghazala Hasmi, from Buniad Foundation shared her field experiences. She said that how she initiated her work in Mumbai and became successful in number of projects. In Delhi too she has successfully covered many projects and is working in the field. She mentioned that her organisation works closely with the girls from poor background and promote skill development among them so that they become self dependent economically and socially.

Mr. Natarajan from AICWETE also threw light on the importance on the career counselling. He through his experiences as teacher shared the importance of career counselling and how he was able to help his students with proper guidance after analysing the unique factor in them. He also and made the twenty students present in the programme aware about the Mudra scheme of the Government of India. Tanveer Khan, a legal advisor by profession also briefed about her impeccable journey from the poor household to this level to the girls present there. Her story was definitely a big source of inspiration for these girls.

At the end of the discussion these 20 girls were presented with Rs 1000 cheque each and were motivated by these dignitaries to achieve their respective desired careers.The long talk also invited questions and appreciations from each speaker to the other. The whole discussion stressed on the extreme need of career counselling not only among the students but parents, teachers and career counsellors themselves.


ByMS. JUHI SINGHProject Co-ordinator

Buniyad Educationaland Social Welfare SocietyBuniyad Educational and Social Welfare Society is a voluntary organisation closely associated with the All India Confederation for Women Empowerment through Education. It was got registered in 2009 with the craze of service to mankind by which the soul feels refreshed and satisfied. Many welfare activities for the downtrodden people have been organised by Buniyad in association with AICWETE in all over India, particularly in Delhi.

Vocational Courses run by us

• Cutting Tailoring and Designing.• Beauty Culture and Hina Application.• Making Fancy paper bags.• Making home decorating utility objects

with jute.• Making beautiful bags/purses from

nylon cords.• Sponsoring for computer learning

courses (affiliated by NIELIT and NCPUL).

• Learning classes for basic Urdu, English speaking, Arabic, Quran classes by Dr Farhat Hashmi etc.

Our continuous efforts are on to lift the down trodden and bring some happiness in the lives of destitute, helpless & ailing people who need our help. May the Almighty give us enough strength to do so in future.


Objectives

This organisation started working with the following objectives:-• Converting the poor girls of the area as

self reliant and self sufficient, by training them in various vocational courses to earn the livelihood.

• Imparting technical training in computers.

• To help the poor ailing people in their treatments.

• To help brilliant poor students for the fee, uniforms and books etc.

• To make the local residents learn Urdu, English, Arabic, and Deeniyat.

• To avail for them facilities/scholarships provided by government/other organisations especially for vocational trainings.

• To arrange sources of permanent aid to orphan girl students in the shape of scholarships with the help of other organisations and also to help them in their marriage obligations.

MS. GAZALA HASHMI

empowering womenthrough career development

Soft skills are personal attributes that enable someone to interact effectively and harmoniously with other people.

It's often said that hard skills will get you an interview but you need soft skills to get - and keep the job. They are the good manners and personality traits needed to get along with others and build positive relationships. Unlike hard skills, which include a person's technical skill set and ability to perform certain functional tasks, soft skills are broadly applicable across job titles and industries.

Communication skills: Communication skills are ranked first among a job candidate’s 'must have' skills and qualities.

Self confidence/self esteem: Do they truly believe they can do the job? Will they project a sense of calm and inspire confidence in others? Will they have the courage to ask questions that need to be asked and to freely contribute their ideas?

While confidence seems more like a trait than a skill, I would argue that confidence is most often expressed through your communication style. In that sense, confident communication truly is a skill that must be practiced and acquired.

MRS. SANGEETA NATARAJAN Motivational SpeakerMentor, Life Coach


A women with a voice is,by definition, a strong woman

- Melinda Gates

“

”

Soft skills

Positive attitude: Are they optimistic and upbeat? Will they generate good energy and good will?

Time Management:

Time management abilities—do they know how to prioritize tasks and work on a number of different projects at once? Will they use their time on the job wisely?

Being a team player—will they work well in groups and teams? Will they be cooperative and take a leadership role when appropriate?

Leadership skills• Problem solving• Delegating• Motivating• Team building• Perform to excel

Behavioral skills• Taking initiatives• Being friendly• Caring and sharing


Emotional Intelligence: (Knowing thyself, managing your ego)

Understanding what makes your colleagues tick, how to build rapport and connect emotionally with them and how to manage your own and other people’s emotions.

