Williamnagar: The civil services aspirants from Garo hills interacted with IAS mentor D. Shankar from the renowned Shankar IAS Academy in Chennai on Wednesday.

A group of over 180 students from different institutions of Garo hills converged at Williamnagar in East Garo Hills for a two-day mentoring session with Shankar and other resource persons, including East Garo Hills deputy commissioner Ram Kumar and Daddengre sub-divisional officer (civil) Swapnil Tembe.

The idea of the workshop was to familiarise the students on different scopes and opportunities in civil services apart from IAS, IPS and Indian Revenue Service.

"We are making an attempt to shortlist candidates to train them further for an extensive coaching," said Kumar, who has taken the initiative as part of chief minister's career guidance and counselling programme.

Kumar said through this workshop the administration aims to make the students realise their potential and motivate them to prepare adequately for civil services examinations.

Meghalaya elementary education and literacy minister Deborah Marak inaugurated the workshop.

Marak lauded the administration for organising the programme in Williamnagar, where students cannot compete in such examinations because of lack of exposure and information.

"Our students from Garo hills are too much dependent on government jobs, which are saturated, when there is an ocean of opportunities, what we need is to identify and prepare ourselves to achieve it," Marak added.

She asked the students not to be satisfied with "quotas" and "job reservations" and explore their vistas to prepare for prestigious examinations and lucrative career in public services.

Tembe and Shankar gave lessons on preparation for civil services and insight on different examinations.