KHAMMAM: The Khammam Government Women’s Degree College has become a hub for creating entrepreneurs and employees in both government and private sectors, thanks to the corporate responsibility funds (CSR) of IBM company. This mega project was initiated by Naveen Prathapaneni, an architect working in IBM, who noticed that many rural girls were finding it difficult to get jobs and grow as entrepreneurs despite their talent. In 2016, he started a remote mentoring programme that initially attracted 80 students, and now it has spread to all students.
Due to the pandemic, the programme was halted but recommenced in 2022. The college started the Women Entrepreneurs Development Cell and an incubation centre to empower rural students with remote support to overcome barriers and achieve their career goals, explore entrepreneurship opportunities, and develop entrepreneurship skills.
Mentors regularly interact with students and help them leverage the training and infrastructure at the incubation centre. To ensure that students shrug off their inhibitions, explorative and experimental opportunities are provided to learn everything -- from production to market linkage and financial aspects.
Besides the incubation centre, the college has also established study circles to help students get banking and other jobs. The organisers also bring many pharma and IT companies to the college and arrange job fairs. More than 60 students have found jobs through these opportunities.