Similarly, in a secluded vicinity of Phaplu in Solukhumbu, there runs the only vocational training school that caters to the young people in the region by providing them those necessary skills.[break]
Running with the initiative of Himalayan Health and Education, the sister organization of Himalayan Health and Environmental Services Solukhumbu (HHESS), Solukhumbu Technical School started providing vocational training to the people of Solukhumbu even without a proper building but only with the license from the government.
“It’s been a long time since we established the technical school. Initially, we just started with two trainings on auxiliary health workers and auxiliary nurse midwifery,” says Dr Mingmar Gyelzen Sherpa, the founder of HHESS and also the focal person of telemedicine at the Ministry of Health in Kathmandu.
The vocational school has come a long way since. Besides nursing training, it now provides trainings in wiring, cooking, and tailoring (stitching and knitting), among other skills.
Recently, a proper building has been constructed to run the same vocational trainings. The name has been changed to The Technical and Vocational Training Centre.
The funds for the building was provided by the United Nations World Food Program (UNWFP) under the program Food for Assets. The construction took two years to complete, and the formal inauguration will take place once the programs start running fully.
The training of Auxiliary Nurse Midwives, which is an 18-month course, has been running with the aid of different organizations, like Poverty Alleviation Fund, South Asia Foundation, and Cunina Belgium, for each batch every year. The third batch of nursing trainees recently graduated from the organization.
According to Ngima Tendup Sherpa, Chairman of HHESS, every year in the Solukhumbu region, around 1,500 students take the SLC exams. Some 60% of them pass, and the rest who fail are left out of work.
“The school curriculum set by Nepal Government doesn’t provide skill learning. So among those who fail in the SLC examinations are left unskilled and useless.”
Even many among the SLC graduate students don’t get proper jobs. So this vocational school intends to support them by providing short- and long-term trainings.
“Moreover, all the SLC graduates don’t continue their further studies, and so these students need to take such trainings to enter the job market with skills,” adds Sherpa.
The training, Ngima further adds, is relevant to today’s context and also aims to teach the young people about the importance of the environment and how we can fight against climate change.
“The idea is to teach them how we can adapt to climate change and help save the environment. For instance, we aim at producing environment-friendly carpenters who are aware of using less wood, and also chefs who don’t waste food,” he explains.
“So, basically, it is not only training but an effort of what we can do to fight against climate change and how we can adapt to it. Climate adaptation is one component of the training, and the other is to retain, revive and maintain local traditional skills. We also try to teach our own traditional carpentry designing, traditional furniture, and Thangka painting which the younger generation are unaware of and have forgotten,” he adds.
The training, as per Ngima, is not only for young students but caters even to housewives or anyone who is on the lookout for such trainings.
He further adds that there are many unskilled persons going abroad from Nepal. Many, especially from rural areas, are easily manipulated and cheated in the process. So the training helps them in these matters, too. Besides, it also helps people who are economically weak and they don’t have to go to the cities to take such vocational trainings.
Moreover, there is not a single training school of this kind in the entire Solukhumbu region.
“We’re trying to make this a model institution in the Himalayan region and also have the neighboring regions get benefits from it,” added Ngima.
Related story
Nepal Airlines resumes four weekly flights between Phaplu and K...
-1200x560-1779450784.webp)
