“The Future belongs to those who Learn more Skills and Combine them in a more Creative Ways.”
- Robert Greene
The Symbiosis Centre for Skill Development aims to skill and empowers youth and other stakeholders with right knowledge, aptitude and applied skills. This Multi-Skill Development Centre aims to bridge the gap between industry and academia, develop specific skills of a high order to make our students employable with diverse knowledge and applied skills.
The Centre for Skill Development aims to skill the young minds, both in domain specific skills and soft skills. The interactive sessions organised by the Centre in collaboration with industry experts, soft skill and corporate trainers and academicians have been instrumental in inculcating various skills like soft skills, technical skills, hospitality, marketing, event, management to mention few.
The Centre for Skill Development through its application based pedagogy, industry exposure, lab sessions, live case studies and industrial visits tries to address the industry specific trends. In the changing world Scenario with regard to industry and job market where there is now an overpowering need for skilled professionals , Skill Centre is providing a platform for learning new skills through its courses and other interactive sessions and equips students for successful corporate life.
Skilling Outcomes:
Certificate Courses offered by the Centre: (Online and Offline Sessions)
A Certificate Course has 3 credits and the Students will be awarded with Course Completion Certificate on Successful Completion of Course.
College offers 2 credits life Skill courses under UGC Quality Mandate
Guest lectures and Workshops (Online and Offline Sessions)
The Guest lectures and workshops are organised on a regular basis ,these sessions aim at bringing together industry experts, Corporate Trainers, Professionals, Academia, Students onto one Platform to deliberate on issues’ related to skilling today’s youth, addressing skill gaps, enhancing employability and suggesting measures to transform the Skilling landscape in Higher Educational Institutions.
Industry Mentoring and Readiness Sessions(Online and Offline Sessions)
The centre also organises industry Mentoring and readiness sessions by well known Industry experts and corporate trainers.Industry Mentors discusses the Sector Specific skills ,real life events ,Case Studies, Simulations. The student are made aware of the recent trends in the job market.
Financial Literacy sessions: (Online and Offline Sessions)
The Centre organises financial awareness sessions on basic aspects of banking, financial planning , personal financial management, budgeting, and investing. The sessions throw light on the widely-used term ‘Financial Literacy’ and the importance of it in everyday life. Effective presentations and real life examples are used to explain various banking concepts to the students.
International Skill Convention( Online and Offline mode)
The Symbiosis Centre for Skill Development organizes Skill convention/conclave two days much awaited Flagship event for Industry and academia. The Convention deliberates on Contemporary issues relating to skilling India,transforming Skilling landscape and enhancing employability etc.During 2020-21 skill Convention received a huge response of 568 student participants from India and abroad.
Learning Outcomes of the Skill Activities:
Name of Department / Association: Symbiosis Centre for Skill Development
Head of the Department / Association: Dr. Neelofar Raina
Members of Department/Association: Prof. Anil Adagle, Dr.Jini Jacob ,Dr.Zakira Sheikh,Dr.Shweta Kapoor
Skill coordinator-Ms.Supriya Patil
The Centre for Skill Development through its online Skill based courses, interactive training sessions by industry experts trained the young minds to be business leaders of tomorrow. The Mentoring and industry readiness sessions conducted by Professionals gave new insights into the sector specific skills and equipped them with critical ,analytical and industry specific skills.The online Sessions received huge response from students and it was an enriching experience for all student participants.
1. Certificate courses organized by the Centre :
In the Academic Year 2020-21, the Centre has conducted 8 Certificate Courses.
| Name of the Course | Campus to Corporate Batch |
| Faculty/Industry experts | Mrs. Antara Bhadury |
| Beneficiaries | 44 |
| Name of the Course | U- Spark Batch |
| Faculty/Industry experts | Mrs. Jyoti Kapal & Mrs. Saryu Sahajpal |
| Beneficiaries | 40 |
| Name of the Course | Digital Marketing |
| Faculty/Industry experts | Mr. Shirish Dandekar |
| Beneficiaries | 25 |
| Name of the Course | Negotiation Skills |
| Faculty/Industry experts | Mr. Kingshuk Bhadury |
| Beneficiaries | 52 |
| Name of the Course | Smart Investor Programme |
| Faculty/Industry experts | Prof. Monica Parikh |
| Beneficiaries | 36 |
| Name of the Course | Effective Communcation Skills |
| Faculty/Industry experts | Prof. Subarna Bhattacharya |
| Beneficiaries | 31 |
| Name of the Course | Microsoft Excel |
| Faculty/Industry experts | Dr. Tessy Thadathil& Mr.Akshay Magare |
| Beneficiaries | 63 |
| Name of the Course | Professional Retail Banking Skills |
| Faculty/Industry experts | Mrs. Antara Bhadury |
| Beneficiaries | 12 |
2 Financial Literacy Sessions
Date:22nd to 26th February 2021
Participants: 86 Student Beneficiaries
The Centre for Skill Development and Departments of Economics & Banking had organized online training sessions on ‘Financial Literacy/Awareness’ funded by RUSA 2 held over a period of five days, commencing from 22nd of February to 26h February 2021 The Speaker for the event was Mr. Kanchan Kulkarni, ex-regional head (Maharashtra state), ICICI Bank Ltd. The Speaker highlighted the need to have financial awareness and basic banking and investment knowledge for a timely and better financial planning for an individual. The speaker introduced the nowadays widely used term ‘Financial Literacy’ and the importance of it and explained to participants Asset products of the banks. He explained the difference between fund-based credit facilities and non-fund based credit facilities. The Speaker also threw light on ‘Digital Financial Literacy’. He discussed the multifaceted opportunities that online and mobile banking has brought to the modern-day society
3.International Skill Convention
Dates:17th and 18th of February ,2021
Participants:568 Student Beneficiaries
The two-day International Skill Convention organized by the Centre for Skill Development under the Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA) aims to provide the students valuable insights in professional and interpersonal skills.
