Unherd.in with the Centre for Civil Society is offering a Career Guidance Program for pre-college students (14-to-20-year-olds) to learn the ins and outs of taking up Public Policy as a Career. Join the live career mentoring sessions, work on practical cases and above all, interact directly with experienced policy makers.
Selected students from the cohort get an opportunity to publish their policy paper, and a few scholars from the program bag an internship with Centre for Civil Society. Moreover, you receive career guidance in Public Policy — all while you learn the essential skills of research, critical writing, and a chance to design local solutions to India’s enduring policy challenges.
Student selection to be based on application,
and a phone interview round.
Dates and Timings: 8th September to 5th October,
every Wednesday (7 PM to 8:30 PM IST) and Saturday (5 PM to 6:30 PM IST)
Program Fee: Rs. 8000/- Rs. 6500/- (all inclusive)
What will I Learn?
This is an intensive program for students who wish to gain a foundation in public policy research and development. Students learn critical writing, policy formulation, and gain exposure to diverse career opportunities in public policy through interactions with seasoned industry experts.
The curriculum is specially curated by India’s leading think tank, Centre for Civil Society, via mentors, and experts who plan on helping students make an informed career decision. Moreover, the program includes practical assignments, case studies, policy formulation exercises with real-world examples – a career mentoring experience not typically found in a school or college curriculum.
APPLICATIONS NOW CLOSED
Program Dates and Timings: 8th September to 5th October, every Wednesday (7 PM to 8:30 PM IST) and Saturday (5 PM to 6:30 PM IST)
Introduction
Get an in-depth understanding on Public Policy as you interact exclusively with industry professionals to learn how some policies work, and some don’t, and how to ask the right policy questions.
Meet Role Models
You can’t be what you can’t see! Explore lucrative careers in Public Policy as you interact with industry experts who are IAS officers, lawyers, and professors at prestigious universities.
Critical Writing
Gain skills to write effective policy narratives using techniques that focus on thinking behind the communication. Students will not only learn to write critically, but also how to avoid and identify logical fallacies.
Career Ready
The certified Mentorship will introduce students to universities, courses, and a session on Resume building that will hone the students with skills for a future in policy, law, and governance.
The Mentorship Process
Apply online
Fill up the application
before Sep 7th.
Get selected
Based on your application,
and interview round.
Start learning
About a career in Public Policy with CCS.
About Centre for Civil Society (CCS)
CCS envisions a world where each individual leads a life of choice in personal, economic and political spheres and every institution is accountable.
Centre for Civil Society advances social change through public policy. CCS’s work in education, livelihood, and policy training promotes choice and accountability across private and public sectors. To translate policy into practice, CCS engage with policy and opinion leaders through research, pilot projects and policy training.
Centre for Civil Society is India’s leading liberal think tank, ranked 5th in India and 83rd in the world by the annual study conducted by 2021 Global Go To Think Tank Index Report released by the University of Pennsylvania.
Learn More about Centre for Civil Society on their website here
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ABOUT YOUR MENTORS:
Mohit Satyanand
“Mohit Satyanand is an entrepreneur, consultant, investor and a policy wonk. After an M.A. from Delhi School of Economics, he joined Hindustan Lever as a management trainee, then to Delhi Flour Mills, where he established India’s first successful snack food brand, Crax. In 1989, he co-founded Teamwork Films, which now produces several of India’s most prestigious arts festivals, including the Jaipur Literary Festival, and annual festivals in Singapore, South Africa, Europe and North America.
Currently the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Liberty Institute, a policy think-tank, he has a special interest in the policy thrust of education and macro-economics.
He is Mountain-lover and life-long trekker. Recently he has taken to running half-marathons and competing in open sea races.”
