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Are skills development programs on right track?

Published : Sunday, 25 October, 2020 at 12:00 AM  Count : 926

Mohd Abdul Mannan

Mohd Abdul Mannan

From the available data of UNHCR and WB, it is estimated that there are around 300,000and 850,000 adolescents and youths (10 to 24 years) in Rohingya camps and host communities respectively.  

Young people who are facing various problems often have a harder time to integrate into the mainstream labour market for social and psychosocial reasons. They remain vulnerable to irregular income of informal economy and at high risks of being involved in crime and violence. And angry people can destroy the peace of the society. So, it is now urgent to create youth development program for both the refugee camps and host communities that will help the crisis affected young people to build their capacity to integrate into the mainstream labor market and ensure decent earning.

Adolescent and youth development program including the vocational/livelihood skills development is now very much necessary for the crisis affected adolescent and youth. Acquisition of livelihood skills is strongly correlated with constructive behaviour and attitude. Livelihood/vocational skills development program also known as TVET (technical and vocational education and training) often considered as costly program but it is one of the most effective tools for sustainable solution of the youths' problems. It makes people confident to integrate into the mainstream job market with decent outlook. It empowers people to develop their full capacities and to seize employment and social opportunities.

Back to the perception of TVET as a costly program, actually it is not. It is true that compare to the other developmental interventions, the initial direct investment to some TVET programs (depends on the skills types and needs of the training infrastructure) is higher. But, in terms of outcomes and benefits, it creates greater value and bring sustainable development. A study of CEDEFOP (The European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training) in 2007 shows that only 1% increase of investment in TVET can increase 3% productivity of the industry and that brings a 16% overall productivity growth of the country.

Poorly designed TVET program can be costlier, produce unintended results and backfire for the whole objectives of the development. So, we need to be mindful and systematic to design an effective TVET program. At the same time, we need to be innovative to design an efficient and cost-effective TVET approach that can be beneficial and attractive to the crisis affected people.

By this time, it has been observed that some initiatives of skills development have already been started in the camps and host communities. But the questions are, are these skills development programs on the right track? How innovative and effective are they? Most of them are seemed to be very traditional in terms of skills area and delivery approach. I think it is now the time for the agencies and development partners to evaluate the skills development program before scale-up the same.

I noticed a very common characteristic of vocational training program in our country. Whatever TVET programs have been taken wherever and whenever, some trades are very common, for example, tailoring, embroidery, electrical house wiring, etc. Such kinds of trades have become popular with the so-called terminology "traditional trade". I am not saying these training courses do not have demand; it has demand in the community. But, always the communities demand does not necessarily reflect the real facts. What I have observed that most of the community people cannot think out of it. When you ask them, "what kind of training will benefit you?" You will definitely get majority answers in favor of these traditional trades.

It is also necessary to think about the job market capacity to identify training courses. If a particular job market is saturated with a certain kind of skilled manpower, then it is not wise to train more people in the same occupation. Let me clarify the issue with an example. Say, 10 tailors or electricians at an area "A" are enough, so we should not train more people on tailoring or electrician for market "A".

Therefore, we should carefully analyze the job market, and then identify the market-driven trade for training. At the same time, we should be more explorative to identify the niche of the job market.

The writer is adviser (TVET), Save the Children













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