Skills for Employability: South Asia Evaluation Monitoring & Evaluation Report Pakistan and Bangladesh March 15, 2012 Submitted to British Council Submitted by ASK Development (Pvt.) Limited Contents Acknowledgements ....................................................................................................................................... 1 List of Acronyms .......................................................................................................................................... 2 Executive Summary ...................................................................................................................................... 3 Background ............................................................................................................................................... 3 Methodology ............................................................................................................................................. 3 Findings and conclusions .......................................................................................................................... 4 Recommendations ..................................................................................................................................... 4 Chapter I ....................................................................................................................................................... 7 PROJECT BACKGROUND ........................................................................................................................ 7 1.1 Background to British Council and Skills for Employability ............................................................. 7 1.2 Skills for Employability in South Asia ............................................................................................... 7 1.2.1 History.......................................................................................................................................... 7 1.2.2 Prospects ...................................................................................................................................... 9 Chapter 2 ..................................................................................................................................................... 10 METHODOLOGY ..................................................................................................................................... 10 2.1 Sample selection ............................................................................................................................... 10 2.2 Sample collection techniques ............................................................................................................ 11 2.3 Data analysis ..................................................................................................................................... 11 Chapter 3 ..................................................................................................................................................... 12 EVIDENCE FROM PAKISTAN................................................................................................................ 12 3.1 Policy Dialogue ................................................................................................................................. 12 3.1.1 Perspective of IAG Representatives........................................................................................... 13 3.1.2 Perspective of Link Coordinators .............................................................................................. 14 3.2 Social Entrepreneurship .................................................................................................................... 17 3.2.1 Perspective of Winning Teams .................................................................................................. 18 3.2.2 Perspective of Participating Teams ............................................................................................ 24 3.2.3 Perspective of Participant Students not Shortlisted ................................................................... 31 3.2.4 Perspective of Master Trainers .................................................................................................. 36 3.2.5 Perspective of Principal and Teachers ....................................................................................... 42 3.2.6 Perspectives from Community Members ................................................................................... 47 2 Skills for Employability- South Asia Evaluation Chapter 4 ..................................................................................................................................................... 51 EVIDENCE FROM BANGLADESH ........................................................................................................ 51 4.1 Policy Dialogue ................................................................................................................................. 51 4.1.1 Workshop Participants ............................................................................................................... 51 4.1.2 Radio Programme Members ...................................................................................................... 52 4.2 College Partnerships ......................................................................................................................... 52 4.3 Social Entrepreneurship Competition ............................................................................................... 53 4.3.1 Results from the Winning Team ................................................................................................ 53 4.3.2 Results of Participating Teams .................................................................................................. 58 4.3.3 Results from Students who Participated but not Shortlisted ...................................................... 62 4.3.4 Results from the Master Trainers ............................................................................................... 66 4.3.5 Results from Teachers and Principals ........................................................................................ 69 Chapter 5 ..................................................................................................................................................... 75 COMPARISON OF PAKISTAN AND BANGLADESH; AT GLANCE ................................................. 75 Chapter 6 ..................................................................................................................................................... 85 SUCCESS STORIES .................................................................................................................................. 85 6.1 Pre- Fabricated Houses ..................................................................................................................... 85 6.2 Solid Waste Management ................................................................................................................. 86 6.3 Paper Recycling ................................................................................................................................ 87 6.4 Ladies Shop....................................................................................................................................... 88 6.5 Hepatitis ............................................................................................................................................ 88 6.6 Honey Production ............................................................................................................................. 89 6.7 Tourism ............................................................................................................................................. 90 6.8 Skills Training Center ....................................................................................................................... 91 6.9 UPS Unit ........................................................................................................................................... 92 6.10 Skills Coaching ............................................................................................................................... 92 6.11 Plant Nursery .................................................................................................................................. 93 6.12 Blind Master Trainer ....................................................................................................................... 94 Chapter 7 ..................................................................................................................................................... 95 CONCLUSIONS & RECOMMENDATIONS ........................................................................................... 95 7.1 Policy Dialogue ................................................................................................................................. 95 3 Skills for Employability- South Asia Evaluation 7.2 College Partnerships ......................................................................................................................... 96 7.3 Entrepreneurship Award Strand ........................................................................................................ 96 7.3.1 Legacy ............................................................................................................................................ 96 7.3.2 Impact ............................................................................................................................................ 97 7.4 Overall conclusions and recommendations....................................................................................... 97 Annexure ..................................................................................................................................................... 98 ANNEXURE A: List of Participants ...................................................................................................... 98 ANNEXURE B: References ................................................................................................................. 101 ANNEXURE C: Additional Results from Pakistani Respondents ....................................................... 102 ANNEXURE D: Focus Group Discussions with Pakistani Participants .............................................. 104 4 Skills for Employability- South Asia Evaluation List of Tables Table2. 1: Sample Selection for Evaluation of Policy Dialogue Event ...................................................... 10 Table2. 2: Sample Selection for Social Entrepreneurship Award Competition .......................................... 10 Table3. 1: Perception of Link Coordinators about overall programme ...................................................... 14 Table3. 2: Perception of Link Coordinators about training ........................................................................ 15 Table3. 3: Perception of Winning teams about different indicators of Project Benefits ............................ 20 Table3. 4: Perception of Winning teams about different indicators of the Competition ............................ 21 Table3. 5: Perception of Winning teams regarding extent of problems they faced .................................... 22 Table3. 6: Perception of Winning teams regarding projects' successfulness .............................................. 23 Table3. 7: Location of respondents from Participating Teams ................................................................... 24 Table3. 8: Perception of Participating Teams about project benefits ......................................................... 26 Table3. 9: Perception of participating teams about different indicators of Competition ............................ 27 Table3. 10: Perception of Participating teams regarding extent of problems they faced ............................ 29 Table3. 11: Perception of Participating teams regarding projects' successfulness ..................................... 30 Table3. 12: Location of students who participated but not shortlisted ....................................................... 31 Table3. 13: Perception of participants about Competition indicators ......................................................... 33 Table3. 14: Perception of participants regarding extent of problems they faced ........................................ 33 Table3. 15: Perception of participants regarding competition's successfulness.......................................... 34 Table3. 16: Location of master trainers ...................................................................................................... 36 Table3. 17: Training perception of master trainers ..................................................................................... 38 Table3. 18: Perception of master trainers about training assessment indicators ......................................... 39 Table3. 19: Changes observed by master trainers ....................................................................................... 40 Table3. 20: Perception of Principals and Teachers about training assessment indicators .......................... 44 Table3. 21: Perception of Principals and Teachers about training assessment ........................................... 45 Table3. 22: Perception of principals and teachers about training benefits for students .............................. 46 Table3. 23: Location of Community Members ........................................................................................... 47 Table3. 24: Perception of community members regarding purpose of community involvement ............... 48 Table3. 25: Perception of community members regarding project benefits ............................................... 48 Table3. 26: Perception of community members regarding impact of project on community..................... 49 Table3. 27: Perception of community members regarding project benefits for students............................ 50 Table4. 1: Perception of Winning teams about indicators of project benefits ............................................ 55 Table4. 2: Perception of Winning teams about different Indicators of Competition .................................. 55 Table4. 3: Perception of Winning teams regarding the Extent of Problems they Faced ............................ 57 Table4. 4: Perception of winning teams regarding Project’s Successfulness ............................................. 57 Table4. 5: Perception of Participating teams about different Indicators of Project Benefits ...................... 59 Table4. 6: Perception of participating teams about different Indicators of the Competition ...................... 60 Table4. 7: Perception of Participating teams regarding the Extent of Problems they Faced ...................... 60 5 Skills for Employability- South Asia Evaluation Table4. 8: Perception of Participating teams regarding Project’s Successfulness ...................................... 61 Table4. 9: Perception of students who participated but not shortlisted about competition indicators ........ 63 Table4. 10: Perception of students who participated but not shortlisted about extent of problems they faced ........ 63 Table4. 11: Perception of not shortlisted students about competition's successfulness .............................. 64 Table4. 12: Training perception of master trainers ..................................................................................... 66 Table4. 13: Training assessment indicators of master trainers ................................................................... 67 Table4. 14: Perception about changes observed by master trainers............................................................ 68 Table4. 15: Perception of Principals and teachers about training assessment indicators ........................... 71 Table4. 16: Perception of principals and teachers about training benefits.................................................. 72 Table4. 17: Perception of principals and teachers about training benefits for students .............................. 72 Table5. 1: Gender of Respondents from Pakistan and Bangladesh ............................................................ 75 Table5. 2: Educational Level of respondents from Pakistan and Bangladesh ............................................ 75 Table5. 3: Employment Status of respondents from Pakistan and Bangladesh .......................................... 76 Table5. 4: employment Type of respondents from Pakistan and Bangladesh ............................................ 77 Table5. 5: Working experience of respondents from Pakistan and Bangladesh ......................................... 77 Table5. 6: Perception of participants from Pakistan and Bangladesh about different indicators of Project Benefits 78 Table5. 7: Perception of participants from Pakistan and Bangladesh about different indicators of Competition .... 79 Table5. 8: Contribution of British Council in knowledge acquisition in Pakistan and Bangladesh ........... 79 Table5. 9: Problems faced by respondents from Pakistan and Bangladseh ................................................ 80 Table5. 10: Perception about extent of problems faced by participants from Pakistan and Bangladesh .... 80 Table5. 11: Perception of participants regarding projects' successfulness in Pakistan and Bangladesh..... 81 Table5. 12: Participants who would recommend British Council in future ................................................ 84 TableA 1: List of Participants ..................................................................................................................... 98 TableD 1: Brief description of Projects of participating teams ................................................................. 104 6 Skills for Employability- South Asia Evaluation List of Figures Figure3. 