OwnershipTaking ownership of your work is a simple thing, but some people go through their whole careers without ever quite doing it. So what does it really mean, anyway?

Staying CalmCalmness is one of those traits that don’t always get appreciated until it’s absent. But if you make a point of staying calm, rational and objective, even when you're frustrated or angry, you’ll stand out for it

Openness to FeedbackIf you’ve ever worked with someone who got defensive at the slightest suggestion that she do something differently, you know how crucial being open to feedback i.

Polite AssertivenessWhile too much assertiveness can become domineering, assertiveness and politeness is simply about addressing problems calmly and forthrightly and not shying away from difficult or awkward conversations.

IntegrityIntegrity at work means speaking up if you make a mistake that reflects poorly on you (rather than trying to soften or hide it), doing what you say you’re going to do, acknowledging when new information shows you were wrong and not being afraid to say “I don’t know.

Taking InitiativeThe word “initiative” represents a soft skill that takes many different forms. In job descriptions, you will sometimes see it defined as “self-starter,” “entrepreneur,” or “leader.” At the end of the day, what many employers want is someone that will take ownership over their job and truly make an impact.

The questionisn’t who’s going to

let me;it’s who’s going to

stop me

- Ayn Rand

“

”

empowerment and entrepreneurship

First decision is marriage and the second one is our career. The first decision is personal; we can leave it at that for some other occasion.

The second decision about career needs to be discussed being the theme of our discussion. On the basis of employment, career can be divided into two. Employment with others or service employment and secondly self employment that is Entrepreneurship. Service employment itself means we have decided to allow others to take decision for us. Others decide “what” to do, “when” to do but also decide “how” to do your work. It goes without saying that the amount of compensation for your efforts is also decided by others. Because it is their ‘policy’. Though all these are changing, employees are given free hand, allowed to take risk within certain constraints and stock options are also given.

Entrepreneurship/ self employment on the other hand means you are taking decision for others and yourself. You become your own boss. Most of the time, you also, generate employment for others and as a result you become boss. That is taking decision for others as well. Further you earn money in the proportion to your efforts, and capital invested. It is said that higher the risk, higher the gain. It sounds so easy.

Entrepreneurship, that is, self employment however, has lot many challenges. It is a proven fact that 80% of startups fail in the first year itself next 10% fail in next two years and another 5% fail in fourth fifth year. Only the remaining 5% succeed. Why they fail. In large numbers.

MR. K. NATARAJAN Thinker & Strategist


Empowerment is all about living your life on your own terms, succeeding in life those terms and being contended with your achievement. It means you are able to take decision and be responsible for that decision. It also means you decide to put everything required to achieve what you have aimed in your life. It may appear to be effortless or look like a struggle. One has to enjoy both.

Empowerment, therefore, is a decision. A decision taken by you for you. Decision to lead your life in your own terms. Decision to be free, decision to follow your own path. Decision to persevere, in your efforts to fulfill your objectives, goals and purpose of your life.

Empowerment, has been traditionally understood, particularly women empowerment, as financial independence, political freedom, freedom to choose a life partner, entitles you to pursue what you want to study. It also means the right to choose a career for yourself. It definitely includes whether to marry or not to marry and many more such things. All of these are true. This gives a freedom to exercise your rights as a citizen of a country as well as in the capacity of a global citizen. Above all, of course, to decide to lead a life of a dignified human being. Empowerment is all about “dignity”.

In all these aspects of empowerment, the common factor is decision of your choice and pursuing it in your own terms. All these decisions are important, but in our life two such decision influences and shapes our life to a large extent.

There are many reasons. They are not solving any big problem. Business is all about noticing and solving a problem. Bigger the problem bigger the business. It is simple. If you are solving a million dollar problem you will make a million dollar business. If you are solving a billion dollar problem you will make a billion dollar business.

They give-up and quit too early and fail to persevere. Those who struggle and be passionate about their business till say 5th

year the chances of success increases. Above all their limited capital, arranged from family and friends dries up. Raising capital from other channels has been very difficult for entrepreneurs.

The world is changing. The startupecosystem is changing fast and changing for the better. All these challenges are solved by other entrepreneurs and mentors. Capitals and investments are available for the right business model. Private as well as government funds are available. As we all know technology based businesses are flooded with funding. Most of the time at an unreasonably high valuation. What happens to small businesses, nobody seems interested?

