Hi, since last one year I have been working at Acuminate. Though it is difficult to define my exact role, I am enjoying all the aspects of it. I began as a counselor, talking to students (fresh graduates) and finding out why they approached us, how did they find us, and what were their expectations?
95 % of the students used to tell me that they wanted a job; ‘I’m jobless, make me an earning member of the family’ was a common statement. Before this I had never even thought about how frustrating it would be to have an Engineering degree and not getting a job at the right time. But for this, I would rather blame the students than any one else . Before talking to them further, we needed to find out the reasons why they were jobless. The common factors were not only the academic record, but also the aptitude score, limited technology knowledge and lack of communication skills. And these barriers could have been overcome with the proper training.
In Acuminate, we have a selection procedure before accepting a participant for training. The selection test at the beginning used to be the deciding factor. If we selected one particular student and not the other, then it used to be a challenging task to convince the one who was left out. Students being students, the common arguments were like ‘we are studying together from 10th standard, so allow him also to join this batch’ etc… But I had to be firm and tell the students that the screening test had a purpose, and if they wanted to join the training program, then they would have to prove their caliber first.
About the students who cleared the test and were eligible for the training program, I had to give them an orientation and explain the difference between ‘career’ and ‘job’. To change their attitude from that of a typical ‘student’ to that of a ‘professional’ was a big challenge.
It was very nice to see a transformation from a happy go lucky college student to a professional. The journey was of course not an easy one; I had to shout at them if they were late or absent, I had to follow up their performance through the course and warn them if they were found lagging behind.
A moment of great pleasure was to give the successful candidates the course completion certificates and, more importantly, the job appointment letters. Then an almost endless supply of sweets used to start…
A year down the line, now it feels very nice to take their calls or respond to their Skype messages. I feel that I have extended my family some tenfold in the last one year!
- Sonali
95 % of the students used to tell me that they wanted a job; ‘I’m jobless, make me an earning member of the family’ was a common statement. Before this I had never even thought about how frustrating it would be to have an Engineering degree and not getting a job at the right time. But for this, I would rather blame the students than any one else . Before talking to them further, we needed to find out the reasons why they were jobless. The common factors were not only the academic record, but also the aptitude score, limited technology knowledge and lack of communication skills. And these barriers could have been overcome with the proper training.
In Acuminate, we have a selection procedure before accepting a participant for training. The selection test at the beginning used to be the deciding factor. If we selected one particular student and not the other, then it used to be a challenging task to convince the one who was left out. Students being students, the common arguments were like ‘we are studying together from 10th standard, so allow him also to join this batch’ etc… But I had to be firm and tell the students that the screening test had a purpose, and if they wanted to join the training program, then they would have to prove their caliber first.
About the students who cleared the test and were eligible for the training program, I had to give them an orientation and explain the difference between ‘career’ and ‘job’. To change their attitude from that of a typical ‘student’ to that of a ‘professional’ was a big challenge.
It was very nice to see a transformation from a happy go lucky college student to a professional. The journey was of course not an easy one; I had to shout at them if they were late or absent, I had to follow up their performance through the course and warn them if they were found lagging behind.
A moment of great pleasure was to give the successful candidates the course completion certificates and, more importantly, the job appointment letters. Then an almost endless supply of sweets used to start…
A year down the line, now it feels very nice to take their calls or respond to their Skype messages. I feel that I have extended my family some tenfold in the last one year!
- Sonali
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