Objectives of vocational training

Grameen Shikkha started a vocational training program in 2008 with financial assistance mainly from C&A. The program is currently being financed by The GSRD Foundation. General objective of the program is development of human resources of Bangladesh with a view to expediting economic development of the country. Specific objective is to empower poor young men and women from rural areas and urban slums with vocational training at affordable costs so they could find gainful employment either as self- or as wage-employed and pull themselves and their families out of poverty. Maintaining market-orientedness and quality of training and achieving self-sustainability are other objectives of the program.

To oonduct the program Grameen Shikkha established a full-fledged vocational training center at some rented premises at Talbag, Savar near Dhaka City in early 2008. The center provides training in different trades and has so far trained more than 12,000 young men and women. Nearly a third of the trainess are women. Poorer students are provided scholarship support.

Permanent Vocational Training Center at Kalma, Savar

With financial assistance from C&A, Grameen Shikkha constructed another vocational training center in 2013 (Grameen Shikkha’s own training complex) in the village Kalma in Savar. The village is about six kilometers from Savar town and 30 kilometers from Dhaka City. This vocational training center is a five-storey building with a plinth area of about 6,600 sft. On the 3^rd and 4^th floors there are dorms, which can accommodate more than a hundred students. This training center is specialized in electrical training with a modern lab furnished by Schneider Electric, France.

There are 15 classrooms in the center, each about 500 sft in size. Beside classrooms, there are coordinator's room, manager and accountant's rooms, teachers' common room, students' common/recreation room, library, store, kitchen and dining etc.

Trades/training courses offered at Grameen Shikkha VTC

Trades which are currently offered are:

SL No.	Trade	Duration	Educational Level of Trainees
1	Industrial Sewing	1.5 months	Grade V to above
2	Computer Fundamentals & Applications	2.0 months (Regular) (6.0 months for BTEB course)	Grade VIII to above
3	Garments Machine Mechanics	2.0 months	Grade V to above
4	Internet	07 days	Grade VIII to above
5	Electrical House Wiring	2.0 months (Regular) (6.0 months for BTEB course)	Grade V to above
6	Fan-Motor Rewinding	2.0 months	Grade V to above
7	Computer Graphics	2.0 months	Grade VIII to above
8	Dress Making & Tailoring	2.0 months	Grade V to above
9	Solar Home System Management	1.0 month	Grade X and XII to above
10	Motorbike Repair	4.0 months	Grade V to above
11	Spoken English	3.0 montghs	Grade VIII to above

Customized training courses may also be organized on demand.

Practical training for diploma students

Different polytechnic institutes are sending their students to Grameen Shikkha vocational training centers for industrial attachment. More than 300 diploma students of electrical engineering have received three months practical training (residential) as industrial attachment at the Kalma Vocational Training Center. The Schneider Training Lab furnished by Schneider Electric in 2013 is used for this training.

 

Partnership and collaboration in vocational training

Japan Automechanic Ltd.: A social business jointly established by Shikkha and S K Dream

JA was established in 2013 as a Social Business company under a joint venture agreement between Grameen Shikkha and S K Dream of Japan (A foundation of Autobacs). Later Rangs Workshop Ltd. of Bangladesh joined this initiative. JAL has established a modern automechanic school called Japan Automechanic school in Dhaka in 2015 with the objective of training poor Bangladeshi school-dropout young men of Bangladesh in Japanese best practice automechanics and panel beating/painting techniques as well as providing automechanic repair services. The training is a two years course which is also provides proficiency in workshop English. The first batch 10 students joined training in January 2015 and completed their training in December 2016. The second batch of 17 started training in January 2016 and completed their training in December. Another four batches joined in January 2017, January 2018, January 2019, January 2020 and September 2022. Graduates are hired by Rangs Limited, Bangladesh, their partner organizations and other automechanic service providers.

From 2021 JAL is sending its graduates to Japan where the graduates are working as technical intern at renowned Japanese companies like Mercedes Benz. More than a dozen graduates have already gone to work in Japanese companies. Students for this training are selected from among poor secondary school graduates through competitive tests organized by Grameen Shikkha and Japan Automechanic School.

