As part of a pilot initiative, the Youth Employment through Skills (YES) programme has launched yesterday a fundraising campaign with the aim to raise US$ 40,000 to teach young Bangladeshis.
This innovative venture is collaboration between the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Bangladesh and Coders Trust with sponsorship from Standard Chartered Bank Bangladesh and Better Shelter.
The main objective of the “yes project” is to teach young Bangladeshis the technical coding, communication and freelancing skills. They need in order to start earning a living in the international digital freelance IT marketplace. The need for YES programme comes at a critical time as approximately 41% of Bangladeshi youth are not in education, employment, or in training, a press release said.
UNDP and Coders Trust have devised a six month ‘Learn and Earn’ programme for Bangladeshi youth which provides them with world-class content, one-to-one mentoring and online learning, as well as offering the chance to work on real, paid assignments. In addition, the students will learn how to boost their confidence and gain the communication, negotiation and presentation skills they need to compete in international markets.
UNDP’s National Goodwill Ambassador for Youth, the legendary Mashrafe Bin Mortaza, Captain of the Bangladesh Cricket Team, will be directly involved in the campaign. Anyone who supports the campaign will be eligible for some amazing gifts, including Twitter shout-outs and autographed cricket balls and bats from Mashrafe himself. All the money raised through the campaign will go towards covering the costs of equipping the mobile classroom units with desks, chairs, computers and Internet access, as well as funding the Learn and Earn programme. The end goal for the YES programme will be to train 100,000 Bangladeshi youth over the next three years, helping each of them to start earning an income of up to USD 300 per month.
In the first phase of the programme, UNDP and Coders Trust are launching a mobile classroom pilot for 360 students in the Narail District of Bangladesh. The first group of students of the YES programme will begin training in early 2017, with a plan to generate publicity and additional funding in order to launch another 180 mobile classrooms incrementally over a period of three years.
UNDP Bangladesh Country Director Nick Beresford, explains that, “the Youth Employment through Skills Programme will help the country’s smart and talented young people get a good start in the vibrant global digital economy.”
