Closing ceremony of Uttoron project held

Uttoron - Skills for better life project, funded by Chevron and implemented by Swisscontact, has completed its six years journey.

In presence of all stakeholders, the closing ceremony of the project was recently organised in Dhaka, said a press release.

Md Mahbub Hossain, Senior Secretary, Energy and Mineral Resources Division, graced the programme as the chief guest.

Nasreen Afroz, Executive Chairman (Secretary), National Skills Development Authority, Prime Minister’s Office, was present as the special guest while Eric M Walker, President and Managing Director, Chevron Bangladesh, was the guest of honour.

The project worked to capacitate promising youths, create access to training for youth and capacitate the government. In first phase (2016-2019), the project worked in three regions (Habiganj, Moulavibazar and Sylhet) and in the second phase (2019-2022), worked in five regions of the country (Dhaka, Habiganj, Khulna, Moulavibazar and Sylhet).

The second phase of Uttoron came into existence from 2019 to 2022, and this time, with a more holistic approach to confront the challenges of the skills development domain.

In this phase, total of 2,014 youths of the age bracket 18-35 from Dhaka (Dhaka North City Corporation and Dhaka South City Corporation); Habiganj (Nabiganj upazilla); Moulavibazar (Kamalganj, Sadar and Sreemangal upazilla); Sylhet (Khadimpara, Khadimnagar, Tukerbazar, Tultikor Union and Sylhet City Corporation) were enrolled in eight market demanded trades, out of these 1,931 graduated.

Among them, 24 per cent of the trainees were female and 74 per cent of the graduates have already been employed (self-employment and wage-employment).

The project established a sustainable permanent training facility at the heart of Sylhet, in partnership with Sylhet City Corporation (SCC), which will run beyond the project period. This facility has 9,000 square feet of dedicated space. In five trades annually 800 trainees can be trained from this facility.

The project in partnership with the country’s prime welding body Khulna Shipyard established 4,000 square feet of sophisticated advanced welding, where 3G to 6G international-level welding training will be provided, trainees will be assessed on international standards and will be certified by globally well-recognised certification institute Bureau Veritas (BV).

Speaking at the ceremony, Md Mahbub Hossain said, “I would like to thank Swisscontact for implementing Uttoron in such an innovative way. The partnership with city corporations and government training institutes like Khulna Shipyard TTC are examples of NGOs activities successfully supporting government in achieving SDG goals.”

Nasreen Afroz said, “Uttoron maintained a close working relationship with NSDA. With guidance from NSDA it has developed competency standard for packaging and finishing operation trade, a new trade that will address the demand of skilled workforce in the packaging sector.”

“I am happy to inform you that it has already been approved by Prime Minister’s Office. In collaboration with us it has developed the national standard for welding inspection trade for the welding inspector occupation,” she added.

Eric M Walker said, “We are proud to be a part of Uttoron, which is the skilled workforce development component of our Bangladesh Partnership Initiative – a multi-year, multi-pronged social investment programme built on our core commitment to support economic development in our areas of operation in the north-east of the country.”

“Specifically, Uttoron is focused on addressing Bangladesh’s technical skills shortage through the delivery of high-quality, vocational training programmes to aspiring community youths, many of whom are women,” he added.