A youth skilling centre in Vijayawada
Rural youth, deprived women and school dropouts have found this Rotaract project manna from heaven as Rotaractors at RAC PSCMR College of Engineering and Technology (PSCMRCET), Vijayawada, RID 3020, are creating awareness on the new Vocational Training Centre they have started in September 2024 with the support of Rotarians.
Project R² Connect is focused on empowering youth and rural women through a month-long training in a clutch of IT and non-IT applications “that are designed to the specific needs of the market and the industries. “Till now we have placed 50 successful candidates including 22 women at different companies in Vijayawada after they had undergone training that varied from two weeks to a month,” says Asrith Bharadwaj, immediate past president of RAC PSCMRCET.
Before the launch of R² Connect, they promoted the training centre through a massive social media campaign on platforms like Instagram, WhatsApp and followed by the word of mouth. “Out of 400 applications we got for the first batch of training, we selected only 50 candidates after careful vetting, and all of them were placed in corporate jobs,” he says.
While their parent Rotary, RC Vijayawada Midtown, is paying the monthly rent of ₹25,000 for the first-floor premises of the single storey building, “we avail the free teaching services of 12 professionals who train our students. We are thankful to them as they are offering a free service of skilling youth for a remunerative career.”
A wide range of industry-specific courses are being taught at the vocational centre, such as tailoring (garments), Tally accounting and Excel spreadsheet (offices), IT coding like Java Script, Python for IT firms, and VLSI (very large scale integrated) assembling of computer motherboards in IT hardware firms.
While inaugurating the vocational centre, IDPG Venkateswara Rao complimented the Rotaractors and Rotarians of Vijayawada for the “empowerment courses and training as this skilling will create jobs for the rural youth and ensure their livelihood.” He assured RID 3020’s support for this vocational training project and urged the Rotaractors to “continue the skilling programme in the coming years as it is a boon for the rural, less privileged families.” RC Vijayawada Midtown’s immediate past president Gudapati Kishore and its vocational services then director Karambir Kaur were also present.
Medical camps
During the nine-day Dussehra festival (2024) at the Indrakeeladri hill temple dedicated to Goddess Durga in Vijayawada, “we screened around 4,000 devotees at three medical camps for chronic diseases like BP, sugar, joint pain etc. Medicines were given after consultations.” The Rotaract volunteers gave buttermilk to pilgrims visiting the temple, while the physically-challenged were helped to have darshan of the presiding deity.
Recalling his four-year stint in Rotaract as a “fantastic journey of being groomed in leadership and communication skills, apart from overcoming stage fear while addressing a huge gathering at Rotary or public events,” Bharadwaj, the final-year ECE student, points out he had formed his own network of Rotary-Rotaract friends “which will enable me to carve out a lucrative career.”
The 15-year-old Rotaract club at this technical college has 21 active members, with 100 volunteers, “non-members who take part and help us in our service projects.”
After exiting from the college, Bharadwaj will join a community-based RAC Vijayawada Sena, a two-month-old club for which he is an advisor now. Though chartered in April this year, “we inaugurated the club in June only, sponsored by RC Vijayawada Midtown.” He was chosen as RID 3020’s professional services director for the new year, and “in this new role I will make R² Connect a district project so that all Rotaract clubs take up this skilling initiative on a massive scale.”
At 20, he wants to continue his Rotaract journey for the next 12 years, “and then I will join my parent Rotary,” he smiles.
