Differently-Abled Persons

We live in a country where 13 lakh persons, as per the census of 2011, are deaf and mute, compare that to the National Association for Deaf’s (NAD) number that stands at 1.8 crore*, i.e. nearly 1% of our population! 69% of our Differently-abled Persons (DAPs) reside in our villages, where lack of awareness and lack of dedicated healthcare exacerbates the situation; after basic school education, no other option or opportunity is available to them to improve their skills or to enhance their chance for employment or for self sustenance.

(*as per the Census 2011 and the National Association for the Deaf numbers are from their website)

Mentor Skills recognises the fact that Differently Abled Persons are a valuable asset and resource for the country and to that end we endeavour to provide an environment for equal opportunities for all. We provide technical and skill based educational opportunities for the integration of Differently Abled Persons with society for their individual growth and financial independence. Our skill based Technical and Non-Technical Professional Certificate programmes are also designed to give training to the differently-abled Learners. We offer them certificate courses in their chosen field of interest.

Mentor Skills is known for providing vocational and skill based training programs to the youth both in rural and urban areas since our inception. We also understand the strong need to offer these opportunities to our deaf & mute Learners. With that intent we have designed and prepared Short-Term skill-enabling courses for them to join, so they can make a space for themselves in the market, and become competent to earn a livelihood with dignity.

Mobilisation

Responsive to this state of affairs, we mobilise our teams and take the necessary steps to inform and educate the populace about the options available to them:

We conduct door-to-door canvassing of pre-identified hub spots in urban and village locales in Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh; we contact NGO’s; Govt, DAP institutes, and Schools that are in contact with Dap activities; we create, maintain, update and follow up on our own Database and reference leads; we make announcements for free skill Training at the village Panchayats; we attend the monthly general house meetings conducted by the BDO & District Officers, to apprise them of our free skill training course enrolment drive. We seek their cooperation and help in encouraging the youth to join our courses.

Hostel and transport facilities are available for our students. The hostels are located at Kharar and at Sector 70, Mohali. Girls and boys have separate hostels, with food and recreational facilities. For deaf and mute trainees there is a round-the-clock sign language expert available at the hostel.

Since job opportunity and employment avenues are limited for DEAF AND MUTE PERSONSs, there is a strong need to train them in Industry relevant job roles commensurate to their disability. To that end, Mentor Skills offers courses in job-roles that are relevant to industry requirements and can efficiently be managed by a differently abled person. It is also our endeavour to offer as many job roles/training courses as possible, so that our differently abled student/trainee, has a choice to select a relevant job role as per their interest.

Skill Based Programs available for our Differently Abled Persons

Self Employed Tailor

Business Correspondent

Spa Trainer

Domestic Data Entry Operator

Media Developer

Mobile Phone Hardware Repair Technician

Chauffeur – Taxi Driver

Draughtsman Mechanical

Along with all the above subjects our students also additionally need personality development and computer literacy programs on the side; we also have programs to train them in Basic English language and include soft skills, hygiene and grooming in all our course modules.

We help differently-abled Learners to connect with our industry partners while we continue to tap companies who can and are willing to incorporate differently abled persons into their workforce. Our HR and placement teams are constantly advocating with different companies and corporate houses about what we do to ensure that more and more companies become more receptive to hiring differently abled persons.

We regularly organise guest lectures, student counselling sessions and induction programs, to bring corporate and industry’s HR teams of to our centre, so they can first-hand experience the infrastructure and the equipment available to our students. Our centre/s provides skill based training programs for physically handicapped persons, persons with limited locomotive abilities, and also for both deaf and mute persons.

We have designated staff to help our Divyang students in every way possible. We provide help to persons with limited locomotive abilities and our deaf and mute students to meet with the visiting industry teams to understand the industry mandate and requirements. With the industry representative’s presence in the institutes’ premises, the students get an opportunity to find out about the companies and understand first-hand the job role requirements of that company.

To that end, Mentor Skills offers and designs courses in job-roles that are relevant to industry needs.