We are delighted to share a blog written by student Hammad, from Roots Millennium School, who is part of team Trailblazers delivering a Global Goals project for the 2020-21 GSL Global Goals Competition.
Their project is among over 957 social action projects currently running as part of the GSL movement and we are excited to be supporting them to design and lead positive social change in their community.
GSL gave us the opportunity to expand our project and helped us to move on step near to our ultimate goal.
Project Summary
Starting with the description of our project, it is all about skill-development. There are two sides of the project: development and learning. Development here refers to giving form to the project so it can actually exist and possess the potential to yield benefits. To better understand development, we need to dive into some examples taken from the project itself. As the heart of our project is skill learning, there must be some source or way to learn skills from.
In general, skill learning refers to learning anything that involves either physical or digital expertise, but to be specific to this project, any process of skill learning will involve only digital skills. Moreover, for skill learning to take place, members must be provided with reliable and renowned sources offering modern and state of the art skill-development techniques and knowledge. To serve this purpose, development comes into play. This involves the making of handy components for skill learning. One example is skill documents written by project’s leading faculty members.
These comprise of links and guidelines to access top sources of learning a particular skill. The links connect learners to the most suitable videos, articles and courses which are all free of cost. These are the best available methods of skill learning which also help in portfolio upgradation as videos include working on a variety of projects whereas courses are offered by world’s top universities providing the learners with valuable certificates.
Development can be given a proper shape by providing all the skill documents on a common platform for easy accessibility. This has already been achieved with all the skill documents available at several places such as the project’s Website, Facebook Page and WhatsApp Group.
The second part which constitutes the project is learning. This is a key factor in measuring the success of the project and is solely dependent on the learners. This involves the learning of skills. But one major problem associated with this step is the lack of interest shown by the members to learn skills. Several steps have been taken to cater this: First and foremost, members have been made aware of the ultimate benefit and motive of skill-learning i.e. earning. Earning is actually the subdivision of learning and forms the chief reason for skill-learning.
Project Summary continued…
One of the skills within the initiative, freelancing, is the method through which earning will be done. Freelancing is the activity of selling services online. This involves dealings between a client and a buyer where the former uses his skills to work on project(s) assigned by the latter. The bridge that connects these two is known as a freelancing platform. In the case of this project, Fiverr will be used as the freelancing platform. Other popular ones will be added later on. Connectively, earning money helps the members define the focal reason to dive into skill-learning. Apart from that, for young members, financial independence can be achieved at an early age.
This inclusion of a method to convert the skills into cash has attracted many people and has helped them to stay motivated. Thereafter, other steps have also been taken to make the process of skill-learning interactive and catchy. These include introduction Progress Tracking Systems, both individually and as a whole. Separate profile for each member has been created to record individual progress and a Progress Tracker can been developed to measure net progress. Adding on, a Badge System has also been launched where members are assigned different badges based on their participation and performance. These badges yield a variety of distinct rewards based on their rarity which are awarded annually
Another step taken to make skill-learning more challenging is the holding of competitions which are held for every skill after a prescribed period of time. This helps learners to work on diverse projects thus polishing their skills. Conclusively, the main motive of the project is to involve the youth in learning digital skills as an entirely digital world can be foreseen in the future. Learning digital skills will not only produce a skilled youth but also train it to come up with initiatives offering solutions to cope with future problems. This would give rise to global awareness and social action and major world issues would move to towards an end. And as the international currency will be earned by project members, global and nation economies would improve. Nevertheless, in counting the many pros of the project, the real advantage lies in skill learning itself.
The Journey
As a result of the project, I have developed several major and minor skills which are mandatory to run and sustain the project. The first one among these is communication. I had to deal and remain in touch with all the members of our project which has made me learn professional communication. Many of the members have been in contact with me personally and needed additional guidance regarding the project. They have posed several challenging questions which had to be answered in as proper and satisfactory way. This has given me a unique experience each time and has trained me for professional communication.
Secondly, I have also learned some core skills such as Web Development and Graphic Designing in order to create a proper platform for my project and to design graphics to be used as elements within the website. I have also learned graphics designing for the purpose of spreading the idea, where I can design colourful and attractive posters and banners regarding the project. Besides, the project made me realize my potential and the extend to which I can transform it into fruitful abilities. I have learned that I have the courage and passion to learn anything and to lead my team in a journey of learning, earning and making the difference.
Otherwise, the biggest challenge that I am facing is about making my team enthusiastic and zealous about skill learning. To get them involved in learning creating new things remains the prime hurdle by far. To cope with this, we have taken several steps to make skill learning interesting such as offering rewards to those who excel in learning skills etc.
The Next Chapter
Participation in this and similar projects is highly recommended especially for young people. In fact, without their involvement the project is worth nothing. As in the first paragraph, the two main constituents of the project are development and learning. Without learning, the project is incomplete and only the members of the project can give life to it. Connectively, the phase of development, even complete, cannot contribute to the project’s success without learning taking place. Afterwards, the young and other members of the project are required to show hyper-active involvement and play their role in the success of the project. Apart from that, members are expected to suggest new ideas and improvements within the project so that the project can grow and expand.