Government of India, to promote entrepreneurship, self employment and empower youth, has come up with a revolutionary campaign known as “Start Up India, Stand Up India” Most important part of this scheme PMMY- Pradhan MantriMudra Yojna and MUDRA Bank.

MUDRA- Micro Units Development and Refinance Agency. Under these initiatives govt will fund micro, small and medium enterprises(MSME). Lack of financial supports to small and informal sectors is the biggest hindrance in growth of entrepreneurship in our country. MUDRA Bank is established to refinance all the Last Mile Financiers of all types.


PMMY and Mudra Bank have already started intervening in the funding needs of Micro Units and Small Enterprises in informal sectors. Mudra Bank has three products or loan schemes:

It caters to millions of small manufacturing units, services Units, shop keepers, fruit vegetable vendors, truck operators, taxi/ Rickshaw drivers, food service units, repair shops, beauty parlors, artisans, tuition centers and others in rural and urban areas.

Under the scheme of PMMY, the following disbursements were already made:

Total numbers small enterprises funded has been 56.81 Lakhs and total amount involved is Rs 30,250 Crores. This is out total budget allocation of Rs 1,32,000 Crores for the year ending March 2016.These loans have been given to young women as well as other entrepreneurs. All these loans upto Rs 10 Lakh per enterprise has been given without collateral security.

MUDRA is a revolutionary scheme in India. This decision is going to be a Game Changer In Start Up India StandUpIndia campaign. This is a much and long needed boost to Entrepreneurship and Empowerment.

(Data relating to loans are extracted from Mudra Bank website)

Shishu Loan Upto Rs 50,000

Kishore Loans above Rs50,000 to Rs 5 Lakh

Tarun Loans above Rs 5 Lakh to Rs 10 Lakh

Shishu47.18 Lakh small entities amounting to 7050 Crores

Kishore8.26 Lakh small entities amounting to 15,700 Crores

Tarun1.37 Lakh small entities amounting to 9,500 Crores

Ajmal Foundation

The first time I was invited to travel to Hojai, Assam, I had to look it up on the map and read about it. I couldn’t gather much about the cultural reality, so I called a few friends living in Assam.

The first question I was asked, “Why in heaven’s name are you going to Hojai of all places?” I drew a blank and asked “Why mustn’t I?”

Purpose

The purpose of travelling to Hojai was to conduct a 2 day workshop to sensitize and develop key skills among teachers to perform the role of mentors who lead by example and in turn build value for students by recognizing and acknowledging their inherent interests, talents and abilities. For Teachers to adopt excellence in their day-to-day work, spot talent, support excellence sparks in students & drive events to champion the cause of excellence.

‘Excellence is an Attitude’ and ‘Mentorship is an essential instructional tool’ were the two key ideas we aimed to establish and create a sustainable setting for Institutional Excellence Forum’s Career Excellence Centre (CEC) initiative.

This experience report is therefore written from 5 different perspectives, in the hope that it presents critical aspects of Institutional Excellence Forum’s and AjmalFoundation’s journey together to develop on-ground capability in Education and the cultural experience we gathered during our four day stay at the Foundation Headquarters.

A Guest’s Perspective

The response I got to my question “Why mustn’t I?” was that Hojai is an extremely backward and a very traditional place dominated by a single community.

Personally, being in the educational space, class or community hasn’t seemed to be a barrier for me, each time validating the very purpose of Education.

Beginning from our arrival at Guwahati Airport, till our departure, the hospitality and accountability demonstrated by the staff, management and the Workshop participants clearly complemented our agenda of establishing ‘Excellence as an Attitude’.

Over the next four days, the manner in which the meals and refreshments were prepared & served, the transport arranged, the staff coordinated, our rooms perfumed and air conditioning put on cool before our arrival back at the Ajmal Foundation Guesthouse was impeccable and also conveyed immense enthusiasm, regard and care.

Starting from the welcome ceremony upon our arrival, stay at the Guesthouse, Program arrangements, Felicitation and our farewells with gifts and greetings -Manager Mr. Khasrul Islam, Dy. Manager Dr. Azad and the resource persons Neyaj & Quomrul Haque ensured total respect and immense attention to detail.

