ENTREPRENEURSHIP SPECIAL

20th March 2017

Dear Friends,

We regularly share updates about our SMART students finding their feet in the job market, such as West-side in Hyderabad hiring 75 of our students. This story is a bit special because of three of our students who decided to try something different. Energetic, enthusiastic and enterprising – two of our SMART alumni –Poonam and Vishal, who have set up their own businesses!

Poonam completed the SMART-T course in Beauty and Wellness from the centre in Khora colony, Ghaziabad. She lost her father when she was very young, and there is only one earning member in her family of seven members. She was keen to start supporting her family but didn’t know how to until community mobilizers told her about the SMART courses. Rather than being employed in a parlour, she chose to borrow money from friends and family to rent a shop in which she has set up her own beauty salon, named ‘Rachna Beauty Parlour’ after her sister. What is heartening is her mother, Dropati, now says proudly, “I feel my daughter is equal to my son.”

Vishal Kumar, who did a course at RCED Chandigarh, has started ‘The Talent Hub’ to help others on to entrepreneurial success. His own ‘Talent Hub’ provides coaching to students from standards 1 to 8, basic computer training and a beauty salon. Not just that, from becoming employable, Vishal is now an employer himself! He has five people working under him to run his talent hub. By not waiting for jobs but making jobs for themselves, we hope that these three are setting a trend for our other SMART students. And we will definitely be watching their progress with keen interest! P.S. Vishal has promised to correct the spellings on his signboard.

Warm Regards,
Tech Mahindra Foundation