(Integrated Personality Development Program)

(For Students)

Module Code: PFC /01

 

[Students are future of any country. This particular module of Prayas Foundation Course is an unique program which ensures success in the life of participating students in tune with their own aptitude and interests with peace and happiness by bringing positive paradigm shift in their thinking and behavior and improved emotional, social and spiritual/ethical intelligence and developing a internally driven personality through guided brainstorming sessions on real issues being faced by them in their day to day life and daily non-prescriptive  writing on subjects of self interests. It empowers students to achieve success in academics on their own without any spoon feeding and that too in most difficult and challenging circumstances. Life is full of difficulties and challenges and one should be able to face them and should be able live it in happy and healthy way. This program prepares participants for the same. It is most flexible, informal and economic in the present day context. Most important feature of this program is an assurance to participants of this program that all their queries or doubts regarding the subject or the topic being brainstormed will be replied and they can avail mentoring facility even after completion of the course, if they so desire, on payment of annual charges of Rs. 1000 (One Thousand) for normal candidates and Rs. 500 (Five Hundreds) for candidates from economically weaker sections of society, on long-term basis. It is fact that ‘Prayas discourages spoon feeding but takes care of the pressing problems of its customers and will not leave them high and dry and tries to help them to the extend feasible.]   

 

Special Features of Program

Dedicated for achieving the fundamental aims of Brahmacharya Ashram, this six monthly Integrated Personality Development Program titled “Prayas Foundation Course”, especially designed for students, ensures success in the life of participants with peace and happiness by developing positive thinking, liking for healthy life style besides developing balanced understanding of family, institutional, social, legal, economic and political environment in participants depending upon their specific requirements. It encourages participants to deliberates and discuss about basic human values, rights and duties of citizens  and desirable personal, family, institutional, social, economic and political behavior through brainstorming on interesting questions related to important issues of these areas. It motivates them to take group decision about adopting suitable behavioral changes for success in their studies and for selecting jobs/occupation thereafter in tune with their aptitude and interests through consensus building.  This program makes the participant so capable, self driven and self motivated that they are able to handle difficult situations and problems of student life on their own through objective analysis and rational decision making.

General need of this Program

According to ancient Indian Life Tradition, for living a peaceful, successful and happy life from birth to death, an individual has to shoulder the responsibilities of Bramhacharya (seeking theoretical and practical knowledge for a successful working life), Grihastha (holding family), Vanaprastha (migration to Jungles or detachment from family affaires)  and Sanyas Ashrams (total detachment from worldly things) to best of his/her ability and with full honesty. “Prayas Foundation Course” (PFC in short) launched by M/S Prayas Vyaktitva Vikas Seva (P) Ltd. (referred hereafter as ‘Prayas’) contains customized modules according to age and life goals of participants of a particular group.

The qualities and values required to be developed for a capable, successful, peaceful, satisfied, and happy life include: faith in dignity of physical labor, recognizing importance of good health and adopting healthy life style, positive thinking, inter-personal harmony & brotherhood, patience to hear other’s view carefully, willingness to understand and appreciate other’s emotions and thoughts and respect them, ability to present one’s view point before others in an objective, effective and non-aggressive manner, alertness towards one’s duties and responsibilities and willingness to fulfill them as a responsible citizen, faith in democratic thoughts, principles and processes, general understanding of common features of all religions, respecting them and belief in co-existence of multi-religious society, belief in individual/human rights  and freedom, understanding the importance of ethical values in life, respect for elders and willingness & eagerness to learn from their vast experience, use of suitable technique to enhance memory, habit of regular reading and learning new things for use in life. Besides above qualities an individual should be well aware about current family, institutional, social, economic and political problems and their possible remedies. Unless above mentioned values and qualities are developed early in life of a person, he/she would neither succeed in studies nor in his family, professional and social life later on and he/she would neither be peaceful and happy himself/herself nor he/she can make others happy. Student life also requires certain attributes for success.

