Life Skills: When will the Skilling Sector wake up to see its critical role!

Recently, Samhita published a “CSR in Skills and Livelihood Report.” This study analyses the CSR efforts of the top 100 companies with the largest CSR budgets on the BSE 500 to identify the gaps and opportunities in the skills and livelihood value chain and provides a roadmap for companies and other stakeholders to overcome these challenges.

The report states that India is currently facing a huge socio-demographic challenge given that majority of its population is in the working age with limited or no skills. As per the Labour Bureau Report 2014, the size of the skilled workforce in India is only 2%, which is extremely low when compared to countries such as China (47%), Japan (80%) and South Korea (96%). It is estimated that by around 2025, 25% of the world’s total workforce will be in India. It has also been forecasted that the average age of India’s population would be 29 in 2021 as compared to China’s average age of 37, thus giving India a unique advantage of having one of the world’s youngest populations. However, a large young population alone does not guarantee India an advantage. The country needs to ensure that its young workforce is equipped with the skills and knowledge required in a workplace so it can reap the “demographic dividend”.

To bring about a focus on skilling and consolidate efforts, the central government has brought all the skilling programmes under the ambit of a ministry created in 2014—the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE). The government has further stepped up its efforts through the announcement of two skill development packages worth INR 220 billion in July 2016 to improve the skills of 15 million people by 2020. While these initiatives are a step in the right direction, a few studies found that they have not yielded the expected results. Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) constituted under the Director General of Training (DGT) have acknowledged their own shortcomings in terms of poor quality training, serious infrastructure gaps, outdated curricula, high dropout rates and minimal contact with industry. Additionally, only 5% of the 17.58 lakh people trained under the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) (as of July 2016) got jobs.

As this report explores the solution to this looming crisis, it proposes a value chain approach, which is an attempt to put the “trainee” at the centre of the discussion and view the entire process of skills and livelihood development from his or her perspective. Broadly, these can be classified as pre-training, training and post-training components. Together, these steps help in ensuring that the trainee has a seamless experience and realizes the intended outcomes of the programme.

The study presents some fascinating insights and we hope Companies and NGOs will address these insights in their work with young people.

Some pointers in the report that caught our eye include:

1. Enhancing employability through soft/life skills was secondary to vocational skills.

Firstly, we need to learn to distinguish between soft skills and life skills. Soft Skills are NOT the same as Life Skills. Soft Skills have conventionally known to enhance one abilities and prospects in the job market. They are desirable skills that create a competitive edge.

Life Skills are core foundational skills without which an individual cannot overcome adversity and be prepared for a healthy, productive life as an adult. World Health Organization (WHO) defines life skills as positive and adaptive abilities that enable an individual to deal with the challenges and demands of everyday life. Life Skills help an individual be creative, take initiative, solve problems, overcome difficulties, manage conflict, negotiate, respond with empathy, be self-aware and think critically amongst other things. Without Life Skills, it is next to impossible for an individual to thrive and succeed as an adult, especially in the fast changing 21^st century.

Secondly, providing vocational skills without the foundation of Life Skills will have limited impact and thus life skills cannot be treated secondary. Life Skills is not a subject that can be taught and delivered through a 45-60 minute session. Life Skills are developed through a combination of role-modeling by the trainer/facilitator and the use of transformative, experiential pedagogies that understand adversity and ways to overcome it. Life Skills are also developed when there is consistent, long-term engagement in the presence of a caring, empathetic adult.

2. Despite gaining vocational skills, the trainee may not be ‘employable’ due to poor communication skills, a lack of confidence or, poor coping abilities. This would be especially true of trainees from lower socio-economic backgrounds who would have been conditioned very differently due to difficult circumstances.

Firstly, when it is said that youth have poor communication skills, lock confidence and poor coping abilities. These are just symptoms of a deeper challenge faced by young people from lower socio-economic backgrounds. It is the challenge of growing up in adversity and NOT conditioning (this sounds judgmental). When young people experience neglect, abandonment, lack of emotional care or violence, abuse, it impacts their ability to achieve developmental milestones and engage with the world. Experiences of adversity result in Failure to Thrive describing a situation where a child does not grow as expected on a growth chart. Adversity affects their ability to engage with the world, make healthy life choices and be successful. The impact of adversity can be seen in their adulthood and sometimes throughout life. For instance, not being able to keep a job. The report corroborates this by stating that least 1 of the 4 trainees placed dropped out in the first month according to most of the NGOs surveyed for the study.

