Skills to Succeed
QUEST Alliance with support from Accenture is driving the Skills to Succeed in Retail program. The overarching goal of the Skills to Succeed program is to provide learners and facilitators in a vocational training scenario with a combination of high quality digital tools and traditional curricula. QUEST foresees a significant increase in teaching and learning levels in vocational training institutes with the use of a blended model of learning.
The Context
Large numbers of India’s young people are unemployed or underemployed. Furthermore, over the next decade, approximately 300 million young people will enter the workforce in India but there is an acute shortage of skilled human resources available to employers. In order to prepare young Indians for the workforce, they must be trained with the skills and competencies that will help them find quality employment and the work ethic, flexibility and mindset to be successful while on the job.
To address the existing need and the gaps, QUEST Alliance is developing an E-Learning for employability program to prepare youth for entry level jobs in India’s retail sector with support from Accenture under their global “Skills to Succeed” corporate citizenship initiative.
To understand deeply the real needs of the learner and the context of the institutions, QUEST conducted an immersive design research study with Quicksand Design Studio to come up with a road map for the ideal student experience in a vocational training scenario. After extensive interaction with different stakeholders in the vocational training scenario in India to understand gaps & challenges, QUEST Alliance developed a comprehensive training curriculum for trainers & students who could then potentially seek employment in India’s booming retail industry.
QUEST has pilot tested this classroom-led curriculum that includes modules in communicative English, life skills, basic I.T and retail operations, across four centres in partnership with Saath and Sukrupa in Gujarat and Bangalore along with detailed training of trainer tools and methodologies to ensure successful delivery.
In the next phase QUEST envisions that using the technology-led version of this retail curriculum, the program will deliver valuable, relevant and market-oriented employability skills training. Phase II involves the development, piloting and implementation of a technology-led version of the same curriculum, with content being enabled using various digital mediums including CD based learning, internet enabled learning & even mobile based simulations & games. The objective is to makes use of innovative technology tools for a rich multi-media learning environment. The success of this phase could lead to the possibility of immense scale for the program, reaching out to thousands of youth in India and potentially beyond.
As part of this effort, QUEST conducted an intensive RFP (Request for Proposal) process with leading vendors and developers in the E-Learning space. QUEST’s instructional design team has put together a comprehensive development framework based on which various technology led interventions will be designed. The first prototypes of these tools should be available for pilot testing in the third quarter of 2010 after which QUEST intends to continue development of these tools while expanding their availability to benefit an increasingly larger base of vocational training institutes across India.
Facts about the programme
Learning from the first Skills to Succeed pilot has resulted in the following:
• Creation of a blended learning model which combines digital learning tools along with a traditional classroom model
• Creation of a comprehensive facilitator development program which includes skills that supports facilitator development as a continuous process where the facilitator is also a learner rather than just providing training inputs for a particular classroom environment
Beneficiaries
• First phase of the program was undertaken as a pilot to evaluate the efficacy of the content and pedagogy and was carried out at 4 sites/centres with the help of two partner NGOs in Ahmedabad and Bangalore.
• Train the Trainer sessions were undertaken for each subject i.e. English, Life Skills, Retail and IT and around 12 trainers were trained by the subject matter experts.
• 110 students enrolled for the program, of which 100 successfully completed the same.
Locations
• Ahmedabad, Gujarat
• Bangalore, Karnataka
Partners involved
• Saath, Ahmedabad
• Sukrupa, Bangalore
QUEST's Technical Contribution
• Exhaustive immersion in context in the vocational training space to understand challenges and gaps faced by youth, vocational training institutions and employers, was conducted across six cities in India. A competency list for required skills was developed based on the research.
• Curriculum Development on four distinct modules comprising of:
- Life Skills Module including Workplace Readiness module
- English for the Workplace
- Retail Operations specific to the Indian market
- Basic IT and computer training
• Train the trainer workshops were administered to ensure that trainers are well equipped to effectively deliver the lessons. Facilitator’s guidebooks along with student resources were developed in all four subject areas to further enhance facilitator’s preparation.
• Rigorous evaluation was carried out for validation of the developed curriculum and pedagogy
Current Status and outlook
• Creation of a blended learning model which combines digital learning tools along with a traditional classroom model
• Creation of a comprehensive facilitator development program to build capacities of teachers/facilitators in designing and facilitating learning process through apt use of technology-pedagogy integration.