The most intriguing part of our stay at the Ajmal Foundation Guesthouse was the a separate room with an attached washroom constructed specially to host a lady guest

Experience of Institutional Excellence Foundation’s (IEF) Training Programmes at Hojai, AssamBy CO-MENTOR ARTI AHLUWALIA


L to R: Gautam Raj Jain Ph.D. Patron IEFAbhay Nair, Founder Trustee IEF, ManabMisra Secretary – IEF, Arti Ahluwali, IEF Head – Alliances, Jayakrishna Kayalakal, Communication Consultant - IEF

A Women’s Perspective

After the welcome ceremony, we were led to our respective rooms which were neat and moderately furnished. The room I stayed in had multiple ventilator windows which were painted opaque to ensure I felt safe and un-intruded.

As a lone woman staying at an all men facility, in a village - as it was described to me, it was natural to feel threatened and reserved. Apart from the commonly expected conduct such as wearing conventional clothing, spending only requisite offline time with the team and generally being understated, nothing drastic was needed to fit in or feel comfortable.

Day 1 of our arrival, myths about Hojaiwere beginning to fade.

A Mentor’s Perspective

Day 2 is when the Teacher Training Workshop began. Our team arrived at the Maryam Ajmal Women’s College of Science and Technology, Hojai at 9:00 AM. The session was scheduled for 9:30 AM. When we approached the training room, judging by the number of footwear outside the room, we realized each of the 24 teachers had already arrived. A rare occurrence of punctuality and respect, not found even in large organized companies or big city academic institutions.

The unbiased value system and enthusiasm that the participants demonstrated in these two days was an eye-opener. The perception about small town or a village being slow, both in pace and intellect was completely undone for us.

Each of the teachers turned out to be a gem, ready to be chiselled and honed.

A myth about people from small places not being vocal and thoughtful in the context of values which demonstrate contemporary relationship building ethos was undone for us. We were given to understand that the program had to be conducted bilingually in Hindi and English. To our pleasant surprise everyone spoke in English which was conversational and almost grammatically correct.

Their expression always aimed to convey the ‘feel’ factor followed by the impact the situation/circumstance had or was creating on the student’s environment. More than the language, the nature of discussions and the genuineness of concern for students delighted us.

My personal view is that if these teachers were to be put in a city/fast paced setting, from a values standpoint they would perform perhaps even better than city seasoned talent. Also, the group displayed a remarkable sense of humour never amounting to any offensive or demeaning intent, instead it kept the learning environment light hearted and free for flow of thoughts.

Testimonials

The testimonials each one of the teachers wrote confirmed that the Workshop had run in tandem with Institutional Excellence Forum’s agenda to set Excellence as an Attitude and Mentorship as an essential instructional tool.

We repeatedly read about the value-add this Workshop had made to their profession. Some even mentioned that because of this Workshop they now take more pride in being teachers and will go the extra mile to ensure that the students are nurtured for their talent & abilities and not just check marked for attendance or their academic score.


As a head start, the teachers were given a 3 month Action Plan which they discussed actively with their peers and filled out with absolute dedication. A clear sign of how well the teachers believe in best practice sharing and in being thoughtful about what works to support their students. By the end of the second day, Dr. Jain and I almost felt that we wanted to spend more time and do more with this exceptional set from a ‘backward village’.

Team’s Perspective

Overall, the IEF team members, Abhay Nair, Manab Mishra, Dr. Gautam Raj Jain and Jayakrishna Kayalakal with their immense experience, signature quirks and sense of humour journeyed together to make this experience come alive for not only the IEF team that we were at Hojai, but the participating staff from AjmalFoundation as well.

Mr. Amit Garg, the brain behind Institutional Excellence Forum was not present owing to lack of an active role at Hojai, which in itself is significant justification of resources and maintaining a certain level of escalation; further defining a well-balanced operations team truly committed to establishing and displaying Excellence as an Attitude! Not present due to prior commitments, but of paramount importance was the contribution of Dr.Shabistan Gaffar – Member, Academic Council IEF & President of AICWETE in facilitating the synergy of vision between Institutional Excellence Forum & AjmalFoundation.

Between Institutional Excellence Forum and Ajmal Foundation, it was a four day long conversation that did not stop for lack of content or genuine appreciation for each other’s inputs, drive to deliver and the honesty in action.

The Program Future

Considering how well these four days were organized and carried out by both, the Institutional Excellence Forum Team & Ajmal Foundation, the future of Career Excellence Centre (CEC) at Hojaiis extremely promising. In the testimonials which were shared, the teachers committed that they would definitely apply the reflection and learning from the Workshop and aim to provide a more conducive and nurturing environment for the students. At Institutional Excellence Forum we are certain that once the teachers begin to apply the Action Plan they will have challenges and stories to share about how the game is changing post their new found understanding as Teacher-Mentors.