At present various schools, colleges, universities and other similar institutions teach/train their students/trainees various technical and general subjects as per predetermined syllabus and evaluate their knowledge/skill through semester, half yearly and annual examinations. However they hardly check whether holistic development of personality of students/trainees is taking place to enable them to meet the real challenges of life or not. In the current era of fast pace and examination outcome oriented education system and tough competition for jobs, children are not getting adequate time to absorb fundamental values of human life and are living life just like a robot. When a child with negative frame of mind develops into an adult, if he faces multiple failures, he/she loses peace & happiness and gets depressed as he starts considering his/her life as worthless and sometimes takes extreme step of even committing suicide.

Lack of adequate ability to face stiff day to day competition for good jobs which are limited in number, after completing studies,  lack of ability to face tough problems and pains of life, escapist mindset, acute worldliness  and consumerism, lack of understanding  of fundamental human values, increased psychological distance between people due to lack of frequent mixing and inability to resolve day to day problems due to underdeveloped emotional, social and ethical or spiritual intelligence, are responsible for current state of affairs. Current researches indicate that the mental ability (IQ) of an individual contributes only 20% towards success in his/her job or profession and remaining 80% is contributed by his/her emotional, social and spiritual intelligence. However at present no academic/training institute has time to develop soft intelligence. Toxic behavior of students of reputed schools, colleges and universities is indicative of this sate of affaires.

No employer would even think of hiring an individual as an executive or employee who cannot mix with his co-workers and is not able to obtain their co-operation (indicative of low EQ) and is corrupt and self centered (indicative of low SQ) even if he possesses very high IQ .

Considering the current educational scenario and gaps in the current process of personality development of students, ‘Prayas’ has launched a unique brainstorming based Personality Development Program titled “Prayas Foundation Course (PFC)” to develop emotional, social and spiritual intelligence in the participants. PFC supplements the inputs being given by various schools, colleges and universities. It adopts a unique process of self analysis, group discussions in brainstorming mode and non-prescriptive self writing.  This course is part time, flexible and informal and does not interfere with regular studies of the participant.

Just after conclusion of the admissions to a batch of this program and its commencement, a group personality profiling test, consisting of a number of time tested psychological instruments, is conducted to ascertain the current level of mental, emotional, social and spiritual intelligence of participants and other general personality features and a profile of his or her personality (called entry profile) is prepared and concerned  Vyaktitva Vikas Margdarshak (VVM)  is appraised about special personality features of individual participants. VVM keeps a special watch on them and guides them through the program as per advice received from “Prayas”. Again just one month before conclusion of the program, a repeat group personality profiling test is conducted to ascertain actual changes which have occurred in the personality of participants due to participation in this program and a revised profile (called exit profile) is prepared. A Personality Development Report (PDR) is generated by the system after comparing these two profiles and it highlights personality features of individual participant and changes which have taken place due to participation in his program and with recommendations for further improvement to be implemented by school/parents in future.   It is ensured that participants completing this course successfully are totally ready to face and resolve day to day challenges of education, family and society on their own with full confidence. 

Objectives of the Program

This program aims at developing following special abilities in the participants which are required for success in student life.

• Curiosity to learn and understand reasons behind new events, situations, techniques and processes.
• Ability to present one’s viewpoints before others in a rational manner after listening their opinions carefully, conducting due analysis and considering its results.
• Ability to equip oneself with capability to achieve success in student life as per ones’ interests and aptitude.
• Ability to create an enabling environment for success in studies.
• Ability to manage one’s time well for optimal results in examinations without undue diversions of one’s energy and time.

Once above abilities are developed, the personality of the participants becomes self/internally-driven rather than externally driven.   Due to such a positive outturn, the efforts made by schools/colleges get magnified and the participants excel in academic performance. The parents, other family members, relatives, friends and other persons interacting with participants in day to day affairs, are also very happy to witness a positive change in behavior of their children. This increases the prestige of their school/college/ university also.

Syllabus of the Program

Participants are encouraged to brainstorm on interesting questions related to following general topics and they are also required to write at least one page daily at their home about topic of their own interests and submit it to the Vyaktitva Vikas Margdarshak (VVM) before commencement of the brainstorming session of the day. This process of brainstorming and writing without any prescription and restrictions inculcates the habit of rational thinking on practical problems of life. The syllabus is updated on continuous basis on the basis of periodical feedbacks from the participants of batches being constituted from time to time.

