Vocational Training

Vocational training is how we help under-employed women and men earn a living — either by starting small work at home or by finding a job. Students also join our social awareness seminars.

Tailoring courses run for four months, two sessions a day, three hours each, with a machine for every student. At least 80% of students are women. Centres operate in Dhaka (Mohammadpur), Bogura, Gaibandha, and Rangpur. District centres use electric sewing machines; village centres keep pedal machines. Courses cover measuring, cutting, and sewing for women's clothing and several items of children's and men's clothing. In Bogura we also run residential courses so graduates can teach in villages where our primary schools operate.

Handicrafts is a new programme. In the first year we train one staff member and look for local and international sales outlets. From the second year, three-month classes of nine students begin, with at least one trainee from a village school area who can later teach at home. The aim is to equip primarily women with a skill they can sell.

House wiring, refrigeration, and air-conditioning repair is taught at our Geneva Camp centre in Dhaka: two three-hour courses a day for three months, up to six students per course. We teach high standards of integrity and quality work with good materials. This training is planned to expand to Bogura.