Grameen Shakti

Grameen Shakti, another company in the Grameen family of companies established by Nobel Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus (who is also the founding chairperson of Grameen Shikkha), is the biggest solar service provider in the world. Under a collaboration between Grameen Shikkha and Grameen Shakti, Shikkha provided in-service training to 531 Grameen Shikkha staffs (field assistant, senior technician and sub-assistant engineers) during 2014-2015.

Foundation de France (Schneider Electric)

Under a collaboration with Foundation de France (Schneider Electric), Grameen Shikkha conducted a three-month residential Basic Electrical Training (Schneider model) for 100 unemployed young men at the Grameen Shikkha-CISD Vocational Training Center at Kalma during 2013 and 2014. Schneider Electric also set up a modern electrical training lab at the Kalma center for this purpose. The lab was later used to provide practical training to students of electrical engineering (as industrial attachment) in four years diploma engineering course in various engineering institutes of the country. About 200 such students received this course at the Kalma center.

C&A

Financed by C&A under a separate agreement, Grameen Shikkha conducted an Industrial Electrical Wiring Training (both residential and non-residential) beside its regular C&A funded program. Under this collaboration Shikkha trained 200 young men students in Industrial Electrical Wiring at its two Grameen Shikkha-CISD Vocational Training Centers in Savar town and Kalma.

VERC, VASD and ABF

Grameen Shikkha also conducted training for VERC (Village Education Resource Centre), VASD (Village Association for Social Development) and ABF (Access Bangladesh Foundation) between 2013 and 2015. These three Bangladeshi NGOs got more than a hundred of their beneficiaries trained at Grameen Shikkha-CISD Vocational Training Center in Savar in industrial sewing, dress making & tailoring, and electrical house wiring.

Peoples Leasing & Financial Services Ltd.

On May 4, 2017 Grameen Shikkha and Peoples Leasing & Financial Services Ltd., a famous leasing company in Bangladesh, entered an agreement to provide vocational training to poor young men and women of Bangladesh. Under the agreement Peoples Leasing gave grant of half a million taka to Grameen Shikkha to provide vocational training to 100 (one hundred) men and women at the Savar vocational training center. The training would be non-residential and would be provided in four selected trades: Industrial Sewing, Dress Making & Tailoring, Garments Machine Mechanics, and Computer Fundamentals & Applications. Training started in June 2017 and ended in December 2017.

GSRD Foundation

GSRD Foundation financed a special project named "Vocational Training for the Unemployed Youth" to provide short term vocational skills training to 1,000 young men and women in Bangladesh who are unemployed or have become unemployed because of COVID. It was a non-residential training project conducted at the Thana Road, Savar training center of Grameen Shikkha. Students received skills training in electrical house wiring, fan-motor rewinding, industrial electrical wiring, industrial sewing, dress making & tailoring, garments machine mechanics, computer applications and Internet etc.

In 2022 GSRD entered into a longer collaboration with Grameen Shikkha to train nearly 1,200 youths every year with two new vocational skills - spoken English and motorbike repair - added to existing courses.  The collaboration will continue until end of 2025.

Government certification of Grameen Shikkha-CISD Vocational Training Center

A significant development in 2017 was certification of Grameen Shikkha-CISD Vocational Training Center by Bangladesh Government. After a decision taken in a board meeting of Shikkha in March 2017 to go for government certification for certain training courses at Grameen Shikkha-CISD Vocational Training Center, Shikkha applied for certification of certain training courses by Bangladesh Technical Education Board (BTEB). Upon inspection by BTEB authority, Grameen Shikkha-CISD Vocational Training Center was certified by BTEB. Grameen Shikkha vocational students under these two courses can enroll with BTEB and sit for BTEB exams conducted by them at their specified centers. Students successfully passing the exams are awarded certificates from BTEB. More than 300 Grameen Shikkha vocational students have so far passed BTEB certification exams.