The Symbiosis College of Arts and Commerce under the Symbiosis Skill Center and Development organized the International Skill Convention on February 17, 2021& February 18, 2021 The two-day convention had a total of Eight dignitaries and 568 Student participants from various colleges.
The event was inaugurated by Shri Pankaj Kumar, IAS, Project Director RUSA. He is also associated with Government of Higher and Technical Education under Govt. of Maharashtra. He has also been the Development Commissioner of Mumbai and the executive director of Maharashtra State faculty Development Academy.
The Following Speakers addressed to various issues concerning professional and interpersonal Skills
1 Mr. Pratush Bhaskar, BFSI Expert : A Lifeskill called Financial Planning
Mr. Pratyush Bhaskar works in news story writing for Special Stories aired in News 24 Family. He stressed on the importance of financial planning and the need for it. ‘Money doesn’t buy happiness, money buys choices. It is what you do with those choices that makes you happy’. It is very important how we manage our money. Financial well-being is an important factor for happiness, health and peace. Return on investment is the most important element in financial planning. It is having adequate money to take care of your needs. There are three important considerations for any product: Returns, Safety and Liquidity.
2 Mr. Shagata Mukherjee, Behavioral Economics : Behavioral Skills & Decision Making.
Mr. Shagata Mukherjee spoke about behavioral science and skills. He said that humans have two systems, one automatic, which is a more relaxed one and reflective, which is more poised. We cannot belong to only one system; we are a blend of both. He further explained about heuristics, which is the rule of thumb, saying it might be helpful but there's no guarantee because it's more like a mental shortcut. He highlighted the topic with various types of heuristics such as anchoring, availability, optimism and overconfidence. He even casted light upon the problem of self-control that many people face saying it can be illuminated by planner-doer model, planner is someone far sighted where as doer cares about immediate future.
3 Ms. Rupali Patil, Social Impact Consultant- Social Sector Impact:The Soul & Technique
Ms.Rupali Patil spoke about the importance of choosing a career that we really want to pursue and that interests us. Taking up a career only because that is what everyone is doing tires us mentally and physically. She focused on asking we the question ‘WHY’ when choosing a specific career. Once we get the answer to this, our journey becomes interesting and satisfying. She stressed on the importance of finding the true calling of life, what is our passion and how do we want to achieve our goals. The Speaker spoke about the options or the career opportunities available in the Social Impact Sector.
4 Mr. Tapan Mody, Copywriter, Creative Director & Career Coach - Unschooling - The School of Application
The founder of the Yes Why Not, recipient of various awards Mr. Tapan Mody, drew attention towards how temples of information should be armed with applicability to achieve success. The speaker drew a comparison of student life to a tree and focused on how schooling and unschooling is important where schooling is the temple of information and unschooling is the temple of application. The more information we acquire the more we should be able to apply and further sow the seeds for the future generation for them to savor the fruits of education.
5.MR. ADITYA AGARWAL: Unfolding obstacles to take a leap forward.
The current pandemic has made us realize that nothing is in our control except our body and health. This pandemic has hit the lower strata of the society very harshly. The Speaker threw light on the fact that even today post the pandemic there are ample opportunities available in the market. We must focus on our duty to sharpen and harness our inter-personal skills and go out and explore more. One of the most important questions asked by the students was, ‘Should we go for further studies or a job post the graduation?’ In the speaker’s opinion, students should go for jobs as education can be done within any time frame, however good opportunities cannot. The speaker stressed on the importance of humility in life.