1: Gender of Link Coordinators.................................................................................................... 14 Figure3. 2: Education of Link coordinators ................................................................................................ 14 Figure3. 4: Changes observed in practices by Link coordinators ............................................................... 16 Figure3. 3: Percentage of Link coordinators who visited UK .................................................................... 16 Figure3. 5: Practices shared with trainees ................................................................................................... 16 Figure3. 6: Location of participants from winning teams ........................................................................... 18 Figure3. 7: Gender of participants from Winning teams ............................................................................ 18 Figure3. 8: Education level of participants from Winning teams ............................................................... 19 Figure3. 9: Employment status of winning teams ....................................................................................... 19 Figure3. 10: Employment type of winning teams ....................................................................................... 19 Figure3. 11: Working duration of winning teams ....................................................................................... 20 Figure3. 12: Number of people working with winning teams .................................................................... 21 Figure3. 13: Key role of stakeholders in projects success .......................................................................... 21 Figure3. 14: Contribution of British Council in knowledge acquisition of winning teams ........................ 22 Figure3. 15: Participants of winning teams who started their own business .............................................. 23 Figure3. 16: Participants of winning teams who would like to recommend British Council ..................... 24 Figure3. 17: Gender of participating teams ................................................................................................ 25 Figure3. 18: Education level of participating teams ................................................................................... 25 Figure3. 20: Employment type of participating teams ................................................................................ 26 Figure3. 21: Working duration of participating teams ................................................................................ 26 Figure3. 19: Employment status of participating teams.............................................................................. 26 Figure3. 22: Participants who are still running their projects ..................................................................... 27 Figure3. 23: Number of people working with participating teams ............................................................. 28 Figure3. 24: Plan of respondents to convert project into business .............................................................. 28 Figure3. 25: Key role of stakeholders in project success ............................................................................ 29 Figure3. 26: Contribution of British Council in knowledge acquisition of participating teams ................. 29 Figure3. 28: Participating teams who would like to recommend British Council ...................................... 31 Figure3. 27: Participating teams who started their own business ............................................................... 31 Figure3. 29: Gender of participants who were not shortlisted .................................................................... 32 Figure3. 30: Education level of students who participated but not shortlisted ........................................... 32 Figure3. 31: Employment status of students who participated but not shortlisted .................................. 33 Figure3. 32: Employment type of students who participated but not shortlisted ........................................ 33 Figure3. 33: Percentage of respondents who attended training before competition ................................... 34 Figure3. 34: Key role of stakeholders in competition success .................................................................... 35 Figure3. 35: Contribution of BC in knowledge acquisition of students who participated but not shortlisted .......... 35 Figure3. 36: Improved general employability skills of students who participated but not shortlisted ....... 36 Figure3. 37: Gender of master trainers ....................................................................................................... 36 Figure3. 39: Employment type of master trainers....................................................................................... 37 Figure3. 38: Education level of master trainers .......................................................................................... 37 Figure3. 40: Working experience of master trainers ................................................................................... 38 7 Skills for Employability- South Asia Evaluation Figure3. 41: Trainings attended by master trainers before SfE Program .................................................... 38 Figure3. 42: Contribution of stakeholders .................................................................................................. 39 Figure3. 43: British Council's contribution in knowledge acquisition of master trainers ........................... 39 Figure3. 44: number of students trained through SfE ................................................................................. 41 Figure3. 45: Number of teachers trained through SfE ................................................................................ 41 Figure3. 46: Need of improvement in training program ............................................................................. 41 Figure3. 47: Recommendation of BC by master trainers ............................................................................ 42 Figure3. 48: Age of principals and teachers ............................................................................................... 42 Figure3. 49: Gender of principals and teachers .......................................................................................... 43 Figure3. 50: education level of principals and teachers .............................................................................. 43 Figure3. 51: Employment type of participants............................................................................................ 43 Figure3. 52: Work experience of principals and teachers ........................................................................... 44 Figure3. 53: Training need of principals and teachers ................................................................................ 44 Figure3. 54: Key role of stakeholders ......................................................................................................... 45 Figure3. 55: Contribution of BC in knowledge acquisition of principals and teachers .............................. 45 Figure3. 56: Perception about training program by principals and teachers ............................................... 47 Figure3. 57: Principals and teachers who would recommend BC in future ................................................ 47 Figure3. 58: Ways of communication with project team ............................................................................ 48 Figure3. 59: Respondents heard about BC.................................................................................................. 49 Figure3. 60: Source from where respondents heard about BC ................................................................... 49 Figure3. 61: Community members who would recommend BC ................................................................ 50 Figure4. 1: Location of participants from winning teams ........................................................................... 54 Figure4. 2: Gender of participants from winning teams ............................................................................. 54 Figure4. 3: Educational level of winning teams ......................................................................................... 54 Figure4. 4: Respondents still running the project ....................................................................................... 56 Figure4. 5: Respondents' plan to take project as business .......................................................................... 56 Figure4. 6: Contribution of BC in knowledge acquisition of winning teams ............................................. 56 Figure4. 7: Percentage of respondents who faced problems during competition ....................................... 57 Figure4. 8: Percentage of respondents from winning teams who started their own business ..................... 58 Figure4. 9: Gender of respondents from participating teams ...................................................................... 58 Figure4. 10: Educational attainment of respondents from participating teams ........................................... 59 Figure4. 11: Employment status of respondents from participating teams ................................................. 59 Figure4. 12: Contribution of BC in knowledge acquisition of participating teams .................................... 60 Figure4. 13: Respondents from participating teams who started their own business ................................. 62 Figure4. 14: Respondents from participating teams who would recommend BC ...................................... 62 Figure4. 15: Education level of students who participated but not shortlisted ........................................... 62 Figure4. 16: Employment status of participants who were not shortlisted ................................................. 63 Figure4. 17: Percentage of respondents who attended training before competition ................................... 64 Figure4. 18: Contribution of BC in knowledge acquisition of students who were not shortlisted ............. 65 Figure4. 19: Percentage of students who started their own business after training .................................... 65 Figure4. 20: Percentage of Respondents who would recommend BC ........................................................ 65 Figure4. 21: Education level of master trainers .......................................................................................... 66 8 Skills for Employability- South Asia Evaluation Figure4. 22: Employment type of master trainers....................................................................................... 66 Figure4. 23: Working experience of master trainers ................................................................................... 66 Figure4. 24: Master trainers who attended trainings before SfE program .................................................. 67 Figure4. 25: Contribution of BC in knowledge acquisition of master trainers ........................................... 67 Figure4. 26: Number of students and teachers trained by master trainers .................................................. 69 Figure4. 27: Need of improvement in training program ............................................................................. 69 Figure4. 28: Age of principals and teachers ............................................................................................... 69 Figure4. 29: Gender of principals and teachers .......................................................................................... 70 Figure4. 30: Educational level of principal and teachers ............................................................................ 70 Figure4. 31: Employment type of principals and teachers .......................................................................... 70 Figure4. 32: Experience of principals and teachers .................................................................................... 71 Figure4. 33: Training needs of principals and teachers .............................................................................. 71 Figure4. 34: Contribution of BC in knowledge acquisition of principals and teachers .............................. 72 Figure4. 35: Perception of principals and teachers about training program ............................................... 73 Figure4. 36: Principals and teachers who would recommend BC .............................................................. 74 Figure5. 1: Improvement in employability skills of participants from Pakistan and Bangladesh .............. 82 Figure5. 2: Enhancement of entrepreneurship skills in participants of Pakistan and Bangladesh .............. 82 Figure5. 3: Respondents from Pakistan and Bangladesh who started their own business after training .... 83 Figure5. 4: Respondents from Pakistan and Bangladesh who would participate in future activities ......... 83 9 Skills for Employability- South Asia Evaluation Acknowledgements ASK Development is pleased to present this monitoring and evaluation report of the Programme “Skills for Employability” implemented by British Council. Our aim is to highlight the skills enhancement among youth and changed practices of stakeholders and partners involved in it since its launch in 2008. The objective of this assignment was to focus on the impact of the project from the perspective of its participants and organizations (partners) involved. In accordance with the assignment objectives, a comprehensive review of how the project has met its purpose − to share experience on the ways in which creativity, entrepreneurship and innovation can help to improve employment opportunities across Pakistan and Bangladesh is presented in this report. In addition, we have focused on what has worked as well as on lessons learned. As a result, the findings and subsequent recommendations are mainly based on the feedback received from participants. The methodology adopted for this evaluation was based on primary and secondary data collection techniques. Statistical record is mentioned in the report. This contains information on numbers of participants as well as on the impact of SfE Program. ASK Development would like to thank for the efforts, inputs, and commitment made by our Monitoring and Evaluation Team. Especial thanks are extended to Mr. Uris Umrani and Ms. Madiha Ikram who worked with their constant and tireless efforts. We appreciate their commitment and participation in all the management activities and overall assignment. Sincere appreciation is also extended to Mr. Abdul Sattar Nahyoun for data entry, data analysis and cleaning. Further, we wish to pay indebtedness and gratitude and thanks to Dr. Sarah Tirmazi who have contributed and helped to shape this report by providing technical knowledge, experience and perspective which have significant impact on the report. We should particularly like to acknowledge the important contributions made by YES Network Pakistan, NAVTTC, TEVTA, Industry Advisory Groups, and British Council Project Team. We are also indebted to the community members, principals, teachers, master trainers, and students who participated in interviews. The data and experiences revealed by all the participants have provided important information about SfE Program. Heartiest gratitude to our technology partner “NexSource International” and their team including Salman Khan and Naseer Randhawa for assisting us in data collection through VMB Arshad Akif CEO- ASK Development 1 Skills for Employability- South Asia Evaluation List of Acronyms BC British Council BNNRC Bangladesh NGOs Network for Radio and Communication BPI Barisal Polytechnic Institute BTED Bangladesh Technical Education Board CTEVT Council for Technical Education and Vocational Training DTE Directorate of Technical Education EFA Education for All FDGs Focus Discussion Groups IAG Industry Advisory Groups KPK Kadam Pa Kadam ILO International Labour Organization IVR Interactive Voice Response LMI Labour Market Intelligence MDGs Millennium Development Goals NAVTTC National Vocational and Technical Training Commission NHTTI National Hotel & Tourism Training Institute NQF National Quality Framework SfE Skills for Employability SSC Sector Skills Council TVET Technical and Vocational Education Training UNESCO United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization VET Vocational Educational Training 2 Skills for Employability- South Asia Evaluation Executive Summary Background The Skills for Employability project is fundamentally a cultural relations programme which positions the UK as a key partner in projects that are aimed towards enhancing the competitive skills that the labour force has access to in the South Asian Region. The project is divided into four components: policy dialogue, partnerships for skill development, enterprise and professional networks. The British Council’s Skills for Employability (SfE) programme was successfully launched in 2008. Since its inception the programme in Pakistan has contributed to the development of five partnerships between Pakistani and UK Technical Vocational Education Teaching (TVET) institutes. Additionally the British Council worked with the National Vocational and Technical Education Commission (NAVTTC) to establish industry-driven minimum skill standards, or competency standards in technical and vocational education across 23 different trades. In Bangladesh the programme has successfully enlisted partnerships with two colleges. As part of the programme, a policy dialogue event was held with participation from 70 key position holders in the TVET sector. Moreover, to promote policy dialogue, a Skills for Employability Radio Project was launched across Central and South Asia. The dialogue involved broadcasting a total of 55 radio programmes reaching approximately 9.2 million young people across Pakistan, Afghanistan, Nepal and Bangladesh. The show aimed to provide much needed information regarding skills development, employability and entrepreneurship for both urban and rural youth from across the region. Employers, universities, industrial groups and other professional bodies agree that there is a great need to focus on employability and job-readiness skills. The challenge of increased competition in the market makes these skills particularly necessary. More than ever, professionals are required who are responsive to economic, social, cultural, technical and environmental change and can work flexibly and intelligently across different business contexts. The current Skills for Education project initiated by the British Council with funding from the UK government, represents a move towards improving vocational education and training in Central and South Asia (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan) by initiating reforms on the national and international level. The essential goal of the programme is to create partnerships and trust between the UK and other nations by exchanging knowledge and ideas about skills development. The programme also strives to increase employability amongst the younger generation with the long term target of reducing poverty as a consequence of strengthened bridges between education and industries. Methodology The methodology adopted for this interim evaluation was based on primary and secondary data collection techniques. Tools were designed to assess both the main components of the Skills for Education programme operational in each country. Qualitative and quantitative tools were designed for Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan. The questionnaires were designed with open ended questions to encourage discussion. These questions were asked through individual meetings and by using interactive voice response (IVR) techniques. All aspects of the policy dialogue event and social entrepreneurship competition were covered. Qualitative tools were also used for orchestrating Focused Group Discussions (FGDs) to explore the objectives and impact of the social entrepreneurship award competition. 