The Salesian project provided guidance to help youth discover their aptitude and interests, and explore career options for a successful future.

NEW ROCHELLE, NY (Sept. 12, 2019) Don Bosco Vazhikaatti Educational and Charitable Society, which operates in 50 schools in five districts of Tamil Nadu, India, launched a new project to provide career counseling and job placement services to poor students thanks to funding through Salesian Missions, the U.S. development arm of the Salesians of Don Bosco.

Children in some areas of India are historically poor and illiterate. Most are unaware that they can choose careers and improve their place in society. Many drop out of school to work and help support their families. This project provides guidance to help them discover their aptitude and interests, and explore career options for their successful future. Supportive services through the project also help youth develop a positive self-view, confidence and motivation to succeed.

The funding is supporting ongoing staffing for the project, including counselors and facilitators in the five districts, along with biannual career fairs. In addition, a vehicle was outfitted with audiovisual capability to bring regular career guidance awareness programs to schools in remote areas that do not have proper classrooms or facilities.

“Salesian missionaries are working hard to ensure that youth have the training and support in order to gain an education and connect to employment after graduation,” says Father Mark Hyde, director of Salesian Missions. “Sometimes youth are unmotivated because they don’t know all that is available to them to help them succeed. They are unable to see beyond their own circumstances. This project helps to show youth all that is available to them and encourages them to tap into their passions.”

Similar programs have been successful in a number of schools in other districts because they work to increase the interaction among students, parents, teachers and counselors.

Salesian programs across India are primarily focused on education. Salesian primary and secondary education in the country helps youth prepare for later technical, vocational or university study. Other programs help to support poor youth and their families by meeting the basic needs of shelter, proper nutrition and medical care.

Access to professional training and workforce development services is highly valued by youth in India. The country, which is home to 1.34 billion people (18 percent of the world’s population), will have overtaken China as the world’s most populous country by 2024, according to the World Economic Forum. While India has the world’s largest youth population, it has yet to capitalize on this, leaving some 30 percent of this population without employment, education or training.

India has the world’s fourth-largest economy but more than 22 percent of the country lives in poverty. About 31 percent of the world’s multidimensionally poor children live in India, according to a new report by the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative. A multidimensionally poor child is one who lacks at least one-third of 10 indicators, grouped into three dimensions of poverty: health, education and standard of living.

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