Recognising the long-unaddressed gap between education and employability, the education department attached to the Mira Bhayandar Municipal Corporation (MBMC) organised Employability@18- a career and skill-oriented conclave for IX and X standard students enrolled in municipal schools.
The first of its kind initiative by any civic body in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), the conclave which registered an active participation of more than 700 students was held at the Bharat Ratna Lata Mangeshkar Auditorium in Kashimira on Thursday.
Highly skilled professionals and experts including- Mahesh Rassal, Preeti Ganju and Chandrakant Munde not only provided guidance to students helping them identify their strengths, interests and out-of-the-box career opportunities, but also engaged with them to break the gender stereotypes while trying to understand their potential in a better manner. “Our aim is to integrate vocational education with mainstream education at the secondary level. |
Providing career guidance to students not only gives them a greater understanding of their strengths and weaknesses, but also gives an insight on special skill set requirements for job opportunities by leveraging their academic assets.” said municipal commissioner- Sanjay Katkar.
One of the main attractions in the conclave was the presence of Skills on Wheels (SOW)-a fully equipped multi skill lab mounted on a refurbished truck chassis with wi-fi, audio-visual facility which acts as a support tool for outreach and career counselling for students.
A pioneering innovation of Lend A Hand India- the SOW which is accompanied by trained vocational trainers imparts skill training in varied areas such as welding, plumbing, electrical wiring, food processing, basic healthcare and mobile repairing.
Additional municipal commissioner’s-Aniket Manorkar, Dr. Sambhaji Panpatte and deputy civic chief- Kalpita Pimple were present in the conclave. Currently, the MBMC’s education department runs 36 municipal schools imparting education in Marathi, Urdu, Hindi, Gujarati and semi-English mediums up to the X standard to around 9,000 students.
