Shaloo Sharma is an experienced Consultant, Educator and a Life Skills Trainer with over 25 years of experience, most of which has been dedicated to designing and delivering programs for adults with diverse Needs, which includes persons with Neuro diversity, Autism, Intellectual Disabilities, Learning differences and/or behaviour disorders. She is the Founder of Evoluer Solutions, a consultancy that works towards promoting inclusion in mainstream work spaces.
A live wire bustling with ideas and energy, Shaloo Sharma makes an impassioned plea for constant innovation. Here are her thoughts…
The Big Picture
#voicesforinclusion-7
1) What is the difference between employability training and
vocational training?
Vocation training is training for a particular skill. It could be for employment in an open space, or a sheltered workshop/ semi sheltered workshop. Employability skills are all-encompassing, overarching skills which can be used in any work scenario, whatever be your vocation. It is about bridging the gap between a singular vocational skill training and employability. They can be called transferable skills required to make a person employable, no matter what the industry or job.
2) Who stands to benefit from this training? Are there any
parameters to be considered?
We work with adults and young adults. Our expertise is not with adults who have high support needs. We are not yet ready for adults who would need higher levels of physical and self-management support, are not ADL trained, or are physically fragile. Many adults have the potential, but either have not been provided the opportunity to actualise this potential, or are unable to list down on upgrade their skill set to actively seek employment on their own.
These adults fall through the cracks in the intersectionality of skill training and employability. What we specialise in is on offering the intersectionality tools to enable these adults to have peruse a career, earn a living and be independent, have a robust social circle and a happy and meaningful life.
3) Can you elaborate more on employability training?
Employability training comprises a myriad of skills. Self-management, social, communication,listening, speaking, problem solving, decision making, creative thinking. We work hugely on IT skills, basic computer skills, financial literacy, time management, organising and planning,independent travel. Work ethics, emotional regulation, workspace navigation, understanding hierarchy, and the feedback loop, corporate jargon, executive function, social skills, vertical career growth.
4) It's been a distinct trajectory from a degree in arts and psychology to employability training?How did this happen?
Necessity is the mother of invention. Just the need. We lean more towards the novelty of Evoluer as a finishing school, as an ivy-based organisation, open to meeting challenges and catering to the market demands. The word "special needs"; is no longer used. We are an open space, open to everyone...Walk in to learn work skills from us. Most of our teachers are not from spl ed background, but from psychology back ground , corporates or are trained life coaches. They are well travelled, aware of global trends, best practices, are ace communicators and are well aware of the requirements of the open work spaces.
5) What training does a life coach impart?
There are 10,000 things to sort out. A Life coach works on mentoring the adults to prioritise, focus, sift through things, manage relationships, finances, self-care, understanding self, strengths, weakness,areas of improvement, finances…
6) At Evoluer, you are driven by market forces for employability training. However, most centres continue to make diyas, and paper bags? What do you have to say about this?
With all due respect , most of the handmade arts and crafts like what you mentioned is a sympathy driven model. To me, sympathy is a not a very positive emotion. It does not last or sustain itself. Empathy is a fantastic thing. I stand by it. With due respect to everybody, travel around, look around you, find out what our young people need to learn. Find out about market requirements–the industry . What are some of the self-sustaining skills we need to build? Not all my students are high functioning. But by God, they are students of the future .They walk into Evoluer, carry their laptops-power banks, punch in their names, and sit to start the day’s work. In their free time, they play board games, chitchat, and make a snack for themselves in the kitchen. On days they don't want to work;they go for a walk. Everyone is doing fabulous work. They are independent, freethinking, choice-making adults. At the centre, we do virtual tours of the net, do ppts. We need to believe students will learn something from it.
I totally respect doing things by hand, as a hobby, as a recreation, but at the same time, also at least try to broaden their horizons. Making artefacts, day after day, no matter their diagnosis, or their cognitive abilities, is something we need not do as we are limiting them by our self-imposed choices. And I say this being an artist myself, I believe in the power of arts and crafts too.
7) What are our takeaways from the pandemic?
The pandemic was an eye opener. We received a directive on
16th of March 2020, to close the centre, and on the 17th we went online. After learning our
lessons, if we are not prepared for change,our students are not prepared for change, we are
missing the point. Many centres just shut down for months together. These are wake-up calls to make us realise
what is needed.
My free and open to all creative arts sessions during the pandemic was one of my more successful experiments.There were so many online programs but nothing curated specifically for our adults. Albeit a slower pace, and despite some apprehensions of how it would work online. It turned out to be a fabulous experience for everyone involved. The point is, it is our responsibility to explore and attempt new things and see how it pans out. Our focus should be to innovate constantly.
8) What are your focus areas for employability training?
We need to be abreast of the skills of the future and train our adults accordingly.Currently, we focus on the IT industry, that includes data entry, graphics, digital marketing, coding,Beta testing.
With hospitality, we train in all departments. Office administration, back-office operations, managing office space on IT and retail are some things we train our adults for. We also train our interns to be associate teachers..
9) How do you decide if a particular person fits the role?
Job mapping. If a person has some physical restrictions and movement constraints, we won’tplace them in housekeeping. We would look at alternatives, as the role has to fit the person and viceversa.
10) What is ECOS?
ECOS stands for Evoluers Contemporary Office Spaces. It is a part of Evoluer. ECOS has employed7 young neurodiverse people. We get work outsourced to us and have a full-fledged internship system. We have hired people with autism, ADHD and CP. For a small organisation like ours to have an office with a 100 percent neurodiverse crowd; my belief is a large organisation can have at least afew people.
ECOS also has a program for Neurodiverse persons from
outside Delhi NCR . we provide complete Independent Living experience. There are currently two interns from Mumbai and Bangalore. We assist with
living accommodations nearby; they commute to work; they intern with us
through the day and handle their leisure, travel, food arrangements etc by themselves. It is an experience equal to what so many young professionals who live away
from their home town experience.
11) How would you describe the mandate you hold yourself to?
I work on designing the curriculum, counselling parents, and acting as a liaison officer between Evoluer and corporates. We do sensitization training for large organisations, internships for our own students, assessments, and planning. I also work on an expressive art curriculum and conduct classes on work skills. Cleaning cupboards, servicing the printer, whatever it takes to keep us on an even keel, as she ends on a lighter note.
Thank you for giving us a refreshing perspective on employability prospects, the need to adapt and innovate continually.
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| Shaloo Sharma |
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