3 Skills for Employability- South Asia Evaluation Findings and conclusions The results of the evaluation conclusively show that stakeholders, from trainers to competition participants and NAVTTC members, all have positive opinions about the programme as it has been implemented thus far. In Pakistan especially, the inclusion of many women in the programme, and the overall excellent feedback is a commendation to the work. However there were some recurring threads that emerged regarding areas that the British Council may want to explore further as they continue to expand their presence in the region. In Bangladesh although the radio programme was a widespread success, the British Council’s involvement in policy dialogue activities were limited in most other respects. The evidence also demonstrates that currently government involvement in the both country programmes is limited. Overall the success of the Skills for Education programme is indicative of the timeliness of this development intervention, and the British Council's key role in assisting the youth in South Asia to be globally competitive as they enter the labour market. Recommendations The Skills for Education programme in South Asia is now entering its fifth year and thus far the response has been positive to the radio programme, the Enterprise Challenge and the College Partnership initiatives. However the feedback generated from the various stakeholders including members of NAVTTC, TEVTA institutions, competition participants, teachers and trainers has demonstrated that there are still some areas that need to be improved upon. The British Council should therefore take on a more advocacy focused role on both countries. The evidence demonstrates that currently government involvement in the both country programmes is limited and needs to be strengthened in order to become sustainable. Policy Dialogue In general a strong recommendation is that the British Council needs to be more engaged in taking on an advocacy role in the government. The TVET system in the region is evolving so there is ever-increasing potential to work closely with key stakeholders to make long term interventions. Currently the entire region appears to be focusing on apprenticeships, employer engagement and entrepreneurship initiatives and there appears to be a unified move towards developing proper TVET structures and improving the capacity to monitor and enhance current National Vocational Standards. These changes signal a window of opportunity to further expand the British Council’s involvement in the growth of this area. A further area that the British Council should focus on is to make more sustainable interventions, along the same vein as the current interventions to bring the experience of the Sector Skills Council UK to Pakistan. Representatives from the IAGs also indicated that there have been some issues communicating with NAVTTC on various industrial curriculum questions which should be addressed by the British Council in consultation with NAVTTC. The radio show has been extremely successful. Therefore across the region feedback from listeners, government representatives, teachers and others has highlighted the start of knowledge, attitude and behavior changes directly linked to the radio programming. This suggests the need for continuation of the radio program in all four countries where the pilot project ran in. However, for sustained impact the British Council will need to look into finding support for longer term programming to see increases in audience penetration, audience interaction and a deeper impact from program messaging. One way to achieve this is to continue programming in collaboration with other British Council programs 4 Skills for Employability- South Asia Evaluation such as Active Citizens and Global Exchange or by leveraging external contracts to ensure sustainability and long term behavioral change in the society. Moreover greater outreach and expansion into the British Council’s priority areas in the region is also recommended. Any information on employment opportunities or skills-development must be disseminated widely and repeatedly. In addition to this, capacity should also be built to produce local versions of the radio program, in local languages, to connect the youth to service seekers in the area. This includes imparting more information regarding local vacancy announcements and community level training opportunities. The reporting was not done on regular basis and occasionally the deadlines were not met, preventing efficient monitoring. This lack of diligence was also evident in the contracts between partners drawn up, which were devoid of important clauses and stipulations. In addition to this operational difficulties were also faced due to the fact that local partners in the different countries were running the program instead of Equal Access itself. This not only meant lesser responsibility shown by these organizations towards the show but also a lack of British Council’s branding and promotion. While there seems to be a robust policy dialogue strand active in Pakistan, other than the radio programme, this seems to be lacking in Bangladesh. A key recommendation would be to broaden the work done in terms of Policy Dialogue Bangladesh, where the events needs to be linked to a agenda College Partnerships Although assessing the college partnership strand of the programme was not an emphasis in this evaluation, some impressions were gathered in the course of collecting data. The link coordinators were of the opinion that the college partnerships have not only helped the colleges themselves but that the skills that have been learned as a result of the exchange had a larger scale impact in terms of learning. One recommendation is that the courses created and updated under this partnership, should now be put forward for international accreditation. The British Council has completed this strand and they are now thinking of replicating it but we recommend that they should look into the following: Replicating the curricula worked and and finalized during the course of these college partnerships in Pakistan, and extending it to the entire region. Facilitating the process of starting dual certification between both the colleges in the same manner that it is currently done in Rawalakot College in AJK, Pakistan. Widening the range of colleges that are brought into the programme in this strand is highly recommended. Entrepreneurship Award Strand The British Council needs to analyze this program from two angles; at direct impact and at the legacy that it will leave behind. Legacy The British Council needs to consider methods of making its programmes more sustainable. The fact that many of the teachers and trainers are employed in the government sector is a good demonstration that there is increasing public ownership. However this must be further strengthened as much as possible in the future. Examples of successful handovers to the government can be seen in Uzbekistan, where the state took full ownership of this strand. 5 Skills for Employability- South Asia Evaluation Simultaneously, the British Council needs to look for sustainable partners for this strand to upscale its visibility at policy level to incorporate enterprise as part of curricula in TVET Impact One area that the questionnaires continuously revealed a deficit in was in the training given to students in the course of the Social Entrepreneurship Challenge. A majority of participants when asked about the quality of training agreed that there is a strong need to improve the training programme. They suggested that the training duration should be increased, new topics and experiences should be integrated into the curriculum, and master trainers should be given laptops so assist them as they deliver trainings. This will be a good step towards strengthening the skills imparted to the students. Overall conclusions and recommendations Although the project has achieved a lot in last three to four years, there has been little emphasis on marketing materials, stories or publications to support it. The British Council should also be forward thinking and look into what the foundations are doing and how to possibly get sponsorship from them to work on different strands or perhaps even act as a local implementation partner. Finally, the British Council should propose the project to Governments in the region as they do have funding which BC can further explore. 6 Skills for Employability- South Asia Evaluation Chapter I PROJECT BACKGROUND 1.1 Background to British Council and Skills for Employability The British Council is the United Kingdom’s cultural relations organization. Its mission is to build bridges and create international opportunities for exchange between UK citizens and people from other countries, and to build trust worldwide. The Skills for Employability project is fundamentally a cultural relations programme which positions the UK as a key partner in projects that are aimed towards enhancing the competitive skills that the labour force has access to in the South Asian Region. The project is divided into four components: policy dialogue, partnerships for skill development, enterprise and professional networks. 1.2 Skills for Employability in South Asia The British Council’s Skills for Employability (SfE) programme was successfully launched in 2008. Since its inception the programme in Pakistan has contributed to the development of five partnerships between Pakistani and UK Technical Vocational Education Teaching (TVET) institutes. Additionally the British Council worked with the National Vocational and Technical Education Commission (NAVTTC) to establish industry-driven minimum skill standards, or competency standards in technical and vocational education across 23 different trades. In Bangladesh the programme has successfully enlisted partnerships with two colleges. As part of the programme, a policy dialogue event was held with participation from 70 key position holders in the TVET sector. Moreover, to promote policy dialogue, a Skills for Employability Radio Project was launched across Central and South Asia. The dialogue involved broadcasting a total of 55 radio programmes reaching approximately 9.2 million young people across Pakistan, Afghanistan, Nepal and Bangladesh. The show aimed to provide much needed information regarding skills development, employability and entrepreneurship for both urban and rural youth from across the region. Employers, universities, industrial groups and other professional bodies agree that there is a great need to focus on employability and job-readiness skills. The challenge of increased competition in the market makes these skills particularly necessary. More than ever, professionals are required who are responsive to economic, social, cultural, technical and environmental change and can work flexibly and intelligently across different business contexts. The current Skills for Education project initiated by the British Council with funding from the UK government, represents a move towards improving vocational education and training in Central and South Asia (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan) by initiating reforms on the national and international level. The essential goal of the programme is to create partnerships and trust between the UK and other nations by exchanging knowledge and ideas about skills development. The programme also strives to increase employability amongst the younger generation with the long term target of reducing poverty as a consequence of strengthened bridges between education and industries. 1.2.1 History Focusing on generic vocational skills as a method of strengthening the connection between educational institutions and the industries they are meant to serve has become an increasingly accepted economic development intervention. 7 Skills for Employability- South Asia Evaluation April 2008 saw the commencement of a three year grant to fund collaborative college partnership activities. The Skills for Employability project was officially launched in July 2008 in Central and South Asia with the aim of securing partnerships through a competitive application process. This process consisted of visits from UK institutions to their regional partners as well as implementing strategy development workshops for selected institutions. After a series of successful events and dialogues by the end of April 2008, 14 college partnerships were established, creating linkages between the UK and institutions in 5 countries across Central and South Asia. In November 2008 the British Council ran a competition to support the “Make your Mark” theme of Global Entrepreneur Week. The competition encouraged the participation of thousands of people across six countries in Central and South Asia. The British Council conducted this international challenge for the first time in Central and South Asia as part of their global Skills for Employability project in 2008-09. The first ever Regional Enterprise Challenge was won by a team from a small economically marginalized town in Pakistan, and received a cash prize of £2,500, along with a soft loan of Rs.250,000 provided by the British Council.1 Despite the resource restrictions faced by these young entrepreneurs they managed to carry out a successful and profitable business venture in their city. By 2009, 13 college partnerships had been established with 17 institutions from Central and South Asian countries. Twelve high impact policy dialogue events were held in 5 countries across the region. As part of the policy dialogue component, three core working groups of educationalists, employers, government agency and chambers of commerce representatives were established in three countries – Bangladesh, Nepal and Uzbekistan. There were many key partnership arrangements agreed upon with ministries and local VET agencies. Three Memorandums of Understanding (MoU) have been signed to date in the region, including with the National Skills Testing Board in Nepal. Another item on the list of programmatic accomplishments includes conducting an ‘Employer Engagement’ seminar with participants from Pakistan and Kazakhstan attended by 15 T1/T2s from 6 Central and South Asian countries, including Afghanistan and Nepal. The programme has also benefited from positive media exposure as a result of a campaign involving extensive general marketing, the distribution of project flyers, setting up a web-page under the British Council’s vocational partnerships site, circulating related videos and compiling a photo library following the ‘Employer Engagement’ seminar. The case study of the Skills for Employability programme as it has been implemented in Central and South Asia was selected to be featured in the British Council’s Annual Report for 2008-2009 and 2 stories were featured on BBC World. Additionally one of the programme’s success stories is scheduled to be featured on the 75th anniversary website. The project’s regional activities have furthermore received 50 media mentions in the last year, including being covered twice by the UK media. The British Council has been a pioneering force in making the world a global village, by implementing innovative initiatives such as launching the Skills for Employability Radio Project across Central and South Asia. In collaboration with Equal Access, an NGO in Nepal, the British Council successfully broadcasted a total of 55 radio programmes reaching approximately 9.2 million young people across Pakistan, Afghanistan, Nepal and Bangladesh. The radio players targeted employability and entrepreneurship for rural and urban sectors across South Asia. All these countries experience low literacy rates and underdeveloped infrastructure. In these conditions the youth radio training programme is considered a great tool for helping millions to find opportunities. The British Council’s continuous efforts made it possible for the youth in these countries to understand the significance of being skilled, and how they can directly link their competencies with their job roles in order to achieve their career aspirations. 