India is an abode of opportunities and a perfect place to mine new talents. Besides being a land of shining stars, unemployment is towering high and even qualified people find it tiresome to stand out from the crowd. The Covid 19 pandemic has also added fuel to the flame that resulted in a declined economic growth.
Meet the Reality
Why this fate despite having talents in abundance in India? One reason points to the rising number of students graduating annually from all kinds of academic institutions. It increases the competition and stress among the aspirants and leads to the hiring of only the best talent from the masses by the HR.
The scenario can be represented as two sides of a coin. On one side, the hiring managers struggle to shortlist the right resource from the lot. The opposite facet also requires proficient candidates. Regrettably, our complete education system gives the theoretical knowledge about the corporate field without even giving a glimpse of the practical front.
By the time candidates reach the corporate shift, they may be entirely puzzled or lack the skills to be showcased during the competition. Even though talented, the shortage of strategy to brush up the skills is the main barrier in reaching their goals.
An Idea Can Change Your Life
Ourea, a Kochi based startup ventured to solve these kinds of issues by grooming young talented minds and come up with out of the box ideas that resonate with the corporate competition.
The concept was the mastermind of Ms. Anooja Bashir, after realizing that students were not ready to face the corporate climate. This small idea was the turning point of her professional life that led to the inception of a finishing school named Ourea.
Shaping Ideas to Curriculums
Ourea revised the ideas to a program based concept called “Learning Key Employability Skills.” Abbreviated as LIKES, its goal was to groom the talented recruits and mould them to a corporate fit. It also improved and upskilled other corporate qualities of the candidates. The acquired skills would also be an asset throughout their career journey.
When LIKES was launched in 2013, the idea was severely criticized by other entrepreneurs citing lack of creativity in a startup and for exposing some shortcomings of the Indian education system.
Ms Anooja Bashir revised the curriculum relating it to the Pachatatva theory of life. It helped the candidates to develop the five key elements of professionalism and mould to a completely different personality.
Ancient Panchtatva in Modern Education
The classical concept of Panchtatva in the modern finishing school focused on transforming talents into skilled professionals by bringing the power of five elements – Earth, Fire, Air, Water and Sky.
Earth – Base – Core Technical Training (CTT)
Career without knowledge is like a house without a firm basement. Knowledge is the key and is where Ourea focussed through CTT. It gave a strong foundation to the candidates by providing the right corporate skills.
Fire – Passion – Personality Development Training (PDT)
Passion and zest are of utmost importance in achieving any goal. Ourea helped the candidates to figure out their area of interest through PDT that led to their right career decision.
Air- Smoother – Communication and Interpersonal Skills (CIS)
Proper communication is required while collaborating with new people. Ourea imparted Communication and Interpersonal Skills that instilled confidence in individuals by improving their personality.
CIS helped them crack interviews with ease. It also covered extensive training for competitive exams like IELTS, OET – Occupational English Test, Professional Speaking Training, and Communicative English.
Water – Shapeshifting – Image Reflecting Innovative Skills (IRIS)
Image Reflecting Innovative Skill Training is a newly designed concept that trained the candidates to fit into any corporate situation. Like water that takes the shape of the container, the IRIS concept taught flexibility, how to adjust in every stage of career and make correct choices.
Sky – Boundlessness – Corporate Etiquette and Management (CEM)
CEM trains the candidates and offers a better understanding of behavioural and presentation skills to stand out in the corporate crowd. It gave the corporate etiquette training like leadership skill training, assertive skill training, critical thinking skills, negotiation skills training, delegation skills training and many more.
Implementation of LIKES
The idea behind Ourea was to get talents under one roof and train them according to the corporate requirements. Later, by joining hands with Mr Vinod Chacko, – founder of FlexiCloud, Mr Naman Modi, – founder of Digitaliz; launched a 360-degree business management consultancy in Kochi which was the one-stop solution for all corporate needs like Branding, HR & Training, Digital Marketing, Web Development and other IT Services.
Recognition & Future Goals
The effort by the trio was honoured and featured by Indian Express and Women Entrepreneur Magazine for being a life-changer to many graduates and professionals.
When asked about the plans and goals, Ms Anooja replied: ” I would like to expand the Ourea concept to every company in India so that issues of unemployment and HR struggles can be waived off to a certain limit.”
