A new project has been undertaken to empower out-of-school adolescent girls and young women with market-driven occupational skills, transferable skills and job placements with support from the South Korean government.

On behalf of the government of Republic of Korea, Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA), in collaboration with UNICEF Bangladesh, completed an implementation study by Korean experts.

KOICA will provide US$ 6 million grant aid to UNICEF Bangladesh to implement this project (2022- 2025) in seven districts of Bangladesh, namely Barishal, Bhola, Mymensingh, Gazipur, Dhaka, Narayanganj and Chattogram, KOICA said on Monday.

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An Implementation-survey Mission from South Korea visited Bangladesh from April 3 to 11, for designing the proposed project.

The main purpose is to empower out-of-school adolescent girls and young women with transferable and market-driven occupational skills and earning.

The need for the project has been informed by a number of factors including the urgent need to provide opportunities for skills and employment to out-of-school adolescent girls, the impact of COVID 19, weaknesses in service provisions, strategic opportunities available for scaled sustainable interventions, economic opportunities that young people can tap into and need to help Bangladesh meet its human development objectives.

Three existing modalities of training, namely, Informal Apprenticeship, Entrepreneurship training and Center-based occupational training, mostly for the informal sectors, are under consideration to address the interests of learners, demand of job markets and options to address multiple groups.

The project is also expected to make linkages with Korean corporations in Bangladesh for apprenticeships and job placements.

KOICA Bangladesh team participated in a wrap-up meeting of the implementation-survey mission with the UNICEF team, led by Veera Mendonca, UNICEF Representative to Bangladesh (Officer-in-Charge).

The expert team presented the result of the survey mission in which KOICA and UNICEF both agreed on the outcomes and implementation modality of the project.

KOICA expert team had a series of discussions with all the relevant stakeholders, including Bureau of Non-Formal Education, Bangladesh Technical Education Board, BRAC and a2i, VSO Bangladesh.

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The team also visited Keraniganj, Jamalpur and Mymensingh to see the existing similar projects that UNICEF is implementing with its partner organizations.

Young-Ah Doh, Country Director, KOICA Bangladesh Office, hopes that the project will strengthen the skills and employment support system to create an enabling environment for the out-of-school adolescent girls. She also said that multiple solutions will be considered to address the comprehensive need of supply and demand side that will accelerate the process of linking out-of-school adolescent girls with skills and employment.

Veera Mendonca expressed her gratitude to KOICA and its expert team for the support and assured her full cooperation for the project's successful implementation. She hopes that this project will symbolize KOICA and UNICEF’s long standing partnerships which will provide proven solutions to empower out-of-school adolescent girls and young women with smooth transition to decent work options.