A large number of youth in rural areas try to get skills for employment outside the agricultural sector. Local service markets (e.g., electrical, plumbing, sanitation, mechanical, tailoring, electronics and for upgraded occupational skills) are gradually developing or are modernizing and offer employment or self-employment in rural and semi-urban areas. Youths from poor and disadvantaged communities without a good educational base can neither afford nor compete for city centred academic and vocational institutes. A large number of out-of-school youths in Nepal remain unemployed or underemployed due to lack of any specific skills.

SKILL AND KNOW-HOW IMPARTED AT LOCAL LEVEL (SKILL)

Implemented by the partner NGO “SKILL-Nepal” The SKILL project initiated in 1992 a new modality of training: mobile trainers go to rural areas to implement training courses at the local level; training is need based and on the demand from the local village or a local organization; participants get practical skills.

OUTCOMES

• Tracer studies confirm that more than 75% of the trainees practice their skills for gainful employment.

• The experiences have been taken up as a model for the sector and are being up-scaled through franchising to other organizations (see F-SKILL project), mostly in semi-urban and urban areas SKILL itself is exploring new approaches and opportunities to reach a larger number of people in rural areas.
  
  PRESENT STATUS

• Orientation of SKILL to the changing market for training and employment through the creation of three units: training under the franchising system, fee-based training based on contracts, skill training in rural areas

• More than 600 trainees per year trained with at least 75% getting into employment, more than 300 of these in rural areas

• More than 20 market-relevant skill trades are offered with a regular update in line with market needs

• Piloting of new initiatives for assessing skill and employment opportunities through district assessments

PARTNERSHIP

All skill training is done in collaboration with partners or through mobilization of local coordinator. SKILL is not a training provider which just offers training.

• Local partner organizations in rural areas which organize the training events, gather participants, prepare logistics for training and extend post-training support

• Enterprises looking for skill-trained persons in particular in more urban areas

• Projects or organizations which require targeted skill training and contract the services of SKILL

FUNDING

About CHF 50,000 per year from Helvetas. Payment is done based on outcomes, i.e. the number of persons trained and employed. Another about 60-70% of SKILL income/revenue is generated through franchised and contracted training.

CONTACT DETAILS 

Skill & Know-how Imparted at Local Level (SKILL-Nepal)
Jawlakhel, Lalitpur
G.P.O. Box 8975, EPC 674
Kathmandu, Nepal
Tel: +977-1-5527077 or 5549326
Fax:+977-1-5526811
Email: program@skill.wlink.com.np                                                                                      More Info on SKILL