Charity begins at home. And where begins Unemployability?

JA India Newsletter

Volume 3 Issue 3

July 2010

Charity begins at home. Unemployability too?

Greetings!

The new academic calendar has commenced and so has the activity at JA India. Thanks to the support from partner organizations and the entire volunteering force, JA programs have already reached ~8,000 students over April-July 2010. In Year II of our operations (2008) it took us 12 months to reach 4,000 students! That we were able to reach 8,000 students, especially in the lean season, indicates something more fundamental. A JA classroom becomes a reality only when there is a willing educator and a professional convinced enough to invest their time in the classroom. What the numbers indicate is an increasingly stronger belief in the need to connect the classroom to the workplace. Incase you are wondering about the student, they were ever willing to embrace new ideas and experiences -- they continue to be our most supportive stakeholders!

Encouraging milestones yet one minor brush with the reality comprehensively demolishes any possible complacency that we might have allowed in us. These numbers are not even rounding off errors when we size up the enormity of the challenge that lies ahead of us. There is industry participation but the majority of the workforce, educator force and even the student population continues to be ignorant, and at times in denial, of the problem. The average Indian citizen's greatest strength is their power of rationalization -her/his mind can rationalize itself out of any responsibility! Initiatives, like JA, deliver quicker if there is mass participation. There lies the challenge for us. Scaling up the JA initiative in India substantially, while acknowledging and accepting the social constraints, is where we are applying our minds. This year, and the next, we will be rolling out scale-up pilots and partnerships.

We are pleased to update our readers that as JA India transitions into its next phase of evolution, Pramod Bhasin (President and CEO, Genpact) has agreed to Chair the Founders Board. As the Founding Director, Pramod has been associated with JA India since inception (2006). We thank Ravi Venkatesan (Founder Chairman) for his leadership and support in establishing JA in India. In addition to their support at the India level, Pramod and Ravi would also be providing leadership support at JA Worldwide's Asia Pacific Board. We are also pleased to welcome Anjali Mohanty (Managing Director, Citi) and KS Viswanathan (Azim Premji Foundation) who join us at the JA India Founders Board.

We welcome your attention to the rest of the updates and hope you discover the possible roots of unemployablity at home!

Sincerely

Venkat Matoory | Chief Executive | JA India

Program Update

Project ConnEct

Set as long term engagements (18-24 months), Project ConnEct brings senior Industry volunteers, as Mentors, to a group of 35 college going students. The intent of such interaction being, at the conclusion of the program, the student should have...Read More

The Bajgheda Project

Initiatied as a long term project (18-24 months) specially designed for 35 Class VIII students of Literacy India Mission's RTI Vidyapeeth school in Bajgedha village, the program is entirely anchored by GENPACT Gurgaon volunteers. The pilot project commenced in March 2010 with ice breaking sessions between volunteers and students (who were then in class VII). Students went to the next grade i.e. class VIII in April 2010 when they were introduced to the SWOT analysis (Module I of the program)....Read More

JACWAP KID

A new one day format, developed on the detailed 6-day version of JA Careers with a Purpose program, this programs helps students decode the working world around them to arrive at their points of resonance and also understand the abilities they need to build to be part of their aspired working world. The overall workshop, including introductions, breaks, Q&A and feedback, can be conducted within 4 hours. The session delivery is through multiple infographs, charts and session activities and is hence expected to be very easy on the students as well as the session anchors. JA India thanks Deloitte DCS team for their support in developing the infographs...Access program execution guide here. Please access link to review feedback from participating volunteers.

Partnership Updates

JA @ Cognizant

Outstation programs | Ooty and Kotagiri

In our April newsletter we shared the following update with you. On 20 Feb 2010, 56 Cognizant volunteers travelled 130 kms from Chennai to conduct 25 parallel JA Careers with a Purpose classroom sessions for 1,177 students at Government Girls Higher Secondary School and SS Higher Secondary School, Arani. Dawn to dusk, each volunteer invested 15+ hours of commitment in a single day! Cognizant volunteers have done it yet again!

On 10 July 2010, 100+ volunteers conducted 7 hours of JACWAP in-class-program in 55 classrooms simultaneously in 4 schools covering 2,888 students. 70+ Cognizant volunteers travelled from Chennai to Ooty and Kothagiri for this program. A joint execution by Chennai and Coimbatore JA-Outreach team, backed by 250 person hours of detailed planning, the statement from Mathivanan Elangovan best captures the feeling, 'Words cannot express the excitement & enlightenment students had, the effort spent and the selfless service showcased by each one of you. AWESOME.' An additional highlight of this effort was the participation from HSBC Chennai (4 volunteers), MphasiS Chennai (4 Volunteers) and Citi Chennai (1 Volunteer). Read More.

