Antarang Foundation

January 2019 started on a fulfilling note. Oh yes, this is a late post! :-p but better late than never? Alright then! So somewhere around mid-December 2018, I got a call from my cousin who works with an NGO called Antarang Foundation. Antarang Foundation envisions a world where every young person is passionately, productively and positively engaged in a career of their choice. Through two career focused programs, CareerAware and CareeReady, the foundation works to bridge the Employability gap that exists amongst disadvantaged youth. As my cousin was associated with this NGO, I knew about it but I was excited when I was invited. ^_^

My cousin had called to invite me as a guest speaker at Antarang Foundation, as a part of their CareerAware program. 

Token of appreciation

​Antarang’s CareerAware program is for 8^th graders and is aimed towards encouraging career exploration from a young age. Throughout the year, Antarang’s students cover 7 career streams in detail. The month of January is dedicated to IT, when I was invited.

 The following points were to be covered during the session:

1. Introduction to IT.
2. Educational qualification of entry level and higher level staffs.
3. Different avenues that one can explore within IT.
4. Qualities and personality necessary to build a career in this sector.
5. My professional journey.

I’m sure by now you must be wanting to read more about Antarang Foundation and see how you can contribute? Here you go – https://antarangfoundation.org/

Mentors have the potential to change lives. A little bit of positivity, guidance and confidence is all that is required to bring out the best in anybody! When I got this opportunity, I had to take it. It was a great platform to share knowledge and my ideas, from current scenario as well from our own experiences. You know right? how it is when we don’t get something, or when we imagine that if certain situation had been different, may be the output would have been different? Then we have a lot of inputs to give.

Also especially knowing that the audience was going to be wide, students, their teachers and even NGO volunteers, it was a great opportunity to reach out to a lot of people.

The basic pointers were defined by Antarang for all the guest speakers. Additionally, I also wanted to inculcate the ability of thinking in those young minds. Thinking in terms of the job roles that could exist and not be reliable on people for suggestions (which would revolve around famous titles). Simple. So what was done was, I told them to look around the classroom, that we were sitting in and find out the various stuffs that relate to IT. With this, I asked them to observe those stuffs and tell me the possible job roles that they think could exist in IT. This made them think and come up with answers. This was essential. I did not want them to depend on others only for, you know official job roles. We don’t want their minds to be restricted to a couple of fields – Engineering or Medical for instance, just because these terms are famous and/or a lot of people are doing it.

People should understand that if some kind of work is happening, if something exists, if you hear about some interesting area of study, there has to be a career around it too. Pick that key term and ask about it. Let that curiosity prevail! I was glad I got the opportunity to have this conversation. 

The change that you want to see? Take every chance and talk about it.

Now if only everyone visited and gave their inputs, I think the youth will benefit a lot and moreover at the right age, at budding age. Don’t be busy for the right thing!