Entrepreneurship is incredibly important during the student age for several reasons such as Developing Problem-Solving Skills, Building Confidence, Teaching Financial Literacy, Encouraging Innovation and Creativity, Fostering Leadership Skills, Understanding Failure and Resilience, Creating Job Opportunities, Cultivating a Growth Mind -set, Networking and Collaboration.
By fostering entrepreneurship at a young age, students not only prepare themselves for the future of work but also gain a mind-set and skillset that empowers them to take control of their own careers and potentially impact the world around them.
Shri Vithalrao Joshi Charities Trust, Dervan and Vatsalya Trust, Mumbai have jointly established an ‘NSDC and Skill India Authorised Training Centre’ at Dervan (Skill Development Centre). While Vatsalya Trust, located at Mumbai is an Authorised Training Partner of NSDC (TP ID: TP150824); NSDC (National Skill Development Corporation) is under the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE), Government of India.
SVJCT is located in Dervan, a small village situated on the Mumbai-Goa highway near the town of Chiplun (Ratnagiri District) in KONKAN, Maharashtra. The villages in KONKAN are hotspots for malnutrition with scarce or almost-nil avenues for economic progress. The region records heavy rainfall but there is scarcity of water in other seasons, most of the land is hills with rocky-strata, unsuitable for cultivation, and individual land-holdings are small. Thus, farming is not their source of income. Migration to nearby cities for menial-jobs is the main option for sustenance.
The maximum impact of these challenges is borne by women and children who stay back in the village. Adolescent girls here are devoid of balanced nutrition, physical fitness, education and hence lack basic knowledge about their own health. There are many impediments to adolescent health including inadequate level of understanding of health needs, lack of training among health care providers resulting in negative attitude towards adolescence, customs cited against adolescent girls and women, insufficient interpersonal communication skill in working with young people.
To allow society a glimpse into the unconventional lives, to bring these shadowy girls of the KONKAN villages into limelight, and to make their eccentric lives better, a scientific study i.e. DERVAN cohort was established in 2019. DERVAN cohort is an adolescent-girls cohort designed with an evolutionary outlook to unfold interactions with biological parameters in developing adult NCD.
As the cohort progressed, the lack of skilling and economic opportunities in KONKAN was evident as migration in the cohort participants became noticeable. A survey of the cohort participants then, emphasized the fact that establishing a skill development centre with short-term courses would greatly benefit these local girls who wish to become economically independent but are unable to continue expensive long-duration courses. The participants in the survey, expressed their interests for learning Tailoring and Fashion Designing, Beauty Therapy and Information Technology courses. Their need for skilling was urgent and immediate and thus, a Skill Development Centre was established and inaugurated at Dervan in April, 2023 with support from Vatsalya Trust.
Exams are conducted by Vatsalya Trust as per the norms by NSDC and the certification is from the central government agency, NSDC. Girls and young women from rural KONKAN villages join these courses, get trained and are provided certificates after theory, oral and practical exams.
To encourage, support and motivate them to join these courses, SVJCT provides Free boarding and food at minimal Rate to these Trainee.
Multiple batches have passed out after completing the courses in Beauty (Assistant Beauty Therapist); Tailoring (Self-employed tailor – basic tailoring and Tailoring and Fashion designing – advanced tailoring); General Duty Assistant and many IT courses. Overall, >260 students have passed out. Utilising the skills acquired, many of them are either self-employed or have found employment opportunities, while a few of them continue their education while earning on a part-time basis.
Shri Vithalrao Joshi Charities Trust focuses on the overall and holistic development of the children in the school. The School has a library, playground, ATAL Tinkering Lab, and a Space lab that ensures the curricular progress of the students. To develop co-curricular and different creative skills, the school organizes an 'Art and Craft' workshop every year in June. Experts from different fields are invited to the school to share their expertise with the students. They learn skills like painting, candle making, soap making, utane making and so on.
SVJCT has established A fully equipped nutrition lab to develop nutritious products.
There are more than 10 bakery items designed in the bakery having low sugar, zero maida with no gluten but rich in ragi, calcium and proteins
Girls are getting an employment opportunity here and are empowered to manufacture the products as well.
These products are gradually replacing the junk foods which only provides empty calories.