Bangalore | JA Carnival @ Cognizant

Tremendous support from Cognizant Bangalore volunteers saw the JA Carnival @ Cognizant reach JA Problem Solving workshops to 1,900 students across 8 schools till date. Special thanks to Nirmala Krishnamurthy and JA-Cognizant Core Team members Radha Mohan, Indu Mandanna, Krishna Mayya, Sowjanya Venkatesh, Brahmesh Nukala for their extensive support in helping us to reach out to students across Bangalore.

Cognizant Careers
Sometime last year, after conducting JA Careers with a Purpose program for more than 5,000 high school students, a deeper thought struck the minds of senior Cognizant-JA volunteers -- The thought that this program should be of benefit to the corporate world too. They saw striking similarity of careers and opportunities within Cognizant world. What happened thereafter is a remarkable concept corporatized. Read more to know why Cognizant put more than 4,000+ of its associates through the Coganizant Careers program.

JA @ Deloitte

Deloitte Impact Day

As a part of the 11 June 2010 Impact Day initiative, through the Junior Achievement thread, 300+ volunteers reached JA programs to more than 2,200+ students across Hyderabad and Mumbai investing 2,400 person hours of volunteering effort. This day saw the launch of two new program initiatives -- The JA Careers with a Purpose KID program and the Business Ethics program (for B Schools)...Read more

Industry Educators Meet

Last June, Deloitte volunteers organized an industry panel discussion on the topic of employability. While there was good participation from industry professionals and students, only three educators participated. The first limited success, and the persistent efforts of Deloitte volunteers, saw the II Annual educators meet host 24 educators from 8 academic institutions in Hyderabad. Kevin Potter, Uday Sriram, Shanti KC and Shreyas Patel moderated very intense discussions spanning the topics 'Challenges for today's educators', 'Literacy vs Education', 'Quality: Education, Style of education, Qualities of a teacher, Impact of the teacher on the student', 'Employability'. Read more to know what do very experienced practicing educators think and recommend on these topics.

JA @ ExxonMobil

JA Careers with a Purpose workshop

JA Delhi team organized a day long JA Careers with a Purpose workshop with the help of ExxonMobil volunteers. The workshop saw participation from 105 class IX students of Rajkiya Pratibha Vikas Vidyalaya, Shalimar Bagh, Delhi. Read More.

Student Company visit

As a next step to an earlier classroom intervention, ExxonMobil volunteers hosted 18 students of Class XII from RPVV Shalimar Bagh for half-a-day Company visit Program. An apt follow up, this student visit takes the classroom interaction to next stage by providing an opportunity to 'see' the workplace and interact with professionals from each department/function...Read more. Photo Album.

JA @ Genpact

In addition to supporting The Bajgedha Project, Genpact volunteers from the Gurgaon and Shastri Park, New Delhi offices conducted JA Careers with a Purpose classroom programs (3-day format) for 200 Class X and XII students of Government Senior Secondary School, Chakarpur, Gurgaon and 170 Class XII students of RPVV Sham Nath Marg respectively. Prior to conducting these classroom sessions, volunteers underwent detailed training/orientation sessions. Earlier in May 2010, Genpact Hyderabad initiated efforts towards volunteering with 3 debrief sessions conducted across Uppal and Cyber Gateway offices. These debrief sessions saw participation from 55 volunteers. Efforts are currently underway to expand/enhance volunteering initiatives to Genpact employees across Jaipur, Mumbai and Bangalore.

HSBC Global Signature Program

WIth April 2010, JA More than Money moves into Year III of implementation. In the first two years, 87 volunteers (70 HSBC, 17 Non HSBC) reached the program to ~3,000 students across Bangalore, Chennai and Mumbai. In Year III, JA and HSBC team intends to reach the program to an additional 4,000 students in the same cities. JA city teams, with support from HSBC city and CSR teams, conducted volutneer debrief sessions across Bangalore and Chennai on 12 and 13 July 2010. About 200+ HSBC employees participated in these debrief sessions. Classroom programs commence across cities in the month of July 2010. HSBC Member on JA Founders Board, Malini Thadani participated in all the debrief sessions. Meanwhile, following debrief and training sessions, HSBC Mumbai volunteers have commenced JA MTM sessions in two Mumbai schools.

JA @ KPMG

Building on the current volunteering successes at KPMG across Mumbai and Delhi, JA and KPMG teams are working to expand this partnership across Bangalore, Chennai and Pune. Across these cities, KPMG volunteers would own the responsibility of delivering JA programs, through the year, for atleast 10 schools and colleges. KPMG would also be extending support to current and planned JA initiatives in Chandigarh. Later in the financial year, JA and KPMG would attempt to set up the first JA program pilot in Kolkata.

