End of six-year journey with a new beginning 

The six-year journey of the Uttoron project ended with a grand closing ceremony in the presence of government stakeholders, partners, and private-sector delegates. The journey of Uttoron started six years back with a vision to bring positive changes in the skills sector of Bangladesh. Primarily it began with an objective to provide technical vocational training to the youths of Bangladesh and ensure the employability of the graduate trainees after the training. However, while working in the field, Uttoron realized that the challenges our youth face in terms of lack of skills is multi-dimensional and direr than anticipated. So Uttoron took a more comprehensive strategy to address those challenges.

The success story does not end here

Over this six-year period, Uttoron trained 3380 youth, established a permeant training center in collaboration with a city corporation, and introduced two new trades in the national skills domain, which the government has already approved. The new trade Packaging and Finishing Operation will create more employment opportunities for women. The welding inspector trade may create a new avenue for introducing an occupation for senior welders. The success story does not end here; the project introduced internationally standardized advanced welding training in Bangladesh in partnership with the government and launched the first-ever soft-skill development app in the native language Bangla.

The closing ceremony was attended by distinguished government officials such as the executive director of the National Skills Development Authority, Chevron Managing director and president, Sr. Secretary, Energy and Mineral Resource Division, development partners, and relevant stakeholders from the government and private sector.

One of the most captivating sessions of the event was where several Uttoron graduates shared their success stories about how the training has changed their life.

The holistic approach that Uttoron took to bring in sustainable impact in the lives of youth will work as an example to skills development projects in the coming days.