The Need
Adolescence is a crucial time in life, as it lays the foundation for a well-adjusted adulthood. With a population of 253 million, India has the world’s largest number of adolescents, with every fifth person aged between 10 to 19 years. However, both adolescent girls and boys face challenges in accessing information and opportunities to develop crucial life skills. There is a growing need to empower them with confidence, knowledge, interpersonal skills, and career skills in the 21st century to secure employment and lead self-reliant lives.
Regular counselling and career guidance for schoolchildren and adolescents are well-recognized needs, mandated by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) since 2014. Unfortunately, very few schools in low-income communities have counsellors to help students deal with their concerns and issues. This is particularly problematic for students from lower socio-economic backgrounds who face frustration, anger, and fear due to poor living conditions. As a result, they may suffer from low self-confidence, poor school performance, dropping out of school, entering the manual labour market, or even turning to drugs or crime.
The lack of appropriately trained counsellors and guides conversant with the problems and concerns of youth from marginalized communities is also a significant issue. For counselling to be effective, compassionate counsellors must be familiar with and sensitive to the context, environment, and problems from the adolescent’s standpoint.
What We Do
ETASHA works with school-going adolescents to ensure that girls and boys from marginalized communities complete high school with required life and career skills in 21st century and have a clear focus on pursuing productive careers. Our focus remains on building confidence and self-respect through soft skills development, career counselling, and helping create focus and vision through systematic career guidance.
Our Strategy
ETASHA works with Middle and Senior Secondary Government schools in low-income communities to help create an environment that empowers all students to complete their schooling, become socially self-reliant, and stay focused on their career paths.
Methodology of facilitation is our key strength area. It has been developed by behavioural and language experts to ensure quality output in a short span of time. It is experiential, interactive and participative. The basic approach is of focussing on attitude and behaviour change for skill building, rather than purely emphasising on knowledge and concepts. Training is experiential and includes role plays, case studies, audio-visual aids, field visits, group discussions, projects and presentations by students.
Our Programs
Life Skills Development and Counselling (LSC)
This program includes a series of basic life skills workshops for students of classes 8th to 12th supported by individual face-to-face counselling by trained counsellors. Apart from regular in-campus availability of counsellors, ETASHA also offers free counselling services through a helpline called ‘Keh Daalo‘ that addresses the issues of adolescents in a systematic step-by-step process. Empathetic and compassionate listeners are available to guide callers, provide accurate information, equip them with coping mechanisms to handle stress, anxiety, and anger, and help them make informed decisions about their career choices for a productive and successful life.
Scholastic Improvement Program (SIP)
To support children in completing their school education and preparing them for growth-oriented jobs and careers, scholastic improvement programs in basic language and numeracy skills are implemented in collaboration with school management. Through assessments based on ASER -type tests, students’ abilities are evaluated, and those who require additional support receive remedial education in reading readiness, English and Hindi Language and Numeracy Skills, tailored to their individual needs. This approach helps them catch up to the level of their enrolled class.
Basic Computer & Internet Usage Skills (IT)
Starting from getting to know the basics of a computer, the hardware, and the software; the students are taken through a gradual process of learning and practicing on the Microsoft Suite, and Internet processes like mailing, search, Google Docs, and use of the Google Drive. Each session is a skill-building session, with each student practicing on a separate computer/laptop.
Confidence Building
To enhance the confidence level of students, a series of workshops are organized through a range of activities such as public speaking, problem-solving, and breaking gender stereotypes. These workshops aim to help students develop confidence and a positive outlook toward life by actively participating in the workshops.
Career Guidance
Career guidance is provided to high school students through stand-alone workshops called ‘Career Highway‘. These workshops help each participant identify professions that are best suited for them based on their scientifically assessed aptitudes, interests, competitive ability, aspirations, and income generation needs. The workshops empower students to make informed decisions about their future and actively pursue their career goals.
Coaching For Scholarship
The coaching for the National Means-cum-Merit Scholarship is provided to students who are good at studies and keen on pursuing higher studies. Under this scheme introduced by the Government of India in 2008, 1 lakh meritorious students from economically weaker backgrounds are provided a yearly scholarship to help them continue their studies until class 12th.
Reach & Impact
207 +
SCHOOLS REACHED
15,128 +
ADOLESCENTS TRAINED IN LIFE SKILLS
10,280+
ADOLESCENTS TRAINED THROUGH SCHOLASTIC IMPROVEMENT PROGRAMS
770 +
ADOLESCENTS TRAINED THROUGH COMPUTER TRAINING PROGRAMS
865+
INDIVIDUALS REACHED THROUGH KEH DAALO HELPLINE
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