Location: Mashobra Block, Shimla, Himachal Pradesh

Duration: 3 months

Reimbursements: All expenses related to transport and design material will be reimbursed.

About Organization                   

National Skills Foundation of India (NSFI) is a not-for-profit organization focused on the objective of skill building and development of vocational opportunities for India’s large workforce.

NSFI is realizing its mission towards enabling sustainable livelihoods through trainings of unskilled / semi-skilled workers, rural youth, farmers, and women entrepreneurs and action research in the domains of agriculture supply & value chains, markets, and skills, and through across the nation with the objective of providing them access to growth sectors in formal labour markets. NSFI (net)works with national and international agencies in Public Sector, and Civil Society Domains.

Purpose: Taking forward the efforts of NSFI in building Pine Needle Handicrafts based enterprises led by women in Junga, Himachal Pradesh and to provide support in designing and creation of a new range of products.

Responsibilities:

• Understanding of pine needle weaving and how it is done
• Understanding market demands and trends for pine needle products
• Improve designs of existing products
• Create new produce prototypes
• Train the master trainers/women entrepreneurs in various new designs.
• Help develop a new / innovative collection of handicrafts with our women entrepreneurs

Skill & Competencies

• Have an eye for color and shape and be able to translate requirements into practical product features.
• Be creative and have the ability to think out of the box to develop new products
• Knowledge of handicrafts markets to help understand market demands and make products that sell.
• Willing to work closely with women in rural Himachal Pradesh to develop new designs

Application Process

Eligibility candidates interested in the position are requested to send their resumes with a cover letter to info@nsfindia.org and CC to amina@nsfindia.org

All mails must have the following Subject line: Application for product design volunteer for pine needle handicrafts

Interested candidates are requested to apply. Only shortlisted candidate will be called for further discussion.

Skill Set Sought:

Hands on experience in Setting Up Podcast Channel

Context in which Volunteering is sought:

• Work with Women Entrepreneurs, (nano-enterprises) who are partially literate, for which entrepreneurship is an avenue to earn incomes that are complementary to their family incomes.
• Their entrepreneurial journey started 18-24 months ago
• The women are scattered on the hills about 25 Km from Shimla and thus are poorly connected by pucca road network
• A committed team of 3 persons to support any initiative that can help the women entrepreneurs
• Can provide any other details, if requested with a mail addressed to info@nsfindia.org with phrase in the email subject “for Volunteering: Podcast Channel in Junga”
• The Volunteer is expected to set up the channel and build the capacities of local communities to run it.

Problem Statement :

The women making efforts to gain financial independence and empower themselves on various dimensions, are facing several business and contextual challenges and have crests and troughs of motivation to traverse the challenging entrepreneurial journey. They do not have a peer-to-peer mechanism to share their challenges and contextualized solutions.

Challenge to be addressed:

• Work with women with diverse educational backgrounds (Graduation to Primary School Drop Outs) – however, some of them are exemplary
• Technology quotient among women not assessed already – however, some of them already use social media channels for their nano-enterprise marketing
• Poor internet connectivity is a problem.
• Training session timings is to be as per the convenience of the women (as they have other responsibilities to tend to)
• Potential cancellation of sessions, as per weather conditions being a hilly terrain

Duration of Volunteering:

Rough estimate is about 3-4 months. But, need to layout the time plan based on expert inputs. There can be lags and spurts of active phases based on their agriculture activities on their vegetable farms. Periodic engagement would suffice than a full time engagement in this activity.

Location of work:

Online / Remote working based on convenience of the expert and that of women representatives. The initiative will operate in Junga area, about 25 Km from Shimla, Himachal Pradesh.

Remuneration:

Payment of any remuneration is not feasible. We are looking for probono volunteers. Experience certificate based on results is feasible.

Skill Set Sought:

Hands on experience in teaching / training partially literate persons in boarding themselves in Digital Banking Channels

Context in which Volunteering is sought:

• Work with Women Entrepreneurs, (nano-enterprises) who are partially literate, for which entrepreneurship is an avenue to earn incomes that are complementary to their family incomes.
• Their entrepreneurial journey started 18-24 months ago
• The women are scattered on the hills about 25 Km from Shimla and thus are poorly connected by pucca road network
• A committed team of 3 persons to support any initiative that can help the women entrepreneurs
• Can provide any other details, if requested with a mail addressed to info@nsfindia.org with phrase in the email subject “for supporting women entrepreneurs – digital banking channel onboarding”

Problem Statement:

Some of the women entrepreneurs started selling their crafts to tourists even after the tourists return to their base locations, however, receiving payments via Digital Banking Channels is new and difficult to understand. Need handholding support to train and help in the onboarding process and also know what precautions one need to know how to save onself from gettind duped.

Challenge to be addressed:

• Work with women with diverse educational backgrounds (Graduation to Primary School Drop Outs) – however, some of them are exemplary
• Technology quotient among women not assessed already – however, some of them already use social media channels for their nano-enterprise marketing
• Poor internet connectivity is a problem.
• Training session timings is to be as per the convenience of the women (as they have other responsibilities to tend to)
• Potential cancellation of sessions, as per weather conditions being a hilly terrain
• Women may or may not have the KYC documents readily accessible with them and may need support in getting them as well

Duration of Volunteering:

Rough estimate is about 3-4 months. But, need to layout the time plan based on expert inputs. There can be lags and spurts of active phases based on their agriculture activities on their vegetable farms. Periodic engagement would suffice than a full time engagement in this activity. Periodic engagement would suffice than a full time engagement in this activity.

Location of work:

Online / Remote working based on convenience of the expert and that of women representatives. The initiative will operate in Junga area, about 25 Km from Shimla, Himachal Pradesh.

Remuneration:

Payment of any remuneration is not feasible. We are looking for probono volunteers. Experience certificate based on results is feasible.