How times have vocational programmes lamented that young people drop out within the first few weeks of the programme or don’t stick to a single job or don’t apply themselves with discipline through the training. These are not because young people are disinterested, or conditioned differently or not serious about their future. They just don’t have the abilities due to failure to thrive.

In 17 years of Dream a Dream’s experience with young people we have seen that when young people develop their Life Skills, they are able to overcome failure to thrive and re-engage with life. Hence, unless we focus on Life Skills as core foundational skills, most vocational training programmes will continue to have limited impact and not achieve long-term positive outcomes for young people.

3. The study found an overwhelming consensus among all stakeholders in terms of the role of soft and life skills in enhancing ‘employability’. Yet there was a disconnect between rhetoric and practice—while all companies were focused on ‘vocational’ skills, only half of them were considering soft skills and life skills as part of their courses.

Some of the barriers identified in the report that limits more corporate participation across the value chain included:

• Some companies were unaware of the importance of these building blocks, as the wider narrative so far has focused only on delivery of training.
• Most companies recognized the need for such support, but lacked knowledge of effective models and good practices because unlike delivery of training, the pre and post-training components have not been documented or codified systematically.
• A few companies reported that they were unable to identify credible implementation partners that could execute these activities at scale, especially around soft skills training.
• Stakeholder and donor perceptions around what constitutes impact maybe misdirected, especially when their accountability is defined as ‘number of trainees covered’, rather than outcomes such as better jobs, higher retention in those jobs etc. Certain aspects of the value chain, especially supporting the trainer or mobilization efforts could be perceived as ‘unglamorous’.
• Outcomes of soft and life skills depend on a certain degree of behavioural change that is difficult to achieve in a short duration and difficult to measure and quantify.

Dream a Dream has addressed some of these barriers successfully in our work with over 5000 young people every year and over 100,000 across 17 years. We have integrated Life Skills as a core intervention and on the foundation of Life Skills – other technical skills are developed. This has resulted in some remarkable wins – We don’t have a challenge of mobilization since our graduates are our biggest champions and do the community mobilizing for us. Our retention is at over 90%. Our graduates make choices based on their aspirations and choose from a variety of opportunities – higher education, vocational training, internships, job placements, self-employment and entrepreneurship. Over the last 6 years, we are tracking over 8000 graduates from our programme and 95% of them continue to be meaningfully engaged with life.

We have also developed and published a standardized Dream Life Skills Assessment Scale (DLSAS), the first of its kind scale in the world that measures life skills. 100% of our graduates have shown an improvement in life skills year-on-year measured using the DLSAS.

Hence, the above barriers can be overcome.

In conclusion, the pace of change in the world is frantic and unpredictable. Young people are entering a very complex future filled with many challenges. The report highlights that the demand for skilled labour and its supply is based on a set of constantly changing variables such as industrial changes, technological advances and people’s aspirations, among others. This dynamic nature of skilling underpins the need to continuously evolve and adapt courses and curriculum to ensure that they are not rendered obsolete.

For instance, it is predicted that 65% of new jobs in the world have not yet been created. Moreover, job requirements are moving from linear repetitive tasks to non-linear, multi-dimensional task requiring a host of different skills. In this scenario, focusing on specific vocations might mean a death sentence for these young people if those jobs become redundant in the future due to automation.

Hence, an investment and focus on Life Skills will help young people develop the agency and resilience to re-invent themselves in a fast changing, complex and unpredictable job scenario and continue to thrive.

As I think about how young people are preparing for this new world, I am reminded of a young person who graduated from our programme a few years back. He anticipated this future and worked on developing multiple skills. Today, he works as a Life Skills Facilitator, a Gender Expert Trainer, a Rugby Player and a Rugby Coach. All diverse jobs requiring diverse skill-sets. It was Life Skills that helped him thrive and succeed in each of his career choices and continuing to help him expand his basket of skills. He is geared up for the new world. He is adaptive, resilient and creative. He has self-belief and can reinvent himself in a changing world scenario. Today, he is definitely moving his family out of the vicious cycle of poverty while also having the resilience and agency to face the future with confidence. 

