VOCATIONAL TRAINING & LIVELIHOOD
Ramakrishna Mission Ashrama, Sohra has been a pioneer in serving community in the state of Meghalaya for last hundred years. Imparting skill to youths and unemployed women and ensuring their livelihoods is one of the significant philanthropic services of the organisation. We have been running vocational training programmes mostly with the financial assistance from the Central Govt. Many unemployed tribal women are benefited by such training in the field of Weaving, Tailoring and Computer Training which has served many trainees in these past few years.

Computer Training Centre

Ramakrishna Mission, Sohra, had started a computer training center for providing computer education to the needy students at nominal charges. Tribal boys and girls residing in and around Sohra are provided with training in Basic Computer Skills under careful supervision of competent instructors. The Computer Training Centre is now upgraded by using the OpenSource Software in these past 6 years, where Trainees have learned new features of LibreOffice Suite which is always available in free and it doesn’t need license to install and run it. The course that the Centre offered is on Computer Fundamental, LibreOffice Writer (Word), LibreOffice Calc. (Excel) and LibreOffice Impress (Power-point) and the course duration is for 2 months. At the end of every session, the Centre conduct Theory and Practical Exam and Trainees were provided with Certificate in Grades.
Ashrama has further employed many of the trainees in manufacturing activities in Tailoring centre & Weaving centre after completing their training programmes. The foundation of Weaving and Tailoring Training-cum-Production Centres are laid decades back. Both the centres are dedicated to women employees for their livelihoods.

Production-cum-Training Centre in Tailoring

Tailoring centre is well equipped with industrial infrastructure with all kind of machines like Automatic Industrial Sewing Machines, Computerized Automatic Embroidery Machine, Motor & Foot operated Sewing Machines etc. to manufacture all kinds of school uniforms like shirt, pant, skirt, salwar kameez, NCC uniforms etc. Yearly around 25,000 sets uniform are made in Tailoring centre for all Ramakrishna Mission Schools across Meghalaya. Presently, there are 30 tailors and 2 trainers coming from different places of Meghalaya are working in Tailoring centre.
Certificate Programme in Tailoring: Different kinds of certificate training programmes like Skill Development Training Programme in Fashion Designing, Skill Upgradation Training Programme in Fashion Designing etc. are conducted in Tailoring centre for the unemployed girls & women throughout the year free of cost. Stipend and training materials are also provided to the trainees who come from different places across Sohra region. Ashram provides Training certificate along with employment opportunities to work in Ashrama’s Tailoring centre to the trainees after successfully completing their training programmes.

Production-cum-Training Centre in Weaving

Weaving centre is upgraded with different types of Handloom machines like Single Jacquard, Double Jacquard, Semi-Automatic looms, Fly Shuttle looms etc. to produce various handloom products. Presently, the weaving centre has capacity to produce various kinds of handloom products like shawls (acrylic wool), saree (cotton, acrylic yarns, silk), stoles (cotton, acrylic yarns), traditional costumes of Assam (Mekhela Chadar) and Meghalaya (Jainsem/Dhara) and most importantly Eri merchandise like stoles, shawls etc. The handloom products made in the Weaving centre are sold at showroom situated inside the premises of the Ashrama. Presently, there are 16 weavers and 2 trainers working in the Weaving centre coming from different parts of Meghalaya. Most of the weavers working in the Weaving centre stay in Ashrama’s campus.
Certificate Programme in Weaving:
Different kinds of short-term training programmes like Skill Development Training Programme in Textile, Skill Upgradation Training Programme in Textile etc. are conducted in Weaving centre for the unemployed girls & women throughout the year free of cost. Stipend is given to the trainees during their training. After successfully completing training, Ashrama provides employment opportunities to the trainees to work in Ashrama’s Weaving centre.