The pandemic annual years FY20 & FY21 had taught us a lot to swim through challenges and continue to achieve our mission with the available resources. In the previous years, our training continued virtually and similarly, we had reviewed the same virtually unlike our normal practice where the Head Office, State and Centre team meets physically to discuss the progress of the batches.

The agenda was to understand the Achievements, Learning and Challenges of every centre from the Centre Incharge to the State Team to present their observations of every batch monitored all throughout the year. We reviewed 4 Centres from Tiruchy Province about their supporting Partners, Employers, Beneficiaries, Alumni & Staff – all these and others hinted at the advent of the first-ever Virtual Batch Review 2022.

After a spiritual nourishment, the event started with a high note, welcoming the dignitaries and centre heads, followed by a special address delivered by Ms Antony Niveditha, Regional Manager, citing the importance of evaluating the performances of the centres and the way forward. The keynote address by Rev Bro Sagayaraj, SDB, Technical Commission Head, Tiruchy, inviting the participants to “Mark the Youth as the Centre of our Mission”.

The centre heads of Manikandam, Sivakasi, Karamadai and Utharamcode presented their review reports respectively-Achievements, Challenges and Learning Outcomes of the centres for the Financial Year 2020&2021.

Achievements – Training and placement targets accomplished, Improved the attendance percentage irrespective of limited resources, upskilled alumni in the current project have been placed with a hike of 28% salary, many trainees have grown to the next level in their career and retained in their job during this pandemic period.

Challenges- SBI project deliverables kept changing all through the prolonged training period, assessment and re-assessment process, centre and trainees have limited access to resources for attending virtual training (Ex: Smart Phones, network access, funds), cross-domain placements and low/nil migration.

Learnings: Irrespective of all the challenges faced due to Debt Recovery Agent, lessons learnt with regard to the job role and its demand in the market. Many beneficiaries are approaching the centres to get enrolled and attend training for the same. The performance of our trainers is due to close monitoring and reporting.

Feedback and clarifications were given by Ms Antony Niveditha as the Centre Heads presented their reports. Further, the State Team also presented a detailed report on each centre’s overview, MIS report, Placement and centre’s average attendance percentage for all the batches of Accenture Phase XI and SBI Projects.

The discussion of each centre, each batch, each trainer and their progress was well taken as a need of improvement. The take-home was to make a detailed study of the placements data with regard to retention, cross-domain placements and migration, to complete placements of SBI with the support of the Placement Coordinator (conduct job fairs at centres). The forum took a firm decision to gather for such a review meet frequently. Thus, the 3 hour-long, virtual batch review ended with a note of gratitude proposed by Mr Dilip, State Placement Coordinator.