Holding Space for Failure

She was young, feisty, confident and all of 14. Rare traits in young people that come from adversity. She shone through the first two days of the camp like she belonged here. The nurturing environment fueled her creative confidence and helped her achieve new milestones. Her learning edge was challenged and she always loved a good challenge. 

Day 3 is usually a Youth Led Day at camp where young people are encouraged to lead workshops for their peers. She signed up to lead an art workshop. Known for her discipline, she prepared well. She had thought through her workshop, played it over many times in her head. She felt confident and was positive that she will sail through. 

The workshop tanked. She lost her confidence when she fumbled through her instructions. She struggled with some steps and it became all chaotic and messy. She lost her composure and just about managed to complete the allotted time. However, she saw something strange. No one left her workshop or abandoned her. No one sneered at her. Her peers, whom she didn't know well, held space for her and for her failure. 

Post the workshop, she cried and poured her heart out. She had never felt so much support before, definitely not when she had failed. She had grown up in an environment where success was expected of her. Being a girl, she had to fight harder to earn success and each success brought with it pressure to perform better. She didn't realize, she was holding herself back from being her best because she had become too scared to fail. There was no support for failures in her environment. 

Yet here, she had failed and no one had abandoned her. She realized she had permission to fail and in her failure she had achieved the biggest success of her life. She had learnt to not let failure destroy her. Her peers ensured that failure gave her strength. They held space for her to fail. Her tears were tears of joy and realization. She had a transformative life experience. 

According to Heather Plett, "Holding Space means that we are willing to walk alongside another person in whatever journey they’re on without judging them, making them feel inadequate, trying to fix them, or trying to impact the outcome. When we hold space for other people, we open our hearts, offer unconditional support, and let go of judgement and control."

This young woman experienced the power of Holding Space when she was going through her journey and it helped her discover things that she had no permission to feel before. This young woman is the embodiment of the power that each of us holds within us as human beings - the power to be empathetic towards ourselves and others.

The outdoor experiential camps at Dream a Dream use the Life Skills Approach to help young people transform and discover their true potential. One of the core tenets of these camps is to Hold Space for young people as they go through her personal journeys and discoveries. Since 2002, thousands of young people have discovered their confidence, resilience, empathy, creativity through these outdoor experiential camps.

Eisenhower Fellowship: The Story of The Beginning

It is beautiful how the dots connect and life always has a way to bring you to the place where you seek to be or where you need to be.

The story actually starts in 2007 or atleast that's how far back I can remember it. I am sure it started much before that. An article written about Dream A Dream in a newspaper caught the attention of a person from Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) who wrote to me and invited me to his office for a meeting.

In anticipation for some funding for Dream A Dream, I land up at his office on my rickety Bajaj Chetak scooter and signature business clothes. As I walk into the reception area and ask to meet this gentleman, the secretary is a little perplexed and asks me if I have an appointment with him. I say yes and yet she does not seem to believe me. She goes in and announces my arrival and I am escorted into this very senior and warm gentleman's office. He takes one look at me and looks very confused. He asks, "If I am Vishal Talreja?" just to make sure and I answer in the affirmative suddenly doubtful if I had worn something wrong or had some lunch leftover on my face or clothes.

The gentleman says he was expecting someone much much older than me. Definitely not someone who looked younger than his son. I blush a little and try to make the best impression possible. He listens to me with patience and warmth and I like him very much for giving me this time and listening about my work. 

Anyway, to cut a long story short, I am invited to speak at the CII conference at Bangalore where another gentleman from ITC listens to me and later sends me an invitation to speak at the National Human Resources Development Network (NHRDN) Conference in Kolkata. I agree in prospect of meeting many potential corporate donors at a single platform. A senior person from the ITC office is reaching out to me and taking care of my stay and logistics and it all seems very strange to me. I get an opportunity to stay at the Chairman's guesthouse where the ceiling is as high as two floors and I have a person taking care of all my needs. I feel special and overwhelmed. I speak at the conference and I must have left a deep impression on the organizers and participants. This is 2007 or 2008.

In 2012, I get an email from this senior gentleman from ITC whom I met in 2007/2008 and he invites me to participate in another NHRDN Conference as a panelist to talk about Youth in India. I agree out of deep respect for the hospitality and respect they accorded to me in the earlier conference. 