1 British Council, Social Enterprise Award - South Asia Region 8 Skills for Employability- South Asia Evaluation 1.2.2 Prospects Even after the successful conclusion of these initiatives the British Council continues be active in enhancing its regional presence: 1) A three day ‘Sector Skills Training’ that will be followed by a grand Dissemination Conference held in Pakistan, inviting key stakeholders, NGOs, international speakers, TEVTA and NAVTTC staff to identify how universities currently integrate, develop and teach employability skills 2) Consultations with higher education stakeholders including universities, businesses and industrial representatives to review and identify best practices for integrating, developing, teaching, assessing and reporting on employability skills nationally and internationally 3) Identification of practical, cost-effective options that enable employability skills to be explicitly identified as part of the higher education assessment and reporting process 4) Ongoing recommendation assessments and reporting approaches for the recognition of graduate employability skills, and identifying the benefits of additional practical, costeffective and educationally sound processes to assess and report employability skills beyond current arrangements. The Skills for employability project has attracted collaborative efforts from international agencies such as UNESCO, the World Bank, ILO, and the European Training Foundation. Its programmatic success can be attributed to the fact that it fills a current policy gap, providing international dialogue in a critical area which has not been addressed in the past due to the priority given to primary education under the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The programme represents a theoretical shift in thinking that has taken place since October 2009 when UNESCO declared at its General Conference that Skills for Work are the new strategic priority in reaching the Education for All (EFA) goals agreed upon in Dakar. The Sector Skills Council workshops being held in March 2012 will encourage the UK and Pakistani Industry Advisory Groups (IAGs) and Sector Skills Councils (SSCs) to develop their national occupational and aptitude standards. Existing skill delivery models will be analyzed and scrutinized to enhance the operations of future training providers such as a National Skills Academy. The workshop will enable UK SSC’s and Pakistan IAGs/SSCs to identify products available that will help them develop in the long term. The primary aim of this consultancy is to provide evidence that the project has achieved its desired outcomes and outputs against the Skills for Employment target objectives. A second objective is to understand where individual strands have been interrelated to reinforce overall outputs and what effect this has had on the success of the project. Moreover, it aims to provide lessons learnt about the programme’s success, and evidence of achievement of British Council objectives through SfE activity including a range of stakeholders including young people, government institutions, learning providers and wider communities. 9 Skills for Employability- South Asia Evaluation Chapter 2 METHODOLOGY The methodology adopted for this interim evaluation was based on primary and secondary data collection techniques. Tools were designed to assess both the main components of the Skills for Education programme operational in each country. Qualitative and quantitative tools were designed for Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan. The questionnaires were designed with open ended questions to encourage discussion. These questions were asked through individual meetings and by using interactive voice response (IVR) techniques. All aspects of the policy dialogue event and social entrepreneurship competition were covered. Qualitative tools were also used for orchestrating Focused Group Discussions (FGDs) to explore the objectives and impact of the social entrepreneurship award competition. Quantitative tools were designed comprising of closed ended questions keeping in view the following aspects: Demographic information of respondents Perception of respondents about British Council Perception of respondents about the trainings, partnerships, and exposure visits Learning impact of the programme Attribution of British Council in the projects Testimonial sheets were also designed to be completed by stakeholders. 2.1 Sample selection Keeping in mind the stakeholders involved in the Skills for Education programme, a sampling framework was designed for both components. Table2. 1: Sample Selection for Evaluation of Policy Dialogue Event For Evaluation of Policy Dialogue Event Pakistan TEVTA Officials (2 from each TEVTA Punjab, TEVTA Sindh, and TEVTA AJK NAVETAC Officials (4 from Islamabad Head Office) 33% Industrial Advisory Groups Representatives (3 out of 9 ) 30% Link Coordinators (5 out of 17) Bangladesh Radio Programme team (10 participants) Members of Policy Dialogue Event (10 participants) Table2. 2: Sample Selection for Social Entrepreneurship Award Competition For Social Entrepreneurship Award Competition Pakistan Bangladesh Winning Teams (16 members from all the Winning Teams (13 members) 4 teams) 20% Participating Teams (30 students of Participating Teams (14 members) 144 students) 10 Skills for Employability- South Asia Evaluation 2% Students who participated but did not get shortlisted (134 students out of 6500 students) 56% of Master Trainers (14 out of 25) 12 % Principals and teachers (145 out of 1226) Community Members (39 members where social projects were launched) YES Network Official (1) Students who participated but did not get shortlisted (21 members) Master Trainers (5 participants) Principals and Teachers (20 participants) 2.2 Sample collection techniques Direct meetings with stakeholders and Interactive Voice Response (IVR) technology was used for sample collection depending on the distance and sample size. The following steps were carried out: ASK collected the mobile numbers of sample participants as well as their complete addresses. With this data easily accessible in the form of a database, the process with the participants was enabled. The questionnaires were customized to conform to an analytical model. The technological database models converted the questionnaires into analytical modules. The questionnaires were then analytically examined and recorded by the system. Nexsources, one of ASK’s partners, carried out this survey. The participants were interviewed and their responses were gathered in IVR software. The process was completed within 15 days and a comprehensive survey was in place for reporting. 2.3 Data analysis At the first step data cross verification was undertaken. The data were merged within ABC forms horizontally and Pakistan and Bangladesh vertically. The data were converted in SPSS, and then frequency and graph tabulation commands were used for data analysis. 11 Skills for Employability- South Asia Evaluation Chapter 3 EVIDENCE FROM PAKISTAN 3.1 Policy Dialogue The purpose behind the British Council’s policy dialogue initiative is to increase knowledge, trust and engagement between governments, employers and educators, thereby enabling them to contribute more effectively to national skills development reforms. It focuses on employer engagement, forging industrial linkages, creating enterprises and apprenticeships, the development of a National Quality Framework (NQF) and promoting competency based curricula. This aspect of the programme mainly deals with building the capacity of key stakeholders and decision makers by organizing local, regional and international seminars, workshops, forums and consultancies. The core issues involved in skill reforms in our contemporary global economy compel us to look at how questions of how to enhance coordination between ministries, skills agencies, employers and educational institutions are the focus of promoting policy dialogue. Policy Dialogue in Pakistan In Pakistan, in May 2011, NAVTTC in collaboration with the British Council arranged a meeting to validate the skills standards (also called competency standards) of 23 trades of technical and vocational education in Islamabad.2 The meeting was attended by about 50 key stakeholders from the TVET sector including senior representatives from relevant national and provincial government agencies, ministries, and industry and technical institutions. The roots of this meeting date back to January 2009 when NAVTTC with the assistance of British Council formed Industry Advisory Groups for three priority sectors: construction, textile and hospitality and tourism. Each IAG was represented by senior staff of leading companies of these priority sectors and were trained in the UK by relevant UK Sector Skills Councils. On their return, they held a series of sessions for wider industry consultation and used the industry feedback to develop skills standards of 23 priority trades. These skills standards will now serve as the basis of the new curricula being developed by NAVTTC proposed as ‘Centers of Vocational Excellence.’ The validation of these skills standards mark a significant milestone in government efforts to bring reforms in Pakistan TVET sector by creating closer links between the industry and educational institutions feeding them. This is a demonstration of greater government ownership in the concepts embedded in the British Council’s Skills for Education programme. Another initiative taken to promote greater policy dialogue was the introduction of a radio programme in 2010. The programme aimed to raise awareness about technical and vocational education, and training opportunities for young people. A desired outcome of the show is to increase knowledge of the importance of enterprise skills and provide a platform for youth globally to share concerns and experiences around entering the work place. In collaboration with “Equal Access,” an NGO in Nepal, the radio show was implemented in countries across South Asia, including Pakistan. 2 British Council and National Vocational and Technical Education Commission, “Meeting on Market Driven Skills Standards Validated for Technical & Vocational Education,” Islamabad, 20 th May 2011. 12 Skills for Employability- South Asia Evaluation In Pakistan, the radio show, named “Kadam Pa Kadam,” (KPK) provided information about educational and vocational training opportunities and aimed to engage and inspire people from the Khyber Pukhtunkhawah region.3 Reaching an estimated weekly audience of 4 million, including 1.7 young people, KPK provided a vehicle for civic education and community awareness in one of the most remote and marginalized regions of Pakistan. The show included 63 diverse voices from across Pakistan and aired reports, vox-pops, features, interviews, talk shows and monologues and accounts of personal experiences. The programme received considerable appreciation from the people whose lives were changed from listening to the show. Iltaf Hussain, a listener from Rashkhai, Nowshera remarked: “I think such radio programmes should be broadcasted frequently since they are very much informative and help eradicate unemployment in the area.” 3.1.1 Perspective of IAG Representatives In a series of structured interviews, the views of IAG representatives from the construction, textiles and hospitality industries were assessed. Mr. Naeem Mushtaq commented that skills standards developed by the USA are applied all over the world because they are based on human interaction and are readily applicable to Pakistan. He was therefore of the opinion that there is limited space available for UK standards in Pakistan as far as hospitality management is concerned. Additionally since protocols were not established and no orientation on roles was given to the hospitality industry’s IAG, he indicated that there was a sense of dissatisfaction. He related the example that since the group’s leadership role was not made very clear, not all members believed that the industry was being served by its creation. Mr. Usman Mumtaz’s (construction) understanding of the IAG representative’s mandate was to simply advise on skills standards rather than to develop the curriculum of vocational institutions. He was of the opinion that it was NAVTTC’s responsibility to develop the curriculum. There were also disagreements on approving the skills standards that should be put in place for cooks and waiters. Dr. Naeem Mushtaq and Malik Nasir asserted that they had developed standards which they believed were not acted upon by NAVTTC. He was of the view that instead of focusing on the industrial level, business representatives were tending to focus on benefitting their own organizations. The example given was of a Serena Hotel presentation in which members were given their institutional performance presentation instead of achievements of the IAG. One remarked that the “British Council team was unable to manage the project in the right direction.” Another area discussed was that staff turnover at NAVTTC was another reason for the lack of coordination in implementing the project. Positive feedback centered on the one week visit made to the UK for training purposes, during which much was learned regarding industrial practices. These lessons were then applied to domestic venues such as the Islamabad club. Mr. Abdul Khalique from the construction IAG agreed that one of the impacts of the exposure visit to the UK was realizing that people have taken their own initiative. There is great demand for skilled labour in the construction industry overseas such as in Doha. There is an opportunity for Pakistanis because Indians are not willing to move outside the country now because of wage increase in India. A recommendation was made to institute grievance mechanisms in case of conflict in a group. It was also felt that there was disconnect between the curriculum committees and these IAGs. Mr. Mumtaz recommended greater attention to the fact that there were frequent transfers of NAVTTC officials, as this was one of the reasons why progress was slow. Further suggestions included greater understanding amongst NAVTTC officials about IAG’s specific role. 3 British Council, “Skills For Education-Radio Programme.” 13 Skills for Employability- South Asia Evaluation 3.1.2 Perspective of Link Coordinators Figure3. 1: Gender of Link Coordinators Figure3. 2: Education of Link coordinators The graph above is a statistical representation of the proportion of men to women in the group of link coordinators. The second graph shows that 85.7 percent of link coordinators are qualified with Masters level degrees. No one in the sample had lower than a Masters degree. Table3. 1: Perception of Link Coordinators about overall programme Perception of Link Coordinators about overall programme Excellent Very Good Poor Very Good Poor 57.14 Benefits of international partnership to institute 42.86 42.86 57.14 Rating of SfE programme 57.14 42.86 Rating of UK TVET skills 42.86 57.14 Rating of college partnerships 57.14 42.86 Rating of British Council entrepreneurship award The table above shows the perception of link coordinators about the overall programme launched by the British Council. Out of the sample, 57.14% ranked the Skills for Education Programme and college partnerships as very good. Similarly, 57.14% of the link coordinators rated the entrepreneurship award competition as excellent. They were also of the view that this programme had helped a great deal in increasing and adopting the UK technical and vocational skills in Pakistani TVET institutions. 14 Skills for Employability- South Asia Evaluation Table3. 2: Perception of Link Coordinators about training Link coordinators’ perception about training Statements Excellent Very Good 71.43 Good Poor Very Poor - 28.57 Role of TEVTA & employers in module design & updating 42.86 28.57 14.29 Appropriate assessment techniques to check work-based learning 42.86 57.14 Good practices have been disseminated to stakeholders 100.00 0.00 Overall satisfactory contribution of British Council 14.29 Development of knowledge & ideas for new opportunities 85.71 85.71 14.29 College curricula development 85.71 14.29 Accreditation of college curricula 57.14 42.86 Training quality improvement by college partnership 28.57 42.86 28.57 Dissemination of college curricula 28.57 71.43 Good relationships development of British Council with different stakeholders 85.71 14.29 Important role for the TVET sector 42.86 42.86 Change in students perception by college partnership 85.71 14.29 Change in teachers perception by college partnership 42.86 57.14 British Council role in employer engagement in TVET sector 42.86 42.86 Improvement in teacher training quality 57.14 28.57 Improvement in assessment methodology 85.71 14.29 Improvement in employer engagement 100.00 0.00 Improvement in employability skills of students 57.14 42.86 Improvement in actual employment rate of students 28.57 71.43 Quality improvement of students The table above indicates the perception of link coordinators about the training programme and the observed positive changes that have taken place as a result of the training programme. They strongly agree that this training has helped develop knowledge and ideas for new opportunities, enhanced college curricula and improved accreditation mechanisms. Of the respondents, 71.43% said that this partnership has developed very good relationships between the British Council and different stakeholders. The link coordinators observed a greater change in perspective amongst teachers than amongst the students. Most of them observed improvements in employer engagement (85.71%) and there seemed to be a unanimous consensus that the programme had had a positive impact on the employability skills of students (100%). 71.43% participants agree that college partnerships have resulted in introducing a better quality of students into the workforce. 15 Skills for Employability- South Asia Evaluation Figure3. 