Employment Fund

HELVETAS Swiss Intercooperation Nepal has been managing the Employment Fund Secretariat since its establishment. The objective of the fund was to impart skills training to youth who are unemployed mainly because they do not have proper education and skills demanded by the market. From 2008 to 2015, the fund imparted short-term, market-oriented tech... nical skills training to almost 100,000 young people- mostly poor and disadvantaged youth, with a special focus on women rom disadvantaged backgrounds. As a result, up to year 2015, a total of almost 100,000 youth were trained with the additional support of Department for International Development (DFID), United Kingdom and The World Bank and among them 70% were gainfully employed. Apart from its regular implementation, the Employment Fund also provided technical support to the Enhanced Vocational Education and Training (EVENT) Project which is managed by the Ministry of Education, Government of Nepal with its best practices, approaches, and joint monitoring system. After the devastating earthquake of 2015, the Ministry of Education, Government of Nepal requested the Government of Switzerland to continue support through Employment Fund Project towards 'Skills for Reconstruction' training that can facilitate for speedy reconstruction in rural area. The Employment Fund piloted the Skills for Reconstruction project immediate of earthquake in 2015 with the support of SDC and up-scaled intervention with the additional funding by SDC and DFID during 2016 to 2017. As of 2017 , project has developed ~10000 (32% women) skilled workers in Mason and Carpentry in 10 of the earthquake affected districts. Moreover, the project has also piloted a retrofitting training in which 40 youths received 50 days builder's training. 2,621 houses (1,370 during the training and 1,251 post training) have been constructed with the participation of training graduates by 2017. Accordingly, considering the ongoing need of reconstruction, the Government of Nepal and Government of Switzerland ...Read More