Quarterly Progress Report – January to March 2018: Punjab Youth Workforce Development Project

This approach expedited skill-based training for eventual gainful economic advancement for an increased number of marginalized youth in the focus districts. The project increased youth awareness, enhanced livelihood opportunities, and improved economic and social well-being for the beneficiary community. The project significantly increased the numbers in the jobs placement category by increasing its engagements with the private sector, particularly businesses operating at the local level. At the end of March 2018, the project identified a total of 162 Community Organizations (COs), which supported the project's outreach to 6,712 marginalized youth. The PYWD Project successfully enrolled 3,520 youth, out of which 1,626 had completed their training programs. Additionally, 851 youth were using the acquired demand-driven technical and vocational skills for earning their livelihood in various sectors. The project expanded the community outreach of the program with the intent to reach a maximum number of direct and indirect beneficiaries. Twenty-five new Community Organizations (COs) were engaged during this reporting period, and the PYWD Project conducted on-field orientation sessions with members of COs along with local community members. The project utilized COs and local-level stakeholders to reach out an additional 2,761 marginalized families during the quarter. The PYWD Project facilitated the permanent placements of 530 youth in paid jobs, with an average monthly income of PKR 10,000. The project also paved the way for 321 youth towards self-employment through provision of trade-specific toolkits. Another 200 youth were being transitioned towards paid jobs after completing 1-3 months On-Job Training (OJT) with industry partners. The positive outcomes reported at the end of this quarter have produced useful insights regarding the sectors and vocations with higher employment potential. The Community Engagement Team celebrated the International Day for Social Justice and Women's International Day during February and March 2018. Around 230 youth from the project's focus districts participated in these events, facilitated through intellectually stimulating activities such as quizzes, discussions, and activity demos. The project received positive feedback from the participants who rated the discussions as highly useful in learning new concepts and pledged to carry forward the messages within their communities. As part of the Institutional Training, the PYWD Project initiated four new courses with one of its key public-sector training providers, the Punjab Vocational Training Council (PVTC). In the current batch, three demand-driven trades (Heating Ventilation Air Conditioning & Refrigeration (HVACR), Fashion Designing, and Solar Technician) were chosen. Currently, 104 trainees from marginalized groups of the targeted districts were enrolled to enhance their skills-set in these trades. Additionally, the selection of 1,100 female youth has been completed for the 'Skills for Market Linkages Program (SMLP)'. This program is being implemented with PSDF's collaboration in all PYWD Project districts. The PYWD Project completed a 5-day Entrepreneurship Training during March 2018, following Akhuwat's successful technical and financial appraisal of 40 youth from the Multan & Muzaffargarh Districts. The training program included detailed sessions on business identification, idea exploitation, and negotiation, marking of idea/business, and customer satisfaction. This will be followed by disbursement of loans to trained youth in the next quarter for supporting the establishment of microenterprises. Another significant achievement of the current quarter was the execution of teachers' training in Institutional Capacity Building (ICB) for improving learning and understanding of youth towards Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET). The PYWD Project initiated the Teachers' Training subcomponent to bridge the capacity gaps identified during the prior in-depth assessments of training institutes. The training of trainers (TOT) included 27 instructors of PVTC institutes, identified for spearheading institutional change.