3: Percentage of Link coordinators who visited UK The graph below shows that 85.7% of the link coordinators visited the UK for learning and adopting UK TVET skills thanks to the efforts of the British Council. Moreover, 100% of the participants responded that they have observed changes in TEVTA practices as a result of this programme. When the College Partnership strand’s work plans were developed the teacher visits were one of the core components of the programme. The purpose was to equip teachers with the skills that they could then pass on to other students and teachers. Figure3. 4: Changes observed in practices by Link coordinators As shown above, 71.4% of the link coordinators responded that they have observed a very positive change in the curriculum of technical institutes. According to the graph, the modern teaching methods and new curriculum which were key components of the partnership received high scores. 100% of the link coordinators believed that they have been sufficiently equipped with new and modern teaching methods. Even so, the teachers did believe that under the college partnership there was further room to improve the technical aspect of the curriculum. The side graph shows that 85.7% of the link coordinators have shared all the practices that they had learnt during the visits with the trainees. Additionally, all the participants responded that they would be likely to recommend the British Council to a friend or colleague in future due to its highly efficient performance and beneficial programmes. 16 Skills for Employability- South Asia Evaluation Figure3. 5: Practices shared with trainees 3.2 Social Entrepreneurship Social Entrepreneurship Award Competition in Pakistan In Pakistan, the first ever Regional Enterprise Challenge in 2009 was won by a team of five ambitious young students including Muhammad Nazim, Farida Siddiq, Noshabah Nasir, Kanwal Saeed and Khurram Abbas. These youngsters came from Government Vocational Training Institute (GVTI) in a small city named Jhang. The fact that their school is primarily for under-privileged students makes their achievement even more noteworthy. The team’s project was named the “Integrated Solid Waste Management System” and aimed to overcome the growing challenge of wastage and garbage in Jhang by using the garbage collected in the city to produce fertilizer.4 The team’s presentation of their innovative idea won them the regional enterprise award along with a £2,500 prize. This was in addition to a soft loan of Rs. 250,000 provided by the British Council. With the help of this seed money, the energetic young entrepreneurs were able to produce a considerable amount of fertilizer from garbage within a few months and also generate profits for themselves. The endeavor is now not only self-sustainable, but it also creates employment opportunities for the youth in the area, benefitting the society immensely. So far Skills for Employability has provided financial support to 30 teams of about 150 young social entrepreneurs across Pakistan to address a common social problem through their innovative ideas presented during the National Challenges. It has further enlightened and trained over 28,000 members of the youth and 600 teachers at approximately 550 TVET colleges across Pakistan on the concept of social entrepreneurship. In addition, the programme’s partner NAVTTC organized its first ever National Skills Competition in 2009, and also participated in the British Council’s Regional Enterprise Awards. The participation of NAVTTC in the Regional Enterprise Awards is a step towards making this activity sustainable and is a sign that Pakistani institutions are taking ownership of the concept. Results from Focus Discussion Groups Competition Winners There were a variety of innovative projects implemented in response to the Enterprise Challenge. After carrying out a series of Focus Discussion Groups, the teams were asked to reflect on their experiences, and the role that the British Council had played. One project involved skills guidance and training of unemployed people within a community. The project was directed towards assisting “aimless youth looking for a better future.” The trainings included computer repairing, mobile repairing, electronics, motor winding, electrical wiring and welding. Another group implemented a project which involved the establishment of a small and mobile diagnostic centre for hepatitis. The project’s aim was to screen hepatitis in their target population which comprised of socially and economically disadvantaged people who cannot afford the high cost of tests and are unaware of the disease. The last group interviewed has started a skills training centre only for females. Their project was for women wanted to learn about ways to cope with the financial issues they were facing. They provided beautician courses, handicraft and stitching courses, computer courses and a tuition centre. All the young entrepreneurs were in agreement that the British Council had “stood side by side” with them to see the successful implementation of the project. Each team was also of the opinion that the community had positively benefited by the project. 4 British Council, “Social Enterprise Award- South Asia Region,” 17 Skills for Employability- South Asia Evaluation Master Trainers A focus group discussion was held in Lahore in 2012 where 13 master trainers were asked to share their reflections on the programme and their perceptions of the outcomes of their work. According to the trainers, social entrepreneurship is the solution to many different problems. As a result of the training people are now able to make financial summaries, set objectives and targets and plan how to achieve targets effectively and efficiently. Pakistan is currently facing a critical financial situation with unemployment increasingly daily. In these circumstances, the middle class or under matriculation students find it very hard to get jobs. Trainers focus their students’ attention away from jobs towards an emphasis on self employment. Once self-employed, students will be able to generate more jobs and might ultimately benefit society as a whole. By earning for themselves they are no longer burden on the economy rather now they are contributing to the society. The trainers believed that the programme was helping them develop personally, raise self confidence levels, become more positive thinking, hopeful, creative and ethical. The programme was furthermore helping them create opportunities, become more innovative, and improve communication skills. Trainers shared some of the strategies they used for motivation of the students and improve the quality of programme. Master Trainer’s made sure that the material is used effectively and efficiently and held maximum sessions with the students to provide detailed training. Most of the projects in this programme were either related to social creativity or social enterprise. This helped the trainers to motivate their students, to direct them towards utilizing their skills to enhance their income. 3.2.1 Perspective of Winning Teams Figure3. 6: Location of participants from winning teams Figure3. 7: Gender of participants from Winning teams 18 Skills for Employability- South Asia Evaluation As presented in the above graphs, most of the participants of the winning team were from Punjab with 33.3% from Jhang, 26.7% from Lahore, 20.0% from Multan and 20 % from Karachi. The active involvement of women in this competition is indicated in the graph above (53.3% women: 46.7% males). Figure3. 8: Education level of participants from Winning teams Education plays a very important role in a country’s development process it was important to record the educational accomplishments of those who took part in the contest. Of the participants, 66.7% in the winning teams were intermediate and diploma holders while 13.3% of them were only intermediate. Pakistan’s literacy rate is extremely poor, especially when compared to developed countries. This fact comes out in the survey results as well as it shows that there is a need to educate larger quantities of people either through technical education or formal education. Figure3. 9: Employment status of winning teams Figure3. 10: Employment type of winning teams 19 Skills for Employability- South Asia Evaluation The graph below indicates that this programme has enabled students to enhance their employment opportunities along with their studies. 53.3% of the participants were students and employed at the same time. Of those employed 38.5% are working in private sector, 30.8% are working in government sector and 30.8% are self employed (running their own businesses) as a direct consequence of the enhanced entrepreneurship skills they were able to develop during this competition. Figure3. 11: Working duration of winning teams It can be extrapolated from the above graph that the social entrepreneurship training and award competition is largely responsible for the fact that students are employed. As shown, 71.4% of the participants have been working for the last year while 21.4% of them have been working for the last two years - that is the time period covered since the implementation of the Skills for Education Programme. On probing this employment pattern it was revealed that the recent employment of students can be largely attributed to the British Council’s intervention through this project. Table3. 3: Perception of Winning teams about different indicators of Project Benefits Respondents Perception about different Indicators of Project Benefits Indicators Excellent Good Average 23.08 69.23 Developing entrepreneurship skills 66.67 33.33 Upgrading Communication skills 53.85 38.46 7.69 Using innovation 26.67 46.67 13.33 Starting own business 86.67 6.67 6.67 Improving confidence level 7.14 92.86 Enhancing team Building skills 28.57 64.29 7.14 Improving leadership skills 73.33 26.67 Increasing interest in participation in future 12.50 62.50 12.50 Other benefits of the project Average 42.05 48.96 5.26 Poor 13.3 12.5 2.87 Very Poor 7.69 0.85 The above table demonstrates that the project has helped to develop entrepreneurial skills which lead to the creation of jobs, and the provision of opportunities to the students to start their own businesses. In carrying out its activities the project has helped to develop student confidence which is the key to finding a job and to working efficiently. Approximately 93% of the students believed that their confidence has increased due to their participation in the project. 20 Skills for Employability- South Asia Evaluation Table3. 4: Perception of Winning teams about different indicators of the Competition Respondents Perception about different Indicators of the Competition Indicators Excellent Good Average 93.33 Idea of Social enterprise award 20.00 80.00 Learning during this competition 20.00 60.00 20.00 Planning & management of competition 66.67 13.33 20.00 Level of support provided by teachers Average 50.00 38.33 10.00 Poor - Very Poor 6.67 1.67 The table above indicates that 93.3% of the respondents think that idea of social entrepreneurship award was excellent, with only 6.67% providing negative feedback. 80% of the students responded that they have learnt a great deal during the competition. The planning and management of the competition was ranked “good” by 60% of the students while 66.67% of the students ranked the level of support by teachers during the competition as “excellent.” All of the respondents are still running their projects showing the sustainability and success of the British Council initiative, which has provided a means of procuring employment through development of entrepreneurship skills. Figure3. 12: Number of people working with winning teams The above graph shows that the number of people working with each student-run business as part of the project and indicates the size of the enterprise. According to the results, 33.3% of respondents have 10 people working with them and 26.7% have 18 people working with them. All of the participants responded that they are planning to turn their project into a long term business, a key success indicator of the British Council’s efforts in launching this programme and providing the training to them in collaboration with YES Network. This clearly shows that a team of 4-5 people are creating employment for many more. Figure3. 13: Key role of stakeholders in projects success 21 Skills for Employability- South Asia Evaluation The graph above shows that 80% of the students from winning teams responded that the British Council and the YES Network played a key role in the project’s success, while 26.67% pointed towards the teachers as playing a key role in project success Figure3. 14: Contribution of British Council in knowledge acquisition of winning teams The above graph depicts the respondent’s views on how much the British Council contributed towards students’ knowledge acquisition: 46.7% of the participants marked British Council’s contribution as 6080%, while very few gave the question a negative response with only 6.7% ranking knowledge acquisition at 20%-40%. Table3. 5: Perception of Winning teams regarding extent of problems they faced Respondents Perception Regarding the Extent of Problems they Faced Problems Greatly Great Moderate 20.00 33.33 13.33 Financial support 73.33 20.00 Confidence 53.33 26.67 Education 50.00 21.43 Project presentation skills 46.67 13.33 26.67 Community support 35.71 35.71 Training 25.00 Cooperation of government departments 58.33 62.50 12.50 Other Problems Average 20.09 38.85 19.54 Some What 33.33 6.67 20.00 28.57 6.67 21.43 16.67 16.67 Not at all 6.67 7.14 25.00 4.85 As shown above, all the respondents faced problems during this competition. By asking them to identify their challenges in detail it is clearly shown that students lacked support from the community and from the government. They also identified issues with the training they received and indicated great problems with their levels of confidence. These are issues that the British council has tried to address through this project. One of the prevailing myths was that students face financial problems but surprisingly only half of the team felt that it was an issue. This could be in part due to the fact that they all received seed money from the British Council. 22 Skills for Employability- South Asia Evaluation Table3. 6: Perception of Winning teams regarding projects' successfulness Respondents Perception Regarding Project’s Successfulness Success Indicators Strongly Agree agree British Council & YES Network support in Project implementation British Council & YES Network helped in launching project Satisfactory contribution of British Council Respondent’s feeling as a respected person in society after project involvement Knowledge & ideas developed due to Project Respondents’ Learning from other teams Opportunities for youth due to British Council Average 53.33 46.67 Neither agree nor disagree - Disagree Strongly disagree - - 20.00 80.00 - - - 14.29 85.71 - - - 66.67 33.33 - - - 60.00 40.00 - - - - 100.0 - - - 53.33 46.67 - - - 38.23 61.77 - - - The above table indicates students’ perceptions about the project’s success. The majority strongly believe that their knowledge-base and ideas have been developed as a result of this project: 66 % responded that they feel respected in society after being involved in the project; 100% of the participants responded that they have learned from a lot from the other teams and the overall competitive environment; while 53.33% students from the winning team strongly believed that the British Council and YES Network supported them in project implementation and that the youth is getting receiving employment opportunities as a consequence of the British Council’s efforts. All the respondents were of the view that the project will have positive outcomes that will impact the Pakistani youth in the future. By being involved in the British Council’s project, the youth’s general employability skills are improved. They also believe that their participation in this competition has assisted in enhancing their entrepreneurship skills in one or more ways. Figure3. 15: Participants of winning teams who started their own business The rate of unemployment in Pakistan can be measured by the help of Labor Force Survey conducted by the Federal Bureau of Statistics in 2000. According to the survey, the unemployment rates have gone up 23 Skills for Employability- South Asia Evaluation from 5.9% in 1998 to 7.8% in 2000. This increase has been observed for both men and women. Women experience higher levels of unemployment (17.3 %) as compared to men (6.1%) (LFS, 2000). The British Council’s work, therefore, is creating jobs at a time when unemployment poses a distinct challenge to society. The above graph shows that 93.3% of students have started their own business, an exceptional number. Moreover, they are also giving employment opportunities to those that are not directly participating in the programme. All of them responded that they would like to participate in such activities by the British Council in future. Figure3. 16: Participants of winning teams who would like to recommend British Council The above graph indicates that 64.3% of the students would very likely to recommend the British Council and its programmes to their friends and colleagues, a solid recommendation. 3.2.2 Perspective of Participating Teams A total of 30 respondents were interviewed for the results depicted below, out of which 14 responses were given through by writing on a hard copy of a questionnaire and 26 were telephonically interviewed. The total 36 people were contacted by phone but 10 were not willing to respond. Table3. 7: Location of respondents from Participating Teams City of the Respondent City Rawlakot Multan Kotli Faisalabad Jhang Rahim Yar Khan Balakot Karachi Karak Khanewal Nowshehra Total 24 Skills for Employability- South Asia Evaluation Number 7 6 3 3 3 3 1 1 1 1 1 30 Percentage 23.33 20.00 10.00 10.00 10.00 10.00 3.33 3.33 3.33 3.33 3.33 100.00 The social entrepreneurship award competition invited the participation of youth from all over Pakistan without any preferences given or discrimination against people from any background. The participating student teams represented a diverse range of geographical areas. The largest number of students, 7 students making up 23.33%, belonged to Rawlakot and 20% belonged to Multan. Other cities represented include Faisalabad, Kotli, Jhang, Karachi, Balakot, Nowshehra, etc. Figure3. 