Potters Earth Foundation aims to promote Career Culture in Schools of Maharashtra
Pune : A conference was hosted by Potters Earth Foundation, which kick started the fifth year of The Prabhat Project – a pan-Maharashtra program providing holistic career orientation to students from low-income homes. Through this year’s program the organization will be collectively helping more than 50,000 students across 4 cities in Maharashtra, inching closer to its 2030 goal of enabling 10 lac students to find meaningful education paths. The conference was jointly hosted by Potters Earth Foundation along with Tata Technologies, CSR Partners to the program.
A research finding examined the impact of social class on the school-to-work transition of young adults and found that young adults from low-income homes viewed work as a means of economic survival and were less likely to manifest their self-concepts (like interests, goals, and aspirations) in the world of work unlike their counterparts from the higher income home. They experience barriers that are more pervasive and less easily remedied, like being forced to drop out of school to help the family financially.
The Potters Earth Foundation identified that a major socio-economic problem is the inability to find meaningful educational goals for students coupled with financial shortfalls, which leads to rampant drop-out of students from school after class 10th. They recognized that the only way to resolve this challenge is to adopt a Career Culture in schools to support information, guidance and support to students and parents.
The outcome of the conference was a commitment from all school leaders to adopt a Career Culture in their schools. This will include 1) identifying teachers who will be trained (by Potters Earth Foundation) and designated as in-house career counselors, 2) a career curriculum (created by Potters Earth Foundation) that will become part of the students’ regular timetable, and 3) involving parents as beneficiaries of career counseling as well and help them make better career decisions for their children.
Speaking about the School Leaders Conference, Mr. Ajit Habbu, Manager, Corporate Sustainability at Tata Technologies said, “This is the first time that we are bringing together on a single platform all the leaders and key decision makers of schools, to discuss how we can together take forward this important mandate of preparing our youth for a future of meaningful work and decent livelihoods.”
Congratulating the dignitaries, Ms. Anamika Dasgupta, Director, Potter’s Earth Foundation said, “Your commitment and support behind this initiative will ensure that the program is done with utmost sincerity and dedication on ground at the school level. The narrative and messaging you create from the top will drive the success of this program for your students.”
Speaking about the possibility of long-lasting impact through a collaborative approach, Saurabh Sharma – Director Potter’s Earth Foundation said, “Just like a tree that stands strong does so due to the massive spread of its roots, so is the case with the Prabhat project which has successfully brought together three very important stakeholders – school leaders, subject matter experts, and visionary sponsors – who will together ensure that this initiative and effort has long lasting and sustainable impact on our youth.”
Through the training on the Potters Earth Career Curriculum, these teachers will become the first batch in India to be fully equipped with skills, knowledge and information to support their students’ career aspirations in a sustained ongoing manner year after year.
The conference was attended by Heads of key educational institutions, CEOs of educational trusts like, Shri Swami Vivekanand Shikshan Sanstha Kolhapur, Saraswati Bhuvan Education Society, Aurangabad, Laxaman Rao Apte Prashala – Pune, Kanya Vidyalaya – Pimpari, Anjuman-I-Islam Trust Pune, Gram Probodhini Maval, and representatives of Bharatiya Jain Santha among others.
In the last five years of this program, 50 schools have been mentored (a mix of govt-aided, unaided and low-income private schools), nearly 20,000 students have been provided career support, and over 1000 teachers and principals have been upskilled in knowledge of careers.