Availability
- Monday - Friday: 9:00 - 15:00
- Sunday - Saturday: Only Appointment
Late Mrs. SANGEETA AGARWAL
Founder Director
She was born and raised in Delhi in an educated family. She received convent education, part of which was completed in Washington DC, USA, and did her post-graduation in International Law and Marketing from Delhi University.
Mrs. Sangeeta Agarwal moved to Indore in 1980, post-marriage. Deriving inspiration from her mother-in-law, Mrs. Krishna Agarwal, who was a social worker and a Nehru Literacy Award Winner, she decided to work towards empowering the women of Indore by launching a women’s vocational training center in 1988, popularly known as the Institute of Professional Training for Women (IPW). She was a firm believer that women, if given the right means and training, are equally skilled as men, and are more than capable of contributing towards a family’s financial wellbeing and growth.
IPW started by offering vocational training to women in the fields of Montessori Teachers Training, Textile Designing, Fashion Designing, Interior Decoration, and Marketing. This was the first instance in Indore, where women from all strata of society were encouraged to step out of their houses to learn some skill and take a step towards being independent, financial or otherwise. In its 35 years of existence, IPW, under the able guidance of Mrs. Sangeeta Agarwal, has helped train more than 4000 women from all age groups (18 to 59). In the early 2000’s, Mrs. Agarwal chose to concentrate purely on Montessori Teacher’s Training. Her students have been accepted as Montessori Teachers in all leading schools of not only Indore, but world over. She adopted the same teaching methods as prescribed by Association Montessori International (AMI), Netherlands and IPW is an affiliate member of the International Montessori Council, USA.
In order to help her students who were weak in English or lacked self-confidence, Mrs. Agarwal regularly conducted English speaking and Personality Development classes, often free-of-charge. In her career, she came across plenty of women students who were facing a lot of difficulties and had thus developed a very negative outlook towards life. A lot of these women were either from very poor households, or housewives who had never stepped out of their homes before or belonged to families where independence of women was frowned upon. To help such students, Mrs. Agarwal launched a “Life Positive” program, where she provided council in the form of one-to-one sessions, where women could openly discuss their problems and seek guidance. Mrs. Agarwal helped many women to not only stand on their own two feet but also develop a positive outlook in life.
In her professional journey of 35 years, Mrs. Agarwal and IPW were awarded and appreciated on several occasions, including the “Progressive Teachers Training Institute of Indore” award, bestowed by the Early Childhood Association & Indus World School. She was a regular speaker at symposia and training sessions at National Institute of Public Cooperation and Child Development, popularly known as NIPCCD, a premier organization devoted to promotion of voluntary action research, training and documentation in the overall domain of women and child development.
In June of 2021, Mrs. Agarwal was unfortunately taken away from us by the COVID pandemic. Her dream of empowering women lives on and IPW continues to function under the directorship of her daughter, Mrs. Kanika Goyal, who is also a very qualified Montessori Teacher’s traine
'