17: Gender of participating teams Figure3. 18: Education level of participating teams The graph above shows that participating teams comprised more men (83.3%) than women (16.7%). Mostly students were either qualified with a Masters degree or were Diploma holders, and 20% of the students had a graduate level degree. 25 Skills for Employability- South Asia Evaluation Figure3. 19: Employment status of participating teams Figure3. 20: Employment type of participating teams Figure3. 21: Working duration of participating teams The above graphs show the employment status, employment type, and working duration of the respondents. It has been observed that 63.3% of the students are employed while 23.3% are employed even while still studying. In type of employment, 55.6% of the respondents are working as government employees and 33.3% are working in private sector. In length of employment, 50% of the students have been working for the last 3 or more years while 40% of them have been working for 2-3 years. Table3. 8: Perception of Participating Teams about project benefits Respondents Perception about Project Benefits Indicators Excellent 44.83 Developing entrepreneurship skills 40.00 Upgrading Communication skills 58.62 Using innovation 53.33 Starting own business 66.67 Improving confidence level 50.00 Enhancing team Building skills 41.38 Improving leadership skills 26 Skills for Employability- South Asia Evaluation Good 41.38 36.67 27.59 36.67 16.67 36.67 44.83 Average 10.34 20.00 10.34 6.67 13.33 10.00 10.34 Poor 0.00 0.00 3.45 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 Very Poor 3.45 3.33 0.00 3.33 3.33 3.33 3.45 Increasing interest in participation in future Other benefits of the project Average 68.97 66.67 54.50 20.69 33.33 32.72 6.90 0.00 9.77 3.45 0.00 0.77 0.00 0.00 2.25 The above table indicates students’ perceptions about the benefits of the project. The majority of the respondents believe that this project has benefited them in terms of developing their entrepreneurship skills, starting their own business, improving confidence levels, and enhancing team building skills. Only 3-4% responded that they have developed very poor entrepreneurship skills, communication skills, and team building skills, which may be partly due to personal interests and ability. Members of the winning team were naturally more unified in being positive about their experience. However the results clearly indicate that the project has managed to uplift the entrepreneurial skills, communication skills and confidence for all students involved. Research has proven that these traits are directly correlated with skills required to get a job. Table3. 9: Perception of participating teams about different indicators of Competition Respondents’ Perception about different Indicators of the Competition Indicators Excellent Good Average 76.67 20.00 0.00 Idea of Social enterprise award 51.72 44.83 3.45 Learning during this competition 73.33 20.00 6.67 Planning & management of competition 76.67 16.67 0.00 Level of support provided by teachers Average 69.60 25.37 2.53 Poor 0.00 0.00 0.00 3.33 0.83 Very Poor 3.33 0.00 0.00 3.33 1.67 The table above shows how the students rated the competition. It is a tribute to the quality of the programme that only 3% responded that the idea of the award competition was poor and that level of support provided by teachers was poor. In fact 70% of the respondents ranked the idea, planning and management of competition as excellent. It is important to remember that this group of participants interacted less with the British Council during the workshops and orientation sessions, but have still developed positive impressions of the competition. It was felt the management arrangements were good and that the competition overall promoted high levels of learning. An interesting point to note is that the students viewed teacher support as a vital element. It was discovered that the British Council had made a conscious effort to focus on this in their planning of the project. Given the large numbers of student to be trained in 2011-12 (50,000 students have been trained) the British Council focused on making the teachers the medium through which to disseminate institutional support to the students. Figure3. 22: Participants who are still running their projects 27 Skills for Employability- South Asia Evaluation Figure3. 23: Number of people working with participating teams It is important to note that it is not only members of the winning team that have kept their business in motion, but members of participating teams (80.8%) have also continued to run their projects. Additionally 44.4% of the students are running their projects with the help of 4-5 people in their teams while 33.3% of them are running with the help of more than 5 people. This is a very important aspect. In 2011-12 British council received about 800 proposals from different group of students. The percentages above show that the British Council is not only responsible for startup ventures among the winning teams Figure3. 24: Plan of respondents to convert project into business but the students who participate in the trainings are also benefiting from the programme. The above chart demonstrates that 88.5% of the respondents plan to continue their projects as their own business. They are able to this as a result of their acquired entrepreneurship skills and enhanced employment opportunities. 28 Skills for Employability- South Asia Evaluation Figure3. 25: Key role of stakeholders in project success From the above graph it is clear that the British Council and YES Network played similar role in bolstering the project’s success. Both members of the winning team and the participating teams, a total of 86.67% of the students, believed that the British Council and the YES Network played a key role in their project success. The remaining students believed that their families, friends and teachers also played some role in the project’s implementation. Because they received more direct attention, the winning team indicated greater appreciation of the British Council staff and YES Network. Figure3. 26: Contribution of British Council in knowledge acquisition of participating teams The above graph shows that respondents have positive views about the British Council’s contribution towards their acquisition of knowledge: 39.3% of the students marked the British Council’s contribution as 80%- 100% whereas no one in the sample marked its contribution as 0%- 40%. Table3. 10: Perception of Participating teams regarding extent of problems they faced Respondents Perception Regarding the Extent of Problems they Faced Problems Greatly Great Moderate 17.86 21.43 28.57 Financial support 16.67 16.67 13.33 Confidence 13.79 13.79 17.24 Education 16.67 16.67 30.00 Project presentation skills 7.14 28.57 14.29 Community support 13.33 13.33 10.00 Training 20.00 23.33 Cooperation of government departments 23.33 22.73 22.73 22.73 Other Problems 29 Skills for Employability- South Asia Evaluation Some What 14.29 20.00 24.14 6.67 14.29 26.67 13.33 4.55 Not at all 17.86 33.33 31.03 30.00 35.71 36.67 20.00 27.27 Average 16.44 19.15 19.94 15.49 28.98 The students from participating teams had a diverse array of resources to draw on for support including their families, friends, their teachers, the British Council and YES Network. Therefore, 28% of them didn’t face any problems during the competition. However those that did face problems mostly complained about the lack of cooperation of government departments. Table3. 11: Perception of Participating teams regarding projects' successfulness Respondents Perception Regarding Project’s Successfulness Success Indicators British Council & YES Network support in Project implementation British Council & YES Network helped in launching project British Council contribution Respondent’s feeling as a respected person in society after project involvement Knowledge & ideas developed due to Project Respondents’ Learning from other teams Opportunities for youth due to British Council Average Strongly agree 60.00 Agree Disagree 36.67 Neither agree nor disagree - - Strongly disagree 3.33 62.07 31.03 - - 6.90 73.33 76.67 23.33 23.33 3.33 - - - 63.33 33.33 3.33 - - 51.72 90.00 44.83 6.67 3.33 3.45 - - 68.16 28.46 1.43 0.49 1.46 The above table shows the students’ perceptions about the project’s success. The majority of students strongly believe that their knowledge base and ideas have been developed due to this project. They also feel that as a result they are more respected in society after getting involved in the project. As compared to the winning teams, only 51.72% of participating team members’ agreed that they have learnt a lot from the other teams. From participating teams, 60% of the students strongly believed that the British Council and YES Network supported them during the project’s implementation and that youth receiving better employment opportunities due to British Council (90% of the participants strongly agreed). All the respondents were of the view that the project outcomes will benefit the youth in the future. By getting involved in the British Council’s project, they also believe that their general employability skills have improved. 30 Skills for Employability- South Asia Evaluation Figure3. 27: Participating teams who started their own business Similar to the students in the winning teams, students from participating teams (82.8% of the sample) have also been engaged in starting their own business due to this project. And all of them responded that they would like to participate in such activities by the British Council in the future, another excellent commendation. Figure3. 28: Participating teams who would like to recommend British Council The above graph indicates that 80% of the students would be very likely to recommend the British Council to their friends and colleagues while 10% would not recommend it. The British Council might like to explore the reasons why they would not recommend the programme as a way to strengthen their outreach. 3.2.3 Perspective of Participant Students not Shortlisted Table3. 12: Location of students who participated but not shortlisted City of the Respondent City Number 60 Jhang 27 Nowshehra 22 Kaller Syedan 20 Faisalabad 8 Balakot 2 Multan Total 139 31 Percentage 43.17 19.42 15.83 14.39 5.76 1.44 100.00 Skills for Employability- South Asia Evaluation The table above shows the cities that the different participants originated from and in what proportion. After receiving training, they sent their ideas to the British Council and YES Network as entries for the competition but were not shortlisted. These students belonged mostly to Jhang (43.17%), Nowshehra (19.42%), Kaller Syedan (15.83%), and Faisalabad (14.39%). Figure3. 29: Gender of participants who were not shortlisted This graph indicates the gender composition of the respondents. The sample comprised of 64.7% men and 35.3% women. Women’s participation is shown in greater proportions here as the British Council made an effort encourage women to submit their ideas. Even though the final selections were based on merit and therefore out of the British Council’s hands, encouraging women to display their entrepreneurial ideas is high on the project’s agenda. Figure3. 30: Education level of students who participated but not shortlisted The graph above shows the level of educational attainment of the respondents. Educational levels have strong influences on the rates of employment since people with high levels of education experience less difficulty in accessing the labour market. The statistics show that 51.8% of the students who participated but were not shortlisted were only matriculate whereas only 4.3% of the participants were diploma holders. This indicated a positive correlation between competitiveness of the participants and their educational levels. 32 Skills for Employability- South Asia Evaluation Figure3. 31: Employment status of students who participated but not shortlisted Figure3. 32: Employment type of students who participated but not shortlisted From the data analyzed above, it has been observed that there is a great variety in the employment rates of participants in this competition. Those students who were not given the opportunity to implement their project ideas as a group have correspondingly lower employment rates. Only 2.3% of these students are employed, out of which 50% are government employees and only 21.4% of them are self-employed. Table3. 13: Perception of participants about Competition indicators Respondents Perception about different Indicators of the Competition Indicators Excellent Good Average 72.18 23.31 4.51 Idea of Social Enterprise award 58.18 26.36 13.64 Learning during this competition Average 65.18 24.84 9.07 Poor 0.00 0.91 0.45 Very Poor 0.00 0.91 0.45 The above table shows the respondents perceptions about the competition: 72.18% of the participants suggested that the idea of the social entrepreneurship award was excellent and 58.18% of the participants responded that they were able to learn through the competition. Table3. 14: Perception of participants regarding extent of problems they faced Respondents Perception Regarding the Extent of Problems they Faced Problems Greatly Great Moderate 22.63 24.82 30.66 Financial support 9.49 20.44 17.52 Confidence 33 Skills for Employability- South Asia Evaluation Some What 7.30 28.47 Not at all 14.60 24.09 Education Project presentation skills Other Problems Average 6.57 6.67 11.69 11.41 11.68 16.30 9.09 16.46 12.41 14.07 19.48 18.83 31.39 37.78 20.78 25.14 37.96 25.19 38.96 28.16 Compared to the participants from the winning and participating teams, respondents from this group faced more problems such as in financial support, confidence levels, education levels, and lack of presentation skills. They faced these problems more than other teams because they were unable to get the same amount of support and attention from the British Council and YES Network. Figure3. 33: Percentage of respondents who attended training before competition The graph above shows the statistics of those respondents who did not attend any training sessions before the competition: 92.6% responded that they were not able to receive any training before the competition and this is a strong explanation for why they were rejected. This shows that there is a need to enhance the reach of the trainings conducted. Although the British Council reached around 50,000 students in 2011-12 alone, the fact that 93% of the participants never had any training before indicates that efforts need to be expanded. This, however, also does demonstrate that the British Council is attracting strong applicants to their workshops. Table3. 15: Perception of participants regarding competition's successfulness Respondents Perception Regarding competition’s Successfulness Success Indicators Strongly Agree agree 60.74 28.15 British Council & YES Network help in participating in competition 51.85 45.19 British Council contribution was satisfactory 30.97 44.25 Short listing criteria of BC was fair 63.39 31.25 Knowledge & ideas developed 53.57 42.86 Opportunities for youth due to British Council 54.62 34.62 After training respondent will start his own business Average 52.52 37.72 Neither agree nor disagree 11.11 Disagree 0.00 Strongly disagree 0.00 2.96 0.00 0.00 10.62 4.46 2.68 4.42 0.89 0.89 9.73 0.00 0.00 7.69 2.31 0.77 6.59 1.42 1.75 The above table indicates the students’ perceptions about the competition’s success: 60.74% of the participants strongly agreed that the British Council and YES Network have made it possible for them to 34 Skills for Employability- South Asia Evaluation participate in competition and that their contribution was satisfactory. Similarly 30.97% of the participants strongly agreed that the short listing criteria of the British Council was fair while only 9.73% of them strongly disagreed that it was fair. Almost 54% of the participants believed that the British Council has provided employment opportunities to the youth through this programme. This is very important set of percentages as these figures reflect a much larger group of voices as compared to the winning or shortlisted teams. Figure3. 34: Key role of stakeholders in competition success The table above shows that the competition’s success was not determined wholly by the British Council and YES network, but rather in collaboration with a range of other actors involved in the project. Only 38.85% of the participants responded that the British Council and YES played a key role. One of the views expressed was that they felt largely ignored as compared to the participating and winning teams. This sentiment was expressed amongst shortlisted participants as well, as is mentioned elsewhere in this report. This is again a demonstration of the fact that the British Council has intentionally designed a system whereby participants receive support through teachers which is evident here in the results. The British Council trains almost 500 to 1000 teachers every year so they are well equipped to support the students. Figure3. 35: Contribution of BC in knowledge acquisition of students who participated but not shortlisted The above graph shows the contribution of the British Council in terms of promoting knowledge acquisition. The gap is clearly shown if compared with other groups because 5.3% of the respondents marked the British Council’s contribution from 0-20% and 7.1% of the respondents marked the British Council’s contribution as between 20%- 40%. 35 Skills for Employability- South Asia Evaluation Figure3. 36: Improved general employability skills of students who participated but not shortlisted 3.2.4 Perspective of Master Trainers Table3. 