Work and education

In ‘Empowering People with Disabilities through Creativity and Skill Development,’ Vidhya V shares the learnings from the process of running a Multimedia and Animation Training Centre for the differently abled.

A. R. Vasavi shares the experiences of running an integrated learning program for rural youth in Karnataka, which tries to reorient them towards the possibilities of land-based livelihoods, and build their self-respect and connectedness relating to their communities through place-based education and social transformative learning.

The ‘Ground Zero’ piece discusses the work of three organizations from across the country (from Udaipur in Rajasthan, Kutch in Gujarat and Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh) that are pioneering innovative approaches linking work and learning. The work of these CSOs gives us hope that work can indeed become an important pedagogic tool for facilitating learning, especially of those belonging to marginalized communities.

In her article titled ‘An Inclusive and Effective Higher Education,’ discusses the learnings from a field intervention that addresses the learning needs of underserved communities through a flexible, self-paced, peer-driven model that also makes the learners job-ready.

In their article, foreground the need for non-destructive modes of careers. They share insights about how it is possible to train oneself in livelihoods that can sustain our souls and regenerate the planet by training in what they call ‘Alivelihoods’ through apprenticeships, project-based work, and peer learning.

The present issue of Samuhik Pahal focuses on the topic of ‘Work and Education.’ Instead of focusing on how the brave new world of work, which is shifting its contours on an almost everyday basis, is changing our systems of education, we choose to focus here on work itself as a mode of learning. In this issue we also share with you, innovations in learning strategies that are showing us ways of ‘learning to learn’ and of ‘being and working,’ which promise to help us take care for ourselves and of the places we inhabit.