Practical vocational training (YEP)

Le projet

The project provides young people in Nepal’s Terai region with vocational training and supports them in entering the professional world. The courses are geared to the local employment market and form a key part of the vocational training system in the project regions. The project’s active labour market activities improve the young peoples’ chances of finding a job or becoming self-employed and increasing their income.

The training courses are broken down into modules which can be taken independently of each other. This takes account of the different educational levels of the young participants.

Furthermore, Swisscontact contributes to the social cohesion of the ethnically highly heterogeneous population of south-east Nepal and promotes an entrepreneurial mindset among young migrants who return to their home regions.

Project Goals

The project aims to improve the livelihood of 2 310 young Nepali women and men from the southern rural districts Sarlahi, Mahottari, Sindhuli, Morang, Sunsari and Dhakuta through entrepreneurship promotion, skills development, and skills enhancement activities. It will achieve this by capacity building of local NGOs and private institutions, enabling them to provide a range of technical skills and entrepreneurship training. The project works in three areas:

Entrepreneurship promotion: 400 youths, including returning migrants, attend entrepreneurship training of which 240 (60% of trainees) set up a small business and practice a profession that secures their livelihood.
Skills development: 2 500 unemployed youth benefit from market-oriented high-quality theoretical and practical training. 1 750 (70% of trainees) find a salaried job or become self-employed and contribute substantially to their family income after completing the skills development training.
Skills enhancement: 400 working youths enhance their skills in theoretical and practical training. 320 (80% of trainees) increase their income by 50% compared to before the training.

Partenaire du projet

Micro, small and medium enterprises
Educational institutes
Financial institutions
Local radio stations

Résultats

A total of 2 898 young men and women completed an entrepreneurship, skills development or skills enhancement training.
200 entrepreneurship training graduates set up a small business and practice a profession that secures their livelihood.
1 962 skills development training graduates found a job or became self-employed and contribute substantially to their family income.
242 further-trained young adults increased their income by at least 50%.
The total cumulative income increase amounts to over CHF 4 800 000.

Financing partners

In 2020, the Youth Employment project was financed by the City of Zurich, the Happel Foundation, the Symphasis Foundation, the Tibetania Foundation, and was part of the Swisscontact Development Programme, which is co-financed by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), Federal Department of Foreign Affairs FDFA.