16: Location of master trainers Respondent’s City City Faisalabad Rawlakot Multan Kallar Syedan Rahim Yar Khan Nowshera Balakot Karachi Kotli AJK Jhang Total No of Responses 3 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 13 Percentage 23.1 15.4 7.7 7.7 7.7 7.7 7.7 7.7 7.7 7.7 100 The British Council and YES Network selected the master trainers from technical institutes across Pakistan. The side table shows the percentage and number of respondents who made up the sample for evaluation of the programme: 23.1% are from Faisalabad, 15.4% are from Rawlakot, and rest of the respondents represent a range of different cities across the country such as Multan, Rahim Yar Khan, Nowshera, Balakot, Karachi and Jhang. Figure3. 37: Gender of master trainers 36 Skills for Employability- South Asia Evaluation Although women play an active role in Pakistan's economy, their contribution is under-reported and largely restricted to specific sectors. This graph is indicative of the gender disparity in skilled jobs positions where 84.6% of the sample was made up of men and 15.4% of the sample was women. Figure3. 38: Education level of master trainers The data above shows that a good percentage of the respondents are qualified with either higher than a masters’ degree (38.5%) or a graduate degree (38.5%). 15.4 percent have a masters degree and a small sample (7.7%) have an intermediate qualification. Figure3. 39: Employment type of master trainers The British Council has made sustainability a priority as it implements its programmes. The above table shows which sectors master trainers work in, and demonstrates that most of the respondents are working in the government sector (84.6%). 37 Skills for Employability- South Asia Evaluation Figure3. 40: Working experience of master trainers The graph above shows that 38.5% of the master trainers have more than 4 years of work experience, 7.7% have 3 years of experience, 15.4% have 2 years of experience, while the remaining 38.5% have 1 year of work experience. The British Council played a very important role in training the trainers in collaboration with YES Network in order to provide the best training faculty to students for development of entrepreneurship skills. Table3. 17: Training perception of master trainers Training Perception of the Respondent Before training After training Standard of training manuals Quality of training Excellent Very Good Good Poor Very Poor 16.67 25.00 33.33 41.67 25.00 33.33 33.33 33.33 41.67 25.00 8.33 0.00 16.67 8.33 16.67 8.33 0.00 8.33 8.33 16.67 The significance and value of proper training has long been recognized. Consider the popular and often repeated quotation, “Give a person a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a person to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” This is the approach that the British Council has adopted in this programme as the designers felt that the importance of expending energy on quality training should not be underestimated. This is demonstrated in the table above which indicates that only 16.67% of the master trainers rated their skills as excellent. After the training, however, this percentage increased to 25%. 41.67% of them ranked the overall training programme as excellent. Figure3. 41: Trainings attended by master trainers before SfE Program 38 Skills for Employability- South Asia Evaluation The above graph shows that the majority of the master trainers did not receive any training before participating in Skills for Education Programme. The British Council and YES Network provided the training which resulted in the respondents developing better technical skills, which was the desired ultimate outcome of the social enterprise competition. All the respondents were of the view that they needed further training about entrepreneurship skills for delivery of effective training in future. Figure3. 42: Contribution of stakeholders Master trainers strongly believe that the British Council and YES Network played a key role in the project’s success. Figure3. 43: British Council's contribution in knowledge acquisition of master trainers The above graph shows the British Council’s contribution to the master trainers’ acquisition of knowledge, where 61.5% of the participants marked the British Council’s contribution as 80-100%. It is positive that no one in the sample believed that the British Council had not contributed at all. Table3. 18: Perception of master trainers about training assessment indicators Training assessment indicators Statements Agree Sharing of possible knowledge and ideas with trainees Strongly agree 69.23 British Council’s sufficient support to the trainers 30.77 39 Skills for Employability- South Asia Evaluation Disagree 23.08 Neither agree nor disagree 0.00 0.00 Strongly disagree 7.69 69.23 0.00 0.00 0.00 British Council’s contribution 50.00 41.67 0.00 0.00 8.33 Training time duration 0.00 69.23 15.38 15.38 0.00 Knowledge and ideas has enhanced the skills of trainees 53.85 46.15 0.00 0.00 0.00 Good relationships development of British Council with different stakeholders Change in youth 53.85 46.15 0.00 0.00 0.00 76.92 15.38 0.00 0.00 7.69 Change in society 83.33 8.33 0.00 0.00 8.33 Changes in trainees 23.08 38.46 15.38 23.08 0.00 The above table shows trainer’s feedback on the British Council’s contributions to the training programme. The majority of the respondents agreed that the British Council provided sufficient support to the trainers. As a result of training programme, they have been able to impart knowledge and skills development lessons to their students. Most of the trainers agreed that the social entrepreneurship competition can bring change for the youth and the society as a whole. Table3. 19: Changes observed by master trainers Changes observed by Participants Statements Excellent Very Good Good Poor Very Poor Developing entrepreneurship skills Upgrading Communication skills Using innovation Starting own business Improving confidence level Enhancing team Building skills Improving leadership skills Increasing interest in participation in future Others 46.15 38.46 38.46 30.77 61.54 38.46 38.46 50.00 66.67 38.46 46.15 38.46 30.77 23.08 30.77 46.15 25.00 0.00 7.69 7.69 15.38 23.08 0.00 15.38 0.00 8.33 0.00 7.69 0.00 7.69 7.69 7.69 15.38 7.69 8.33 33.33 0.00 7.69 0.00 7.69 7.69 0.00 7.69 8.33 0.00 The above table indicates the changes observed in the students after the training delivery. The majority of trainers believe that they have observed changes in entrepreneurship skills and team building skills. Improvements in these areas are sure to create job opportunities for students. They have also observed that students have improved their communication skills, and confidence levels have risen as well. Respondents indicated that students should not be able to start their own business. 40 Skills for Employability- South Asia Evaluation Figure3. 44: number of students trained through SfE Figure3. 45: Number of teachers trained through SfE The above tables give the number of students and teachers trained through this programme. Figure3. 46: Need of improvement in training program Based on the diagram above, 69.2% of the participants believe that there is need to improve the training programme. They suggested that the training duration should be increased, new topics and experiences should be integrated into the curriculum, and master trainers should be given laptops so assist them as they deliver trainings. This will be a good step towards strengthening the skills imparted to the students. 41 Skills for Employability- South Asia Evaluation Figure3. 47: Recommendation of BC by master trainers The above graph indicates that 69.2% of the master trainers would be very likely to recommend the British Council to their friends and colleagues while 7.7% would not recommend it. The British Council may find it useful to explore the reasons why the respondents did not want to recommend the British Council. There was agreement that the overall impact of the project was good. All the trainers were unified on the point that such programmes must be implemented in the future. Projects like the Social Entrepreneurship Competition are benefiting the individuals and the society. Such projects are changing the thinking of people and adding value to peoples’ lives. 3.2.5 Perspective of Principal and Teachers Figure3. 48: Age of principals and teachers Almost 39% of the total population interviewed was above the age of 49. The graph above shows that most of the respondents are a mature group. The rest of the sample was between 25 and 48 years old. 42 Skills for Employability- South Asia Evaluation Figure3. 49: Gender of principals and teachers The graph above shows the gender composition of the respondent group comprising of 72.7% men and 27.3% women. There fact that over a fourth of the participants are women is an indication of the British Council’s commitment to ensuring female participation. Figure3. 50: education level of principals and teachers Education plays a crucial role in a country’s development process. People with high levels of education experience less difficulty in accessing the labour market. The statistics show that 63.3% of the participants were qualified with masters level degrees, while only 3.4% of them had intermediate degrees. Figure3. 51: Employment type of participants 43 Skills for Employability- South Asia Evaluation The graph above shows that the majority of principals and teachers (86.7%) are working in the government sector. This is a good indicator of the sustainability of the project as greater government involvement and interest will contribute to the prolonging of the project. Figure3. 52: Work experience of principals and teachers The statistics from the above table show that most of the principals and teachers have more than 16 years of work experience. Few respondents (20%) have 1-5 years of teaching experience. Table3. 20: Perception of Principals and Teachers about training assessment indicators Trainers perception of training assessment indicators Statements Excellent Very Good 8.52 21.59 Before getting exposed to competition 35.59 49.15 After getting involved in competition 36.72 Perception of students about cascading session 43.50 38.07 42.05 Standard of training manuals 46.33 37.85 Quality of training Good Poor 36.36 11.30 17.51 14.77 13.56 26.70 2.82 2.26 2.84 1.69 Very Poor 6.82 1.13 0.00 2.27 0.56 Competition plays a pivotal role in enhancing the capacities of participants to deliver their best. The table above shows us that only 8.52% of participants rated their knowledge as “excellent” before being exposed to competition. However this percentage increased to 35.5% after being involved in a competitive environment, demonstrating their increased knowledge about entrepreneurship skills. Very few of the participants have rated the standard of training manuals and quality of training as very poor. Figure3. 53: Training need of principals and teachers 44 Skills for Employability- South Asia Evaluation The above graph shows the trainers’ view (98.3% of the participants’ view) that as a principal or teacher, they need further training on the concept of social entrepreneurship for delivery of effective training in the future. This will lead to the provision of increased employment opportunities for the youth. Figure3. 54: Key role of stakeholders From the above graph it is clear that the British Council and YES Network played a major role in the project’s success. The statistic indicate that 89.27% of the participants believe that the British Council and YES Network played a key role in the project’s success, but at the same time the role of family, friends and teachers are also emphasized prominently in the responses. Figure3. 55: Contribution of BC in knowledge acquisition of principals and teachers The above graph shows the British Council’s contribution in terms of knowledge acquisition: 8.0% of the students marked the British Council’s contribution as 80%- 100%, 54.5% marked its contribution from 60-80% whereas 2.3% also marked the British Council’s contribution as 0- 20%. The British Council may like to explore why these few respondents didn’t consider the British Council’s contribution as satisfactory in knowledge acquisition. Table3. 21: Perception of Principals and Teachers about training assessment Trainers perception of training assessment indicators Strongly agree Agree Neither agree nor disagree Disagree Strongly disagree Knowledge and ideas for improving training quality Learning through enterprise competition Benefited knowledge through competition 74.86 68.75 64.97 19.43 21.59 24.29 4.00 5.68 7.34 1.71 2.27 2.26 0.00 1.70 1.13 Beneficent learning resources for teacher training 58.29 30.29 8.57 0.57 2.29 45 Skills for Employability- South Asia Evaluation Useful training for the students Sufficient training duration Sufficient support from British Council & Yes Network Contribution of British Council is sufficient Useful part of curricula Good relationships development of British Council with different stakeholders 64.97 31.03 58.05 22.03 17.82 24.71 11.30 25.29 12.07 0.56 2.30 3.45 1.13 23.56 1.72 56.25 81.14 59.76 28.98 9.14 17.75 9.66 4.57 18.34 2.27 1.71 2.96 2.84 3.43 1.18 From the statistics above it can be observed that the majority of participants strongly agree that knowledge and ideas have been developed for improving the quality of training. They also agree that they have found the enterprise to be a part of the curriculum. There was some expressed doubt regarding the training duration as 23.56% of the participants strongly disagree that the training lasted long enough for them to properly learn social entrepreneurship skills. Table3. 22: Perception of principals and teachers about training benefits for students Trainers’ perception of training assessment for students Excellent Very Good Statements Developing entrepreneurship skills Upgrading Communication skills Using innovation Starting own business Improving confidence level Enhancing team Building skills Improving leadership skills Increasing interest in participation in future Others 47.06 30.86 27.33 30.46 23.70 26.35 26.79 24.10 62.43 23.53 39.43 41.28 43.68 34.10 43.71 45.83 41.57 19.08 Good Poor Very Poor 11.76 21.14 25.00 20.69 28.90 22.16 20.83 24.10 15.03 5.88 1.71 2.91 1.72 4.05 3.59 2.98 5.42 1.16 11.76 6.86 3.49 3.45 9.25 4.19 3.57 4.82 2.31 The table above shows the perceptions of teachers and principals about the training of students. The majority of participants believed that this training was successful in developing entrepreneurship skills, communication skills, confidence levels, and enhancing team building skills that leads students to start their own businesses. 11.76% of the participants also felt that there is a need to develop entrepreneurship skills in students. 46 Skills for Employability- South Asia Evaluation Figure3. 56: Perception about training program by principals and teachers In the diagram above, it is significant that 90.12% of the participants responded that the training programme needs improvement. The British Council may like to investigate this response further in the future in order to strengthen the programme. However, participants (98.26%) still want this teacher training programme to be implemented in the future. Majority of participants responded that there is no voluntary work started by their college or students yet but they have a very strong plan of doing so in future. Figure3. 57: Principals and teachers who would recommend BC in future Most of the principals and teachers are very likely to recommend the British Council to other colleagues and friends. 3.2.6 Perspectives from Community Members Table3. 23: Location of Community Members City of the Respondent City Number 14 Multan 8 Jhang 6 Kotli 47 Percentage 35.90 20.51 15.38 Skills for Employability- South Asia Evaluation Lahore Rawalakot Faisalabad Mardan Total 4 4 2 1 39 10.26 10.26 5.13 2.56 100.00 The respondents for evaluating community members are taken from the cities where the winning team and participating teams have launched their projects. The cities with the largest number of participants were Multan (35.90%), Jhang (20.51%), Kotli (15.38%), Lahore (10.26%) as shown in the diagram above. One to one meetings are the best way to communicate and share each others’ ideas. The graph below shows the statistics of community members (92.1%) who interacted and helped the project team through direct meetings. Figure3. 58: Ways of communication with project team Table3. 24: Perception of community members regarding purpose of community involvement Respondent’s Perception regarding purpose of community involvement in the project Statements Excellent Good Average Poor 72.97 16.22 10.81 Resource mobilization 81.08 16.22 2.70 Monitoring the project activities 8.11 10.81 Playing a key role in project implementation 81.08 59.46 18.92 21.62 Conflict resolution Average 73.65 14.86 11.49 - Very Poor - The data above shows that most of the community members think that resource mobilization, monitoring of project activities, conflict resolution and helping students in project implementation are the main purposes of community involvement in the project. Table3. 25: Perception of community members regarding project benefits Respondents’ Perception regarding Project benefits Statements Strongly agree 92.11 The community was involved in the project implementation 89.47 Direct contact between the community and project team 92.11 Project benefited the community 89.47 The partnership developed many good relationships of British Council with different communities Average 90.79 48 Skills for Employability- South Asia Evaluation Agree Disagree 5.26 Neither agree nor disagree 2.63 - Strongly disagree - 10.53 - - - 5.26 5.26 2.63 5.26 - - 6.58 2.63 - - The above table shows community members’ perceptions about project benefits. The majority of the participants strongly agree that the community was involved in the project implementation and that they had direct contact between the project team. They also strongly agree that the project has benefited the community. Figure3. 59: Respondents heard about BC Figure3. 