Our team will track these Action Plans and provide appropriate support through a specially created Teachers’ forum on Facebook and other electronic mediums; and when needed refine the Program approaches accordingly, making it a live and breathing platform of best practice sharing in Education. As much as the teachers are excited to try out the new approaches, we are equally eager and looking forward to learning more and doing more towards ensuring Excellence and Mentorship continue to become the parameters of Quality of Imparted Education at Hojai, Assam.


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URDU ROZNAM HIND NAUV – 12th OCTOBER 2015

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SIYASI TAQDEER - 12TH OCTOBER 2015

AKBARE MASHRIQ – 12TH OCTOBER 2015


New Delhi: After successfully launching the micro-finance scheme for economically poor segment of the society, the All India Confederation for Women Empowerment Through Education (AICWETE) has now initiated career counselling project for poor Muslim girls in the age group of 14-20. At a programme held here at AICWETE office on Sunday, 20 girls were given one time stipend of Rs. 1000 each after conducting psychometric test while the top three girls would be provided all financial help to pursue their higher studies.

Speaking at the programme, career experts and counsellors underline the importance of career counselling saying proper guidance is necessary before taking any higher or vocational studies.Jamia Milia Islamia’s emphasized that the schemes to be implemented for Muslim community after National Policy on Education 1986, have failed, hence there is a need for the whole community to come above for the betterment and for this awareness is needed.In this light, Prof. Siddiqui said, career counselling becomes extremely important. Prof. Siddiqui, who teaches at Faculty of Department of Teacher Training and Non-Formal Education, suggested that career counselling should be done just after class-VIII and it should not be limited only to children but to their parents also.

To kick-start the women empowerment program through learning, AICWETE organised a day long round table discussion on career counselling. Dr.Kamal Khurana (Trainer of innovative skills, partner of student destination) defined career as an energy within. He pointed out that most of the people are not happy about their current job and hence he advocates career which will make people happy about their job. Emphasizing on career counselling of the parents, Dr. Sanjay Saluja (CEO of Centre for Leadership) said that there are number of career opportunities of which people are not aware of and the career should be initiated to the sense of purpose.

A host of experts including Mohan Tewari (consultant in the area of Human Resource Consulting), ArtiAhluwalia (IEF), Amit Garg, Sangeeta Natarajan (founder director of Evolve India, a training company of soft sill and life skill) and others provided invaluable inputs on the subject.

Apart from these speakers Mrs. Ghazala Hasmi, from Buniad Foundation shared her field experiences and Mr.Natarajan threw light on the importance on the career counselling and made twenty students aware about the Mudra scheme of the Government of India. The whole discussion stressed on the extreme need of career counselling not only among the students but parents, teachers and career counsellors themselves.

In her opening remarks, the president of AICWETE Dr Shabistan Gaffar said the confederation has been striving to empower women through education and skill development programmes since its inception. Now we have initiated the process of career counselling to the Muslim girls from weaker economic background in the age group of 14-20, Dr Gaffar said.“The focus of this initiative is on those girls who had to put a sudden stop to their formal education. AICWETE has selected 20 girls and conducted their psychometric test. Based on the result of this test, these 20 girls will be provided proper career counselling and one time stipend of Rs. 1000 so that they can work on that particular area which will suit their personality to the maximum possible extent”.

Dr Gaffar, who was also ex-chairperson of the Committee on Girl’s Education of the NCMEI, announced that the top three girls would be provided proper assistance to pursue their career of their choice like MBBS, Engineering and LLB etc. AICWETE will take all the financial responsibility for their career as they will be given a monthly scholarship of Rs3,500. All girls were selected from South Delhi’s Muslim-dominated area of Okhla. Highlighting the activities of AICWETE for the last eight years, she said her organisation has earlier organised career counselling In Assam, Lucknow, Barabanki, Mangalore and Moradabad in collaboration with local NGOs. She said each programmes more than 1000 students adding that many such programmes are in the pipeline in Bihar, Jharkhand, UP, West Bengal and other parts of the country.

http://muslimmirror.com/eng/aicwete-organises-counselling-programme-20-poor-girls-selected-after-psychometric-test/

AICWETE organises Counselling Programme; 20 poor girls selected after psychometric test

MONTHLY E-LETTER October 2015

All India Confederation forWomen Empowerment through Education

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