6.MS MITHA SENGUPTA: Not Just IQ and EQ, but LQ
The speaker spoke about IQ, EQ and LQ.The speaker mentioned that human intelligence is very complex. People aware with their emotional quotient tend to be a good listener. She shared some of her career experiences and talked about her journey. She believes that there should be balance between our IQ and EQ. but along with that LQ- learning quotient, is the important one in today’s world. That one should grow, adapt and evolve according to the changing world. We should always walk side by side the digital world.
7.MS. SARYU SAHAJPAL : Accountability and Ownership
The session started with Ms. Saryu Sahajpal asking the participants about the two main words relevant to the session OWNERSHIP and ACCOUNTABILITY. After that she briefly defined the two words mentioning how we expect only good things happening to us and start questioning everything around when something bad happens to us. The Speaker showed the participants a short but very beautiful and meaningful video that focused on how taking responsibility and team work can solve problems. The Speaker focused on the sentence- “Life is only 10% of what happens and 90% of how we react to it.”
8.MS. URVASHI PRASAD: Relevance of skills in Higher education
The Speaker is Public Policy Specialist NITI AYOG for transforming India and has Co-authored India’s first national review resented at the united nations in 2017 Mentioning that only 2.4 percent of the labour work force has received vocational/formal training, much lesser than that of china, US, japan and south Korea. India needs to bridge the gap between the education system and employability through skilling.
There is a need of much more quality skilling and training. Various skills and initiatives have been taken including Polytechnics, courses, recognition of prior learning, bridge-training short-term training such PMKVY look to build in greater participation of states have a much more demand driven model for skill. We have a long way to go as far as the implementation is concerned. Speaker stressed on Meaningful skilling and reskilling senior citizens and specially abled to engage them in the economy.
4.Training program and Workshops
A)DIGITAL ETIQUETTES- CREATING WOWS USING TECHNOLOGY
Trainer- Mrs. Antara Bhadury.
Date:5th March, 2021
Participants:28
The Trainer was Ms. Antara Bhadury,BFSI Specialist and Corporate Trainer. Industry experet explained that people always expect to seek some of your time when they meet you and your attention is needed. She also spoke about composure to bounce back from the goof ups and how to keep away the distractions and check the set up before entering an online interaction. She also explained the importance of networking and formatting an email, checking the grammar, proofreading before hitting send are very essential skills in today’s world and thus, ma’am explained those in a detailed manner.
B) CERTAINTY ABOUT UNCERTAINTY
Trainer: Dr. Soman Hrishikesh M
Date: 5thMarch, 2021
Participants:25
The Trainer for above workshop was Dr. Soman Hrishikesh M., Principal ,Symbiosis College of Arts and Commerce .The purpose of this workshop was to build a positive attitude among students which is required for making crucial decisions in various uncertain situations of life.He also mentioned the importance of a risk factor involved in making decisions related to one's career. His learning also consisted of how uncertainties can turn out to be exciting if one`s have an optimistic attitude towards them. Overall , students had a good and enriching learning experience.
C)HOW TO WRITE A GOOD RESEARCH PAPER
Trainer: Dr. Shirish Limaye
Date: 6th March, 2021
Participants:40
The Trainer for this workshop was Dr. Shirish Limaye, Retired Professor. The aim of the workshop was to give a general idea on writing a research paper to Master of Arts students which is needed for various projects and building a resume.The workshop also consisted of various common errors that students tend to make while researching. Informative tips and suggestions were given on ways to choose a good topic for the dissertation and how vital it is to take relevant information from credible sources.
D) AKSHAYPATRA- THE STOCK MARKET TRAINING YANTRA
Trainer :Mr. Purv Shah
Date: 6th March, 2021
Participants:50
The Trainer for this workshop was Mr.Purv Shah Stock market Specialist.The session was three hours long and was quite interactive with students asking a whole range of questions to Mr. Purv Shah. The topics discussed included Investing, Stocks, Debentures and much more. The session was further illuminated by Mr. Purv Shah’s openness to answer each and every question but more importantly his easily relatable examples which helped the students to comprehend the topic at hand easily and clearly.
5.Industry Readiness and Mentoring Sessions (15 Hours Training program)
Date:24th Feburary-9th of March 2021
The Following Industry readiness and Mentoring Sessions were organized by Centre for Skill Development under RUSA 2.0.52 Students participated and Successfully completed 15 hours of mentoring Sessions for each sector. The Mentoring Sessions Focused mainly on Honing sector specific and Professional Skills.
