The study carried out by the Employment Fund -- financed by the Swiss Agency for Development Cooperation (SDC), the UK´s Department for International Development (DfID) and the World Bank -- showed that people who were earning on average Rs 2,471 per month prior to undergoing vocational training, had started taking home paychecks of around Rs 8,933 after acquiring necessary technical skills from professionals.[break]
The study was conducted among 670 out of 14,468 ´graduates´ of different training institutes that had partnered with the Employment Fund in 2008/09. During a one-year period, these people had enrolled themselves in a range of three-month training courses as cooks, beauticians, mechanics, electronics workers and masons, among others.
Since then the Employment Fund, which is operated by HELVETAS Swiss Intercooperation, has extended 122 different types of vocational training to over 55,000 people of 62 districts across the country. These trainings, which cost an average of Rs 31,000 per person, are provided after conducting a survey of the job market´s ability to absorb the human resources.
“The benefit of enrolling in these courses is that the trainee will be guaranteed a job with a minimum monthly wage of at least Rs 4,600,” Komal Bhatta, communications officer of the Employment Fund Secretariat, said.
The Fund has also partnered with NMB Bank to extend unsecured loans of up to Rs 300,000, with 15 percent interest, to training ´graduates´ who want to start their own businesses.
“So far, we are happy with the results, as the money we have spent on training is not going to waste,” Bhatta said.
One of the weaknesses of the many job training programs operated in Nepal is that the performance of those who have undergone training is not tracked over the years. As a result, it becomes difficult to determine the effectiveness of the program.
Besides, those who provide training do not play the role of job matchmakers, which often means that fresh ´graduates´ remain jobless or underemployed.
“The latest tracer study was conducted, bearing these things in mind,” Bhatta said.
The study found that 46 percent of the ´graduates´ of 2008/09 were still engaged in jobs that matched their training. Another 44 percent were also employed but not in sectors directly related to the training they received. These included people for example who had taken training in cookery but were engaged in running a restaurant. The rest, however, were engaged in jobs that did not match their training.
Of these employed, 43 percent were self-employed and the rest were working as salaried staff, the survey found.
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