The Vocational Skills Development project continues to address multiple dimensions of poverty

Swisscontact in Myanmar has been implementing the Vocational Skills Development project (VSDP) funded by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation since 2013. The project has continued to address multiple dimensions of poverty by facilitating quality training and enhanced employment outcomes for individuals with limited education and economic opportunities and anchoring the training offers in the world of work, primarily with the employers in the private sector.  

Currently in its third four-year phase, which started in April 2023, the project is working to improve the resilience, including access to markets, of small and medium enterprises in the agriculture, textiles, and infrastructure maintenance sectors. The difficult political, social, economic and security context due to protracted conflict means it is more about survival than growth of the enterprises and economy. The project is also strengthening the relevance, quality, and access of vocational skills development (VSD) to include more women and internally displaced people (IDPs). Here is a glimpse at the VSDP’s focus and achievements in 2023. 

In agriculture, the VSDP worked with private training providers to capacitate around 970 small and medium-sized farmers and agricultural workers, 58 percent of whom were youth between the ages of 17 and 24 and 64 percent were women, with skills training in good agriculture practices, food processing, and value-added food production based on locally available agricultural products. The training is expected to aid these farmers and agricultural workers to make informed choices in an uncertain environment and earn adequate income to sustain their livelihoods.  

In textiles, VSDP initiated measures to improve the producers’ knowledge about the needs of importers in Europe and consumers in Myanmar. The project also supported FXB, an organisation involved in, among others, providing alternative education to youth in Myanmar, to roll out demand-based tailoring training programmes for around 80 youth belonging to lower economic status, different ethnic groups, and displaced by ongoing conflict.