Vocational trainings

Overview

Education is a privilege and not a basic right in many parts of the world. where school facilities are non-existent or inadequate. FYO is working with already existing institutions to provide practical skills to youths. Vocational Training Centers are an important building block in the work done with youths running parallel to the facilities where the youths live and in continuation of the training schooling they have received. They provide the youths from the FYO and young people from the neighborhood with realistic chances for the future on their way to being independent.

High unemployment, bad social starting criteria, the changing demands of the job market, economic marginalization, a lack of training place - these are only a few of the factors with which the youths are confronted once they have finished school. Through the Vocational Training Centers, FYO Children's Villages is trying to offer the youths fair starting possibilities to that they can become independent and so that they are able to cope with the social and economic demands made on them.

The economic imbalance between north and south does, however, demand regionally varying training programs and methods of guidance. The diversification of the job market, supply and demand, national economic factors, regional job offers, the social background of each individual youth, their own perspectives and those thrust upon them from outside, the particulars of the location of the training centers - these are all aspects which have to be considered when constructing an FYO Vocational Training Center.

What is taught is therefore strongly orientated towards the local and regional job prospects. This is so that the youths are not trained and are then unemployable. FYO youths and young people from the neighborhood who are socially disadvantaged or who have hardly any other training prospects are therefore given vocational qualifications and skill which will allow them to live an autonomous life as an adult.

Some of the Vocational Training Centers offer temporary jobs where the youths can gain practical experience and either sell the products they make of offer their services. Vocational Training Center can either be in the form of small workshops or they can be projects which offer training in various trades to hundreds of young people. Often the centers work together with local firms or other partners. They also do research into the job market and offer careers advice.

There are over 3 FYO Vocational Training Centers offering courses and apprenticeships in trades, industries and various service branches. The range of courses on offer is therefore very varied: motor mechanics, metalwork, printing, plumbing, and electrical engineering, carpentry, cookery and tailoring, old traditional trades, home economics, office administration, agricultural courses in farming and breeding animals, computer training, etc.