With the increasing number of silai schools across India, the USHA Silai School program required more quality trainers, hence came up with the concept of Master Trainers.
These village level Master Trainers are from amongst the women who have received training. Not only has this helped meet the ever increasing demand for training, it has also provided additional earning opportunities for the master trainers themselves. Being a part of the community, the Master Trainers are also best placed to provide training in the local language & connect well and bring out the best in their trainees.
Master trainers have been selected from the existing Silai school teachers themselves to give them an additional opportunity to earn more. Master trainers are the ones who have shown excellent sewing competency and are more mobile and willing to travel and are also willing to help more women in other villages to learn how to stitch and sew.
This initiative covers many aspects, like additional opportunity creation for women entrepreneurs, additional earning source for silai heros, the creation of a pool of regional sewing trainers, the development of an advanced-skilled workforce as master trainers, who are also role models in their communities.
With more than 8 lakh trained women, or silai heroes, choosing who will become a Master Trainer is eventually decided by a selection process involving three aspects - Technical competencies like measurement skills, drafting, cutting and paper pattern making skills; Behavioral competencies like listening skills, ability to handle questions and learners, maintaining time and discipline; and an interview with the USHA Silai School team.
Kushalta Ke Kadam, an initiative by NDTV and USHA, aims at empowering women from rural India and encourages them to become entrepreneurs by taking up sewing and training others in their respective communities. Since 2011 Usha Silai Campaign has trained more than 3.95 lakh rural women within five years, with 17,000 Silai schools, spanning over 9272 Indian villages in India.
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