I sit on this panel with 3 others with much experience and wisdom. I am thinking in my head, "If there is one idea that I can leave this audience of 300 people or one thought that will make them reflect or One opinion that will make them question their view of their world and explore a different view, what would it be?". I believe it could be if they start looking at Youth as Empowered Citizens of this vibrant democracy and active players in shaping our country and world around us. I share my ideas and as I answer questions at the panel, there is a senior gentleman from Aditya Birla Group sitting in the audience and he asks me a question.. 

He says, his biggest concern with young people in India today is that they don't seem to have any fear of anything. In earnest honesty, I answer, the biggest strength that Indian youth have today in this complex and rapidly changing world is that they are fearless and if anything, lets nurture that. 

At the end of the panel, I end end up having lunch with this wonderful gentleman and I enjoy our conversations deeply. As he leaves, he says he would like to nominate me for the Eisenhower Fellowship. Till that moment, I hadn't heard of this fellowship. 

I go back to Bangalore, do some research and it seems like just what I needed at that moment of my personal learning journey. As promised, he sends me an application form and gives me 3 days to complete it since the deadline had just passed but he thought my candidature might be quite strong. I work on this intense application over 3 nights and off it goes. I soon get invited to an Interview with the Eisenhower Fellowship Alumni Network in India and then an interview with a global representative.

And voila, In a month or so, I get a message of selection to the prestigious Eisenhower Fellowship Multi Nation Program for 2013. Their website says, Eisenhower Fellowships identifies, empowers and links outstanding leaders from around the world, helping them to achieve consequential outcomes across sectors and borders. Eisenhower Fellowship provides a transformational experience leading to lifetime engagement in a global network, where dialogue and collaboration make the world more prosperous, just and peaceful.

I didn't understand the true meaning and impact of the above words till now when I have completed my intense 7 weeks in the Fellowship, traveling to over 14 cities in the US, meeting over 85 individuals, all inspiring and insightful and most importantly making 21 friends for life from 20 different countries as my colleagues in the Fellowship.

As they say, our life is a series of dots and when connected it all makes sense and brings you exactly where you were meant to be today. I wonder how the dots of my EF experience will shape my future. I am eager and excited to find out. 

Notes from the Road: Eisenhower Fellowship - Philadelphia and Washington DC

March 30^th until April 26^th 2013, Nearly 4 weeks have past since I have left Bangalore and embarked on this learning journey called the Eisenhower Fellowship Program. I believe my first week in Philadelphia was the best and most transformative so far in the trip. Meeting 22 very inspiring people from 21 different countries and listening to their stories or narratives (as Salvatore would put it) was absolutely awesome. We spoke, we shared, we let ourselves be authentic and vulnerable and in all that we bonded at a very deep level.

Discovering Benjamin Franklin was truly amazing as I learnt that there is no age to participate in nation building. To follow our purpose in life, to serve, to enhance the understanding of our world and to know that we are each capable of doing amazing, amazing things in our lifetime was just inspiring. 

The opening week in Philadelphia gave me hope for the world and inspite on my jetlag, I was driven by passion and inspiration. Then, we went our ways to explore, meet, learn from and with other Americans and in the process to reflect and discover ourselves once again.

As I hear stories from the past few weeks from other Fellows, I have realized, that we have indeed discovered ourselves in more ways than one.  In our anger, in our frustration, in our disturbing questions, in our wow moments, we have discovered more about ourselves than we have ever known. We are exhausted but come alive when we share our stories of insights and discoveries. Mine has been no different.

Washington DC was challenging. My jetlag was kicking in and I was finding it difficult to find my emotional and mental balance. I was finding It difficult to give it my all as I began my quest for answers.  The highlights were meeting with Vipin, Clara and Sachin and spending time with Jerry White. My meetings with Aspen Institute and Mala were insightful and validating. The visit to Anacostia reared its ugly head around racial discrimination and continuing questions of what will it take for us as human beings to learn to live together with respect for our differences.

I learnt,

Our work is actually quite awesome. We have an inspiring story. We have understood and articulated our problem well. The questions I stay with does our story match with the actual delivery of our services and their quality and the ground level. How do we connect with the facilitators more actively. How do we recognize and capture those moments when a child’s soul lights up with a life changing insight. How we make that happen session after session. A deep process of continuous reflection and mentoring of the facilitators is needed. More visits to the sessions. More time with the facilitators. More investment in continuous training. They are key to keep our quality alive and ensure that the story in my head is true to the story on the ground.