[GKD] Project Trains Women in Computer Skills (India)

[Mridula]

Prof. K.V.Sane of IIT, New Delhi has been at the forefront of a very
innovative project being run in the bye-lanes of New Delhi. Termed as  -
SITA - this project has trained almost 450 women in computer skills.

During its two year operation, SITA has recorded many achievemnts like
development of a multilingual Resource Package, design of a
user-friendly training strategy, and using the Package and the strategy
to train nearly 450 women from a disadvantaged background.

One of SITA's pleasant experience was the ability of most of the
trainees to pick up computer skills in spite of limited educational
background and poor communication ability, particularly in English.
However this did not prevent them from doing satisfactory work of
diverse types like data entry, word processing, DTP, etc. They have also
processed manuscripts in English, Hindi, Punjabi and texts involving
scientific and mathematical symbols for books, newletters, journals,
Conference Proceedings etc. All this work has been received from
international sources and samples can be sent for inspection. For
details please visit www.kcetu.org and www.sitaa.org .

Another pleasant experience was the highly encouraging response from the
international community  through awards and invitations to showcase the
project.

A surprising and disappointing experience was the poor response of the
job market to the project trainees. The inability of a majority of
trainees to find jobs shows that good training by itself does not serve
the needs of the individuals from the disadvantaged sector. If SITA type
of efforts are to survive and grow, identification and implementation of
income generating schemes must be given the highest priority.

It is here where I seek the views and experiences of the GKD group - on
how and where we can improve upon this project. Here the skill are
available - but the next step on the ladder is not accessible. How can
they be taught the marketing skills needed to market their earlier
skills - without draining their alreadt meagre resources. Where can we
find the org. or groups who will be willing to give them the jobs based
on their computer skills - without paying too much emphasis to their
lack of communication skills.


Mridula Murgai




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Re: [GKD] Project Trains Women in Computer Skills (India)

[John Lawrence]

Mridula, thank you for this update on the INFODEV-supported SITA and
MitraMandal, around which you raise crucial questions of job placement
for project trainees. As I'm sure you know, the relationship between
training and presumed 'jobs' that hypothetically await successful
trainees has always been one of the most vexed and difficult problems
facing program designers/evaluators, and is by no means limited to
India, or even to these kinds of approaches or communities. I think the
issue is broadly at the base of all 'human resources development'
strategies ( the subject of the forthcoming ECOSOC 2002 High Level
Segment), and symbolic of major shortcomings in HRD policy and practice.
Assumptions under which public training programs are usually themselves
'marketed' include statements about increased job-skills, without
specifying how those job-skills are identified, or defined, or even if
they are empirical (i.e. derived directly from the contextual
'job-market' which trainees will face). Yet outcome measures usually
include measures of 'placement', again usually short-term without regard
to how long or how successfully the job-entrant does over time. Western
literature (including western 'expert' studies of worldwide HRD
vocational education and training programs) is replete with evidence
that those who successfully complete training programs either have
difficulty finding jobs, or find them in very different areas from those
in which they were trained. So I suggest this is not just a problem for
SITA trainees, but raises much broader questions. Many countries today
are full of high school, even university graduates who are unable to
find jobs commensurate with their expectations or perceived skills
levels.

The work that SITA has done is groundbreaking and has surely brought
hope and gratification to its 400+ women who have completed the
training. Just bringing the IT world closer to life of poorer Indian
communities may be seen as a benefit in itself, though scant reward for
those who want the training to lead to tangible improvements personally
in their own livelihoods.

The SITA webpage states that each trainee was given a Certificate and
assistance in getting employment. I am curious to ask what kind of
assistance that was, and to what extent it was based on actual
(empirically supported) knowledge of employment opportunities in
communities where the trainees lived, their own aspirations/expectations
regarding 'job' pursuit, and  the expectations of those who would employ
the succesful trainees.

Is there any possibility that the training for these women could lead to
(parttime?) employment in some way as outreach workers (analagous to
community  health assistants) serving as official links between
government (state and local) and local communities as frontline liaison
persons? Or could they become themselves basic trainers in their own
communities regarding introduction of IT into these communities? Im not
sure of precedents for this, but perhaps others on this network can
identify some?





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