Deloitte JA India Business Challenge 2010

JAIBC Hyderabad final round was held at Deloitte Hyderabad premises on 14 July 2010. A total of 16 teams participated which included students from various colleges and a team of class XI (they were in DAV School in the last academic year). These 16 teams had earlier competed in the Hyderabad prelims. Eight teams that qualified for the second round played for 10 business quarters. Two teams from Vasavi College of Engineering took the winner and runner up slots. The teams and their members are: Winners: Shashanka, Prudhvi Raj K, Kamaldeep D | Runners-up: K Shubha Pradeep, Nikhil S Rao, Vivek Rao

Bob Chapman (Managing Partner, Deloitte U.S. in India) and Pashupathi Kumar (Director and CFO, Deloitte Consulting) addressed the participants and distributed the prizes to the winning teams. Bob thanked the students and Deloitte volunteers for their enthusiasm and participation. While sharing how Junior Achievement Business Challenge aims at providing students the feel of business and working world, he emphasised Deloitte's belief in JA programs which provide a platform to bring together professionals and students -- students who are tomorrow's professionals. He also spoke about Deloitte's ethics policy and the role it plays in their day to day work.

JA Event team is all set to roll out Big Bash -- The Deloitte JAIBC 2010 Nationals. Do remember to participate in this event. The winners get sponsored participation to the Global Challenge 2011. More information.

Perspectives

Kevin Potter, Deputy Managing Director, Deloitte Tax

While most of us aspire to be a CEO, how many think like one? In the third article in his 8-part series, Kevin Potter, Deputy Managing Director, Deloitte Tax Overseas Services LLC tells us how to Think like a CEO.

A Chief Executive Officer (CEO) is like the captain of a ship, steering the company through the sometimes rough waters of business to accomplish its goals and mission, and constantly thinking of ways to grow the company and outperform its rivals. As the conscience of the company, the CEO works relentlessly to communicate the company values and distinctive qualities to internal and external customers through words and actions. A CEO's perspective is applicable to every individual who is interested in enhancing his or her career. In essence, you are CEO of a company called "you."...Read more from Kevin.

Unemployability begins at home?

No! The hypothesis is: It begins at home by our acts and assumptions that we are not even conscious of. Read more on why Venkat Matoory, CEO, JA India believes the ground zero for employability may perhaps be inaccessible in the first place.

More updates | Volunteering updates

April 2010: Deloitte senior managers undergo JACWAP and JAII training sessions.
May 2010: ~ 55 Genpact volunteers from Genpact Hyderabad's Uppal and Cyber Gateway offices attended JA India debrief sessions across three days.
July 2010: HCL Noida volunteers conducted JA Careers with a Purpose program for 127 Class X students of Cambridge School, Ghaziabad.
Cognizant Hyderabad senior volunteers undergo JACWAP training session, attend classroom observer sessions at DAV Public School, Safilguda.
ExxonMobil Hyderabad: After initial debriefs, volunteers to undergo program training and observer sessions prior to commencing live classroom anchoring.
JA Mumbai team completes first round of volunteer initiation at KPMG Mumbai
JA Mumbai and Barclays Mumbai volunteers commence planning for volunteering programs in FY11
JA Mumbai initiatives volunteering partnership with Peninsula Land Limited (Ashok Piramal Group). After the first round of debriefs and volunteer training, 5 volunteers enrolled for the program with three of them attending live classroom observer sessions for JACWAP program at R.N. Podar school.
JA Mumbai publishes its 3-month school program calendar. In addition to current corporates, expects to commence volunteering at Credit Suisse, Cognizant and Genpact Mumbai.
May 2010: JA Bangalore Volunteer Educator meet
- Hosted by Cognizant Bangalore, this meet was attended by 30 volunteers and 8 teachers from across Bangalore. Attendees were taken through new JA programs and toolkits followed by a detailed training program on JA Problem Solving.
- JA Cognizant Core team was also introduced to all attendees. The core team headed by Nirmala Krishnamoorthy consists of Indu Mandanna, Devarajan.S.M, Sowjanya Venkatesh, Krishna Mayya, Brahmesh Nukala and Radha Mohan. Over this year, the core team will work closely with educators and volunteers, along with JA Bangalore, to reach all JA programs to students across Bangalore.
Leveraging existing summer programs conducted by Churches, JA Chennai team conducted summer programs at three places, namely, St. Theresa's Church, St. Mark's Church and Holy Cross Church. While this has opened a new platform for conducting programs -- especially for mixed student batches (students from multiple schools), experience sharing by participating students has helped spread the word on JA programs to more educators and students