Our stories converging in Chandigarh for one CSC mission
On March 2nd and 3rd, we had our official Corporate Service Corps (CSC) kick-off event. I was filled with excitement to finally be starting the assignment I had accepted back in October. Memories from my Peace Corps pre-staging event also came flooding back to me from 12 years before and put me at ease.
The first day was organized for our internal IBM team and began by each of us presenting “our story.” We had 20 minutes to prepare our reflections and then 5 minutes to present to the broader team. We were asked to share about what led us to this point, our motivations for CSC in the context of our story, and what we hoped to take away from this journey.
It was a fun and inspirational way to get to know each other on a deeper level, both personally and professionally and connect us all to our mission here in Chandigarh. There were flipcharts, pictures, props, and poems presented, showing the creativity and imagination of my peers. I felt proud to be part of this India 42 group of awesome IBMers here to make a difference.
We also spent the day learning key Hindi phrases and more about the culture and diversity of the country. Punjab, the state Chandigarh is located, is a Sikhism community. Sikhism is a religion that originated in the Punjab region and is grounded in faith and meditation, equality of all humankind, and engaging in selfless service. It emphasizes the connection between spiritual development and everyday moral conduct.
Sikhs also wear dastaars, an item of headware that is an important part of the culture representing honor, self-respect, courage, spirituality and devotion. After living here for a few weeks now, I must say they are also quite fashionable! Check out the picture I snapped yesterday of this gentleman at the local starbucks.
We also learned some stats to help put into perspective the vast country we are in: India has the world’s largest democracy; the 2nd largest population; and 4th largest population.
We learned that in India there are 720 dialects, 22 major languages, countless festivals (one of which we will experience in March … Holi, festival of colors!), many traditional dances and diverse cuisine. In Punjab the cuisine is quite spicy and I am loving the delicious dishes.
On Day 2, our host partners joined us where they gave presentations of their organizations and the teams broke off to discuss our respective scopes of work. The 18 of us are divided into teams working across 4 different host organizations including Regional Centre for Entrepreneurship Development, Society for Service to Voluntary Agencies (SOSVA), Don Bosco Navjeevan Society, and National Institute of Technical Teachers Training and Research (NITTTR). All teams are working in the Education & Skills sector.
Our host organization, NITTTR, was not able to attend because it was a government holiday so my sub-team spent that time planning our strategy for the days ahead. Things needed to move quickly as we were charged with shaping our project and finalizing the statement of work by end of week.
The day was extremely insightful as we also learned more about the skills landscape in India and key challenges the country is facing. One major challenge is university students are not necessarily graduating with the skills they need to go into the working world. They have the knowledge but lack practical application. Ensuring that education is aligned with industry’s fast changing requirements is critical.
“India is caught by both a skill gap and a higher education sector struggling to keep up. That is why it is critical to take proactive measures to transform the higher education system to create a new model that better aligns with industry imperatives.”
There are also lots of government initiatives (e.g., Startup India, Skill India) as skills and entrepreneurship is a priority for the government to try and develop the skills of its workforce in new and different ways. With of 70% of India’s population under 35 years, there is huge untapped potential.
We would take all of this context with us as we geared up for our first day with our client. Stay tuned to find out how we shaped our engagement and ended up working on something radically different than what IBM was initially asked to do!
