Of the total amount, $20 million will be extended by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in the form of grant, an ADB statement issued on Wednesday states. The remaining amount will have to be contributed by the Nepal government. [break]
“Nepal critically needs higher and employment-centric economic growth; and the lack of skilled labor is a key constraint,” the ADB statement quotes Kenichi Yokoyama, country director of ADB´s Nepal resident mission, as saying.
The grant, just approved by the ADB´s Board of Directors, will be used to provide training to youths in construction, manufacturing and services sectors where “there are large skills gap”. This will help Nepal meet the objectives set by the Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) Policy 2012 by improving the quality, relevance and efficiency of the country´s technical and vocational education and training institutes.
The five-year project aims at providing basic level training and employment services to 45,000 people. Of these, at least 40 percent will be women and 30 percent will include people from excluded groups, says the statement. The training will be extended by private sector training and employment service providers.
“The project will improve the quality and relevance of TVET by transforming 10 public TVET providers into more efficient, market-driven model institutes,” says the statement. “In addition, 25 new fee-paying mid-level programs will be developed in the priority sectors of construction, manufacturing, and services to be delivered in 10 model institutes and set up partnerships with industry so the institutes can respond to the needs of the market.”
The project also aims to provide training to 300 TVET professionals in management, occupational skills, instructional skills and curriculum development.
“The project will also help the Ministry of Education set up financial mechanisms to fund skills development and help the Council for Technical Education and Vocational Training to restructure itself so that it can work better to answer the needs of the growing private sector in Nepal,” the statement says.
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