• Importance of student life: Student life as a foundation of adult life, various facets of student life, goals, planning and results. Role of aptitude and interests in selecting subjects for studies and undertaking jobs/profession/occupation after completion of studies.
• Power of mind over Physical health: Impact of our inner thoughts on our health and happiness. How to think right to remain healthy, peaceful and happy irrespective of situations we face? Our ability to change the configuration of our genes made by our heredity through positive thinking and meditation.
• Benefits of understanding unique features of one’s personality: Importance of understanding unique features of one’s personality including interests and aptitudes through sciencitific methods in order to understand oneself, importance of different types of intelligence and need for improvements in the same, psychology of success and the process of behavioral change.
• Various dimensions of personality development: Family environment, education: formal & informal, importance of teacher, importance of environment conducive for better learning outcomes, benefits and method of focusing one’s energy, methods of memory improvement, need and benefits of balancing skills and intelligence, achieving emotional stability and importance of understanding the importance of ethical value in life.
• Individual thoughts and behavior : Principles of karma, role of work in human development, time management, benefits and harms of usage of internet and mobile and its proper utilization, from failure to success, cause of tension and ways to manage tension, harms from negative thoughts, benefits of positive thinking, negative impact of resistance to change and orthodox behavior, benefits from developing sportsmanship spirit, creativity and imagination, needs for social acceptance, benefits of simple and natural behavior, importance of entrepreneurship, importance of developing managerial, financial and legal sense.
• Religious thoughts and behavior: Fundamental principles of different religions, role of secularism, thoughts of universal brotherhood, equality of mankind, human rights, ethical behavior, concept of ahimsa-no harm to anybody, benefits of social harmony & peace.
• Social relations and behavior: Human as a social animal, family relations, social relations, faith in inherent goodness of mankind, role of friendship, impact of corruption on poor, effects of social and religious malpractices and benefits of social transformation & change.
• Economic environment & behavior: Saving and investment, impact of economic inequality on social cohesion, unemployment-causes and remedies, dissatisfaction, different currencies, international trade, negative impact of acute consumerism, proper usage of saving for a secured future, limit of the utility of money.
• Political system and current political environment: Various forms of government, importance of democracy in comparison to other systems of governance, current democratic environment, the process of casting vote, constitution of government – state and centre, rights and duties of responsible citizen, vigilance of public and quality of administration, importance of secular thought in governance in a multi-religious
• Legal system: Law and order, crime and its control, psychology of crime, Civil Procedure Code (CPC), Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC), current problems in maintenance of law and orders and their remedies.
• General Knowledge : Government systems, country and states, languages and their usage, role of agriculture in economy, importance of clean environment, types of pollution, health and disease control, benefits of balanced and nutrition rich diet, benefits of yoga and pranayam, benefits of good sleep.
• Other topics: Additional topics are included in the module based on the periodic feedback from the participants. Students may be interested in knowing the trick of cracking interviews or selecting field of higher study or good jobs. The inputs are customized considering the expectations of the participant of a particular batch.

Operation and management of Program 

This program is operated and managed by independent Vyaktitva Vikas Margdarshaks (VVMs) or academic/other institution through their regular teachers under our technical guidance. Individuals or institution desirous of running this course have to sign a memorandum of understanding with us and register themselves as our institutional members. It specifies the duties and responsibilities of both the parties i.e. the person/institution running this course and ‘Prayas’ providing technical support.

Quality Control

Participants are asked to submit their feedbacks on line about the methodology, contents and usefulness of this course at specific intervals during the course and at the end of the course. Their feedback is considered and necessary modifications are done during the remaining period of the particular course and also for next batches. The course is continuously updated as per changing requirements of participants and mentors are also retrained if felt necessary.

Duration

The normal duration of the course is six (06) months which can be modified depending upon the specific requirement of individuals or organizations running this course as well as the participants by adjusting the duration of individual brainstorming sessions and number of days in a week for running the course.

