16 September 2013, Dhaka. Informal apprenticeship is an effective way towards youth employment and empowerment as noted by speakers at a certificate awarding ceremony in the capital’s BRAC Centre today at 11am jointly organised by BRAC and ILO.
Apprenticeship based skill training programme is a potential way for the youth to contribute significantly to the development process of Bangladesh. The formal certification will provide social recognition besides creating sufficient job opportunities for these trained youth both in formal and informal sector.
Special Guest of the ceremony Md. Mozibur Rahman, Joint Secretary of Ministry of Primary & Mass Education and Project Director of BEHTRUWC, says “Of the 1,000 trained young learners, 992 have successfully completed the course and 982 are now employed in nine different trades earning anywhere between Tk. 10,000-15,000 per month. Some of them are entrepreneurs and this is indeed a very encouraging prospect for our country aiming to become a middle income nation soon”.
Arthur Shears, Chief Technical Advisor, ILO Bangladesh TVET Reform Project said of the partnership, “We have proved that apprenticeships work in Bangladesh. Now the challenge is to scale this success up; we want to see one crore of the country’s young people skilled and employed. The ILO believes in decent work for all, and quality skills development programmes are essential in creating more decent work opportunities.”
Safiqul Islam, Director of BRAC Education Programme, is hopeful that “since BRAC is known for scaling up its projects, we look forward to working towards achieving the one crore target soon. This is a multi stakeholder project and that provides a great opportunity to explore prospects of innovations in this sector”.
At the ceremony, BRAC in association with Bangladesh Manpower, Employment & Training (BMET), Bureau of Non Formal Education (BNFE) and ILO presented certificates to 100 young graduates who have successfully completed their six months long apprenticeship based skill training with BRAC and ILO’s Skill Training for Advancing Resources (STAR) project. These 100 trainees are among the 1,000 trainees who are direct beneficiaries of Bringing Education to Hard to Reach Urban Working Children (BETRUWC) and have received apprenticeship training in the informal sector for nine different trades.