1 RETAIL SECTOR
Participants: Nine Beneficiaries
2 BANKING SECTOR
Participants: Eleven beneficiaries
3 TELECOM SECTOR
Participants: Nine Beneficiaries
4 STATISTICAL TOOLS FOR DATA ANALYSIS
Participants: Eleven Beneficiaries
5 SKILL BASED TRAINING ON PYTHON PROGRAMMING
Participants: Twelve Beneficiaries’
TRAINING ON FINANCIAL LITERACY/AWARENESS
With Mr. Kanchan Kulkarni
Organized by:
SYMBIOSIS CENTRE FOR SKILL DEVELOPMENT
The Centre for Skill Development organized an online training session on ‘Financial Literacy/Awareness’ funded by RUSA 2.0 held over a period of five days, commencing from 22 of February to 25 February, 2021. The programme was inaugurated by Dr. Hrishikesh Soman, Principal, Symbiosis College of Arts and Commerce, presided by professors Dr. Sheena Matthews and Dr. Neelofar Raina. The Speaker for the event was Mr. Kanchan Kulkarni, ex-regional head (Maharashtra state), ICICI Bank Ltd.
DAY 1 : FINANCIAL COMPETENCIES
The session started with Mr. Kulkarni highlighting the need to have financial awareness and basic banking and investment knowledge for a timely and better financial planning for an individual. The speaker introduced the nowadays widely-used term ‘Financial Literacy’ and the importance of it. The speaker used powerpoint presentations and real life examples to explain various banking concepts to the students. Financial literacy is the ability to understand and effectively use various financial skills, including personal financial management, budgeting, and investing. Financial planning can be seen to have increased importance due to reasons like - disintegration of joint families, increased disposable incomes and especially, the uncertainties to life. Some fundamentals to financial planning as discussed in the session are – regular saving, regular investing, inflation, saving taxes, risk coverage, returns, risk Vs return trade-off. Diversification of investments is a very crucial element in financial planning. The six broad areas for diversification: Bank RDs/FDs, bonds, mutual funds, gold, real estate, equity/share market were briefly discussed.
The session was followed by a Q & A round where the students very enthusiastically put forward their queries to the speaker who welcomed all the questions.
DAY 2 : BASIC BANKING
The objective of the second day was to inculcate a basic understanding and the functioning of banks.
The speaker began with the meaning and structure of “Banking”. He threw light on the various broad functions of a bank in the modern era. He went on to explain the structure of Indian Banks : the various kinds of commercial and cooperative banks. Next, he went on to help the students understand the balance sheets of Banks. He went through the various sections on the Balance sheet and even gave insights as to why the numbers changed.
The speaker explained the liability products of banks. In this section, he explained the various liabilities that a bank possesses. The Know Your Customer (KYC) guidelines set by RBI and the documents needed to set up a Deposit Account were very well explained through him. He gave a detailed analysis of the various types of deposits which can be created in the bank and the basic difference between each of them. There were additional sections that were left to be discussed on the topic of Banking but due to time constraints, it was decided that it would be covered the next day.
DAY 3 : BASIC BANKING [CONTINUED]
The objective of the third session was to continue and wrap up with the major portion of the program on the basic aspects of banking. It began with a short review of the different liability products- cheques and endorsements within the banks, that were shared on the previous day. Subsequently, he moved onto the next segment- Asset products of the banks. He explained the difference between fund based credit facilities and non-fund based credit facilities. The speaker concluded the session with a video on ‘Smart Vault, a completely novel robotic system that could be used by banks to manage safe deposit vaults more securely. This left students with a lead on one of the future topics of discussion -Tech innovations In the Banking Industry.
DAY 4 : TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATIONS IN BANKING
As the name suggests, this session threw light on ‘Digital Financial Literacy’. He discussed the multifaceted opportunities that online and mobile banking has brought to the modern day society while also discussing in detail the ‘Do’s and Don’ts’ of online transactions. From using credible websites to frequently changing the password, the speaker discussed various key pointers to make the process of electronic banking a safe one. He also did the same for ATM transactions. Furthermore, he explained the various procedures to be undertaken in the case of a fraudulent transaction.
Lastly, he discussed the very crucial concept of consumer protection and the importance of being aware of it. In this section, the speaker often reminded the students that even banks are also a profit driven institution. It is completely normal for them to promote products that one may not necessarily need. It is up to the consumer to determine what they need and protect themselves from unnecessary charges. He also explained ways to look out for shady financial products and ensure credibility.
DAY 5 : SOCIAL SECURITY SCHEMES :
The speaker began with a discussion on the very interesting of crypto-currency. He explained the concept of crypto-currency: its purpose, functions, technicalities and its status in India today. Being a topic of ongoing discussion in the world today, it piqued the students interest and made for an engaging segment. Next, the speaker continued by discussing mutual funds in great detail as the term was only briefly introduced to the students on the fourth day.
Lastly, the speaker moved onto his final segment on ‘Social Security Schemes.’ This section tied together many of the previously discussed content as it outlined how financial services could be attained even when one is in poverty. He went through the major schemes offered to Indian citizens: its criteria and benefits. The speaker explained the types of demographics, breaking apart the common misconceptions of financial services, only being for the rich. He also quickly ran through the concept of self help groups and its vast benefits to the society.