Conceptualization and Direction

This course has been conceptualized and designed by Dr. Ram Chandra Rai, an officer of Indian Railway Accounts Service (IRAS), a Central Civil Service. He completed his schooling and college education from rural area of eastern UP and thereafter did BSc. (Hons) in physics, Masters in Business Management and Ph.D in management from Banaras Hindu University. He worked as Financial Consultant with a government industrial consultancy organization for 7 years and subsequently got selected in the Central Civil Services Examination and worked in different positions for 32 years with Indian Railways. He retired from the highest position of the accounts department of North Eastern Railway (Financial Advisor & Chief Accounts Officer (FACAO) and is now engaged in activities related to Personality Development with ‘Prayas’. While working as financial consultant he played important role in institutional financing of various industrial sectors of New Okhla Industrial Development Area (NOIDA). While working with Indian Railways, he worked as Professor and Sr. Professor at the National Academy of Indian Railways (the then Railway Staff College) for 7 years and has reasonable experience of designing behavioral change enabling courses for Railway Officers.

Philosophy of the Course

The fundamental philosophy behind this course is the basic fact of human behavior that an individual does not change his/her thoughts and resultant behavior, if directed or forced by somebody else to do so due to ego problem. Even if he/she changes his/her behavior out of fear or some other compulsion, he/she would revert back to his/her old pattern of behavior the moment such force or compulsion disappears. However he/she is inclined to change his thinking and resultant behavior on his own on a permanent basis if he/she is able to realize on his/her own the likely benefits of desired change out of freewill through a process of self discovery. Since the mentor (VVM) conducting brainstorming sessions of PFC encourages participants to brainstorm on various dimensions of a topic related to an issue in a group and the group is encouraged to arrive at consensus on desired roles of individuals in handling that issue, it is more likely that members of that group may decide to play desired roles on their own and accordingly may bring desired changes in their behavior in reference to that issue.  Once the behavior of an individual is appropriate the probability of success increases manifold.

Benefits to Participants

Benefits of this course to the participants completing this program successfully include better understanding of oneself, improved self-discipline, better time management, better relations with members of family, relatives, friends and others, better academic performance, better management of future life, success in subsequent jobs/occupations, increased happiness, and improved social prestige. This program brings positive changes in the life of participants and prepares them to face most difficult problems and challenges of life well. Life is full of problems, difficulties and challenges and if we can overcome them without losing our composer then we are likely to achieve success and remain satisfied, happy and peaceful. This program facilitates it.  Most important feature of this program is an assurance to participants of this program that all their queries or doubts regarding the subject or the topic being brainstormed will be replied and they can avail mentoring facility even after completion of the course, if they so desire, on payment of nominal annual charges of Rs. 1000 (One Thousands) for normal category candidates and Rs. 500 (Five Hundreds) for candidates belonging to economically weaker sections of society on long-term basis. It is fact that ‘Prayas discourages spoon feeding but takes care of the pressing problems of its customers and will not leave them high and dry and tries to help them to the extend feasible.   

 

Course fee

At present the total fee of this course is Rs. 5000 (Rs. Five Thousands only) which is directly payable to ‘Prayas’ digitally through the payment link available on the registration format. However 30% of the seats are reserved for candidates belonging to weaker sections of society and suitable discount is given to such candidates depending upon their ability to pay. If, due to any reason, the duration of course increases then the mentoring fee will also increase prorata. Normally it is to be deposited in two installments. 50% advance at the time of admission and remaining 50% before 10^th of the third month or as agreed in the memorandum of understanding. The course fee can be modified in future but modified fee would be applicable from fresh batch only.  Individual or institution running this course under our guidance is paid 70% of the total fee by ‘Prayas’ after retaining 30% of the fee but after completion of a particular month on pro-rata basis.

How to start the course?

Individuals or institutions desirous of running this program for their students may down load literature of this program along with blank Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) from our website www.prayasvyaktitva.com and sign the same with modifications, if any, after discussion with us and collect personality profiling fee and first installment of course fee in advance from the participants and commence this course digitally through their mobile phones having internet connection or at their premises after taking specific approval from “Prayas’ and forming batches and obtaining training for self or their teachers after paying our share in advance.