Dr. Parth J Shah
Dr Parth J Shah is the Founder & President of the Centre for Civil Society [CCS] and Co-founder & Director of the Indian School of Public Policy [ISPP]. Parth’s research and advocacy work focus on the themes of economic freedom (law, liberty and livelihood campaign), choice and competition in education (fund students, not schools), property rights approach for the environment (terracotta vision of stewardship), and good governance (new public management and the duty to publish). He has published extensively in international and Indian journals, on various topics from currency regulation to education policy. He holds a PhD in Economics from Auburn University and has taught at the University of Michigan. He has also been a visiting faculty at JNU, Delhi and MS University, Vadodara.
Paavi Kulshreshth
Paavi is an Associate with the Policy Training & Outreach team at the Centre for Civil Society. Within the policy space, her specializations are policy writing and discourse analysis. So, this includes writing policy memos, briefs, reports, et al., and the significantly more interesting dissection development and policy narratives. Moreover, Paavi did her undergrad in Journalism and postgrad in Public Policy. She has previously held strategic communication and editorial roles, and is currently the editor of CCS’ English-language publication, Spontaneous Order.
Sourya Banerjee
Sourya is the Program Coordinator of the Policy Training and Outreach Department, at the Centre for Civil Society. In addition, he has a degree in BBA-LLB (Hons.) and had practised law in Hyderabad before joining CCS. Moreover, Sourya has also worked with numerous non-profit social organizations including Red Elephant Foundation and Red Dot Foundation on Law and GBV related issues and regularly writes on law and policy for different online platforms. He is also trained in Peacebuilding and Conflict Resolution from UNESCO MGIEP.
He generally talks about Public Choice Economics, Introduction to Institutions, Law & Economics, Personal Liberty and State, and Rule of Law at CCS’s workshops. His interests lie in legal and economic over-regulation and ease of legal access. In his free time, he runs his website Arguendo and writes about public policy on his blog The Policy Problem.
Dr. Shagata Mukherjee
Dr Shagata Mukherjee is the Lead of NITI Aayog Behavioural Insights Unit (also known as the Nudge Unit) and a Deputy Director at the Centre for Social and Behavioural Change, Ashoka University. Prior to this position, Dr Mukherjee was an Associate Professor of Economics and Public Policy at the Meghnad Desai Academy of Economics. He was also a Visiting Fellow at the Mumbai School of Economics and Public Policy at the University of Mumbai and an Affiliated Faculty at the Centre for Experimental Social Sciences (CESS) Nuffield -FLAME. He holds a B.Sc. in Economics from Presidency College, a master’s degree in Economics from JNU, and a second master’s degree and a PhD in Behavioural and Experimental Economics from the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies at Georgia State University, USA. Dr Mukherjee is the recipient of the Vernon L. Smith Young Talent Award in Experimental Finance for his research on gender and microfinance and is a co-founder of the Mumbai Behavioural Network.
Dr. Jayaprakash Narayan
Dr. Jayaprakash Narayan is a physician by training who went into the Indian Administrative Service in the aftermath of the Emergency and failure of the Janata Experiment. Moreover, he was a topper in the IAS exam. During the 16 years of distinguished public service in various capacities, he acquired a formidable reputation in the erstwhile State of Andhra Pradesh. So, his experience in government convinced him that faulty governance process was the biggest hurdle to India and Indians achieving greater success. And what India needs today is a fundamental change in the rules of the game and not a periodic change of players. In order to translate his vision into practical reality, he resigned from Service (IAS) in 1996, and worked with like-minded colleagues for the formation of Lok Satta.
Above all, Lok Satta has now emerged as India’s leading civil society initiative for governance reforms. Dr Narayan, through Foundation for Democratic Reforms, Lok Satta movement and other fora has been actively pursuing reforms in service guarantees in government offices, education, healthcare, local government empowerment, judicial and police reforms, various anti-corruption measures, and political reforms to transform governance, particularly at state and local levels.
Confused about a career?
Unherd offers mentorship classes on diverse potential careers, for 13 to 18 year-olds, based on their current interest, potential and skillsets.