English Learning program "STEP" for Under graduation students, sponsored by Global Giving. 

STEP, an English learning program was conducted for students pursuing the 2nd year of Graduation with Michael Job College of Arts and Science for Women. To select the right candidates for this program, an online assessment test was conducted. Out of the  159 students who appeared in the test, 84 students were selected for this program. 

All the students from this batch (except one student)  have completed their schooling in vernacular medium of Tamil. Moreover, these students belong to remote villages in the outskirts of Coimbatore and thus, their background gives them limited opportunities to communicate in English.

This learning program included 20 hrs Classroom Training & 40 hrs Online Training sessions over a period of 2 months (January to March' 2019). After the training program, a test was conducted and certificates were issued to the students. 

This initiative was extremely useful for the students and has served as a stepping stone in their English learning pathway. This program gave them the confidence that they can learn English and helped in dismissal of the psychological barriers they had in starting the learning process. We witnessed a great deal of excitement and enthusiasm amongst the students. Improvements in their Listening, Reading, Writing and Speaking was clearly evident. 

Appointment of internal MJC program coordinators to support external faculty also proved to be very helpful. Additional activities taken up by MJC coordinators encouraged the students to practice further. For Eg. the students practised to read aloud English articles and passages sourced from the internet and were also trained on using the Google English – Tamil Translator tool. 

We are thankful to Global Giving and FORD Foundation for implementing this program