60: Source from where respondents heard about BC From the above data, it can be observed that only 44.7% of community members have heard about the British Council. Main sources include friends, YES Network (as YES Network has been working in youth engagement projects for many years), and newspapers, etc. Table3. 26: Perception of community members regarding impact of project on community Respondents’ Perception regarding Impact of the Project on Community Statements Excellent Good Average 71.05 18.42 10.53 Enhancement of skills 68.42 18.42 13.16 Change in socio economic situation 76.32 21.05 2.63 Improvement in knowledge 75.68 21.62 2.70 Change in attitude Average 72.87 19.88 7.25 Poor - Very Poor - This table is indicating that the project has enhanced the skills of project team, improved the knowledge and brought a positive change in socio economic situation of society. 49 Skills for Employability- South Asia Evaluation Table3. 27: Perception of community members regarding project benefits for students Respondent’s Perception regarding Project Beneficial for Students Statements Excellent Good 84.21 13.16 Increased their social entrepreneurship skills 92.11 7.89 Developed innovative ideas for them to use 86.49 10.81 Provided them a chance to involve in some creative projects 83.33 5.56 Provided employment opportunities for them Average 86.53 9.35 Average 2.63 2.70 Poor - Very Poor - 11.11 4.11 - - All the participants agree that the project has been very beneficial for the learning of students as well as it has increased their social entrepreneurship skills, provided them a chance to involve in some creativity, and provided them with the employment opportunities also as shown in the table above. Figure3. 61: Community members who would recommend BC All the participants responded that they would like to participate in such activities in future for community development and that they would also like to recommend the British Council to their colleagues and friends. 50 Skills for Employability- South Asia Evaluation Chapter 4 EVIDENCE FROM BANGLADESH 4.1 Policy Dialogue In Bangladesh a number of policy dialogues have been held to strengthen multi-sectoral thinking on vocational skills training in the country. A recent workshop focused on improving social, business and entrepreneurship through Technical and Vocational Education Training. The event lasted two days and was attended by over 90 people. Attendees included academics, practitioners, successful TVET graduates, selected members of government and private sector bodies along with members from civil society. The high profile turnout of the event made the discussion fruitful as participants recounted their past experiences and their educational backgrounds. Another policy dialogue initiative was the introduction of a radio program in 2010 that aimed to raise awareness of technical and vocational education and training opportunities for young people, increase knowledge of the importance of enterprise skills and provide a platform for youth globally to share concerns and experiences around entering the work place. In collaboration with Equal Access, an NGO in Nepal, the radio show was implemented across South Asia, including Bangladesh. In Bangladesh 8 episodes of the show named “Tarruno Din” were broadcasted by a local partner called Bangladesh NGOs Network for Radio and Communication (BNNRC).5 The episodes reached at least 6 million listeners of which 2.5 million were from the target youth audience. Major themes of the programme included interview techniques, job searching and C.V. writing, along with information on services and construction sector jobs and skills. Overall the radio program helped millions of young people understand and pursue skills development, employment and enterprise opportunities, transforming their role in society and empowering them as agents for positive change. Sabed Ali from Jhinaidah expresses his appreciation of the show saying “I am a regular listener of this program. It helps me and other youth to generate income and live with dignity.” 4.1.1 Workshop Participants Feedback from those who attended the workshop was positive overall. Much of the discussion focused on how education is not a universal right in Bangladesh, rather it is a privilege which is bestowed upon those who are willing to work hard and learn. Transforming educational opportunities into concrete employment outcomes will require that students are being taught the appropriate skills before they enter the workforce. Bangladesh is a nation whose population lacks a large enough pool of skilled workers. The more workers are assisted at becoming skilled workers, the greater the inflow of remittances and subsequent rise of GDP. In the present scenario, the economy is growing moderately, but the demand for workers is skyrocketing in the industrial and service sectors. 5 British Council, “Skills for Employability- Bangladesh,” 51 Skills for Employability- South Asia Evaluation Respondents were positive about the event’s role in assisting the youth to develop skills for employability. The programme will serve to increase student enrollment and will possibly create selfemployment for emerging school dropouts. Livelihood skills are a step towards breaking the poverty trap that has gripped Bangladesh. 4.1.2 Radio Programme Members The central aim of the radio programme is to raise awareness of technical and vocational education and training opportunities for young people, increase knowledge and understanding of the importance of enterprise skills and provide a platform for youth globally to share concerns and experiences around entering the work place. Programme content will be developed in close collaboration with the British Council in each of the programme countries. BNNRC was in charge of hosting and broadcasting. The name of the programme, “Tarruno Din” means “New Days for the Youth.” The name is supposed to invoke a sense that the future belongs to the youth if they work hard and take advantage of opportunities to develop their vocational skills and enhance their ability to earn a livelihood. 6 The show collaborated with its UK partners in the following ways: 1. Sought out UK VET and skills content advice, information and support to enable Central and South Asian Skills managers to operate effectively 2. Where proposed broadcast themes allowed partners in the UK provided relevant UK VET/Skills information and discussion of their own experiences to help script writers conduct research and develop the content of episodes under review 3. Identification of suitable UK experts to contribute to particular episodes where these are outside of the area of expertise of the consultant 4. On completion of this assignment a report setting out recommendations for future sourcing of UK content to similar initiatives. The role of Bangladesh NGOs Network for Radio and Communication (BNNRC’s) in broadcasting this radio programme was particularly crucial. BNNRC was in charge of doing all the groundwork and the implementation of the 10 part episode. The main themes included in the show were employment, technical education, the domestic and overseas job markets, self-employment, languages, introduction to labor laws, saving money and sending remittances, applying for overseas jobs, networking and knowledge sharing. The show attempted to involve the youth in interviews and chat shows, as well as radio-dramas. The show helped the youth develop skills by giving them knowledge and insight in to the world of TVET. Respondents were enthusiastic in responding that they thought the radio show will be beneficial for youth in future. 4.2 College Partnerships A significant component of the Skills for Employability program deals with institutional partnerships between colleges in the UK and overseas, thereby encouraging the internationalisation of vocational education along with learning from the UK’s knowledge and experience of effective, demand driven skills training. It aims to establish curriculum models that are tailored to meet the specific needs of the industry in priority sectors. In Bangladesh two institutions were working in partnership with institutions from UK. Through these partnerships more that 20 teachers and students were given the opportunity to work in 6 British Council, “Policy Dialogue in Bangladesh, Feedback from the British Council Staff,” 52 Skills for Employability- South Asia Evaluation different cultures, and to exchange ideas and knowledge thereby enhancing their international exposure. In 2011 the partners showcased their results from the project through a dissemination event attended by various invited guests including the Secretary of the Tourism Ministry. One of the partnerships was between Edinburgh’s Telford College, the UK Lead partner and Central and Southern Asia Lead Partners Textile Institute in Tangail.7 Another partner from the UK was Cardonald College. The other partnership was between Dundee College, the lead partner from the UK, and the National Hotel & Tourism Training Institute (NHTTI) as the Central and Southern Asia Lead Partner. Another partnership arrangement was with the Bangladesh Parjatan Corporation. This partnership was aimed at building capacity amongst senior staff and trainees to respond to the needs of the tourism industries in both the UK and Bangladesh. This involved ongoing training in hospitality and tourism at each partner institution, with inputs from industry partners. The training was aimed at continual professional development allowing exposure to industry requirements and providing opportunities to use the new training method approaches and resource materials. 4.3 Social Entrepreneurship Competition In Bangladesh the Enterprise Challenge Award was organized for the first time in 2009 in which 100 TVET institutions from 4 divisions participated. The competition had a positive impact on the lives of many students, including Raisul, Najrul, Shahidul, Kawar and Muzahidul, the winners of the competition. The winning team was awarded seed money of 53,000 taka to establish their enterprise “Light for Life,” a youth targeted project providing English Language training, a large factor in boosting employability. The project opened up many opportunities to young people, helping them avoid potential unemployment. The competition was held again in 2010, this time involving 800 students and 151 teachers from 151 TVET institutes from all over Bangladesh. It was organized by the British Council in partnership with the Technical Education Board, Directorate of Technical Education, Institute of Hotel & Tourism Training and Bangladesh Parjatan Corporation. 7 competitions in 7 divisions with 151 institutions were held and two winners from each division were selected for the final competition. 70 students on the national level received a two day training course at the British Council Auditorium prior to the final competition. The training focused on the development of skills, on team building, creativity, communication and presentation. The Education Minister, Nurul Islam Nahid called the Enterprise Challenge inspirational and innovative. He thanked the British Council saying “I am greatly inspired that this year, 500 students from 100 technical and vocational institutions across the country participated in this Challenge in Bangladesh.” The training was very effective for the students to boost their confidence which enhanced the quality of the projects as a result. Green Life was an endeavor to change the lives of many young individuals who have fallen prey to the clutches of drug addiction. The idea came out of the efforts of five young students Sujan, Milan, Rabeya, Delower & Hoymonte from Barisal Polytechnic Institute (BPI) that won the runners up position in the Enterprise Challenge Award 2010, Bangladesh. Although the students did not win the national championship and continue the legacy of their seniors who had won the award in 2009, they were still motivated and committed to the idea. These five young fighters had resolved to implement their project better than the national winner and they proved themselves right. 4.3.1 Results from the Winning Team 7 British Council, “Skills for Employability- Bangladesh.” 53 Skills for Employability- South Asia Evaluation This team implemented a project called “Light for Life” which aimed to train people from the community to improve their English as well with professional skills that would benefit them as they enter the workforce. After being confronted with the difference between a project plan on paper, the team leader remarked “Reality is lot more difficult than the planning stage, some of the things were completely opposite than we anticipated.” Although the initial response to their initiative was small, after a while the local residents started to understand what was being attempted to be achieved and they started attracting greater and greater numbers of unskilled workers. Figure4. 1: Location of participants from winning teams Figure4. 2: Gender of participants from winning teams All the participants belonged to either Dhaka or Barisal in the ratio of 53.8% and 46.2% respectively. From the above graph, it is clear that women were not very well represented in the winning team. Figure4. 3: Educational level of winning teams 54 Skills for Employability- South Asia Evaluation Education plays a very important role in a country’s development process. Out of 13 participants, 30% have matriculated, 30% are intermediate while only 10% have graduate and 10% have masters level degrees. 20% of the participants are diploma holders. Like Pakistan, Bangladesh also ranks very poorly in terms of its literacy rate, especially when compared to developed countries. Therefore there is a strong need to educate more people either through technical or formal education institutions. Table4. 1: Perception of Winning teams about indicators of project benefits Respondents Perception about different Indicators of Project Benefits Indicators Excellent Good Average Poor Very Poor 83.33 16.67 Developing entrepreneurship skills 76.92 15.38 7.69 Upgrading Communication skills 76.92 23.08 Using innovation 75.00 16.67 8.33 Starting own business 54.55 27.27 9.09 9.09 Improving confidence level 75.00 16.67 8.33 Enhancing team Building skills 91.67 8.33 Improving leadership skills 83.33 16.67 Increasing interest in participation in future 91.67 8.33 Other benefits of the project Average 78.71 15.64 4.64 1.01 From the table above we can see that the project has helped to develop entrepreneurial and leadership skills which leads to job creation and enhanced opportunities for students to start their own business. A lower percentage of respondents indicated that the programme has enhanced their confidence levels, approximately 54.55% of the students believed that their confidence has increased due to their participation in the project. Table4. 2: Perception of Winning teams about different Indicators of Competition Respondents Perception about different Indicators of the Competition Indicators Excellent Good 83.33 8.33 Idea of Social enterprise award 63.64 36.36 Learning during this competition 72.73 18.18 Planning & management of competition 90.91 9.09 Level of support provided by teachers Average 77.65 17.99 Average 8.33 9.09 4.36 Poor - Very Poor - The table above shows that 83.33% of the respondents think that idea of a social entrepreneurship award is excellent and 63.64% of the students responded that they have learnt a lot during the competition. The planning and management of the competition was ranked “good” by 72% of the students while 90.91% of the students ranked the level of support they received from teachers during the competition as “excellent.” 55 Skills for Employability- South Asia Evaluation Figure4. 4: Respondents still running the project Figure4. 5: Respondents' plan to take project as business Over half (53.8%) of the participants from Bangladesh are no longer running their projects due to different constraints which the British Council might be interested in exploring. About 75% of them have plans to take up their projects as their businesses as shown in the above diagram. Figure4. 6: Contribution of BC in knowledge acquisition of winning teams The above graph shows respondents’ perceptions of the British Council’s contribution towards the student’s knowledge acquisition where 23.1% of the participants marked the British Council’s contribution as 80-100%, 46.2% of the participants marked the British Council’s contribution as 60- 80%, and no one believed that the British Council had not contributed at all, which is commendable. 56 Skills for Employability- South Asia Evaluation Figure4. 7: Percentage of respondents who faced problems during competition Table4. 3: Perception of Winning teams regarding the Extent of Problems they faced Respondents Perception Regarding the Extent of Problems they Faced Problems Greatly Great Moderate Some What Not at all 10.00 40.00 50.00 Financial support 16.67 8.33 16.67 58.33 Confidence 25.00 8.33 66.67 Education 9.09 9.09 36.36 18.18 27.27 Project presentation skills 8.33 25.00 66.67 Community support 8.33 8.33 25.00 58.33 Training 20.00 20.00 20.00 30.00 Cooperation of government departments 10.00 50.00 50.00 Other Problems Average 9.68 18.43 20.38 6.86 44.66 From the table above, it can be seen that only 50% of the respondents faced problems during this competition. The students lack only project presentation skills and support from government. One of the myths was that student face financial problems but surprisingly 50% of the teams felt that this was not a big issue, demonstrating that the seed money given by the British Council went a long way. Table4. 4: Perception of winning teams regarding Project’s Successfulness Respondents Perception Regarding Project’s Successfulness Success Indicators Strongly Agree agree British Council support in Project implementation British Council helped in launching project British Council contribution Respondent’s feeling as a respected person in society after project involvement Knowledge & ideas developed due to Project Respondents’ Learning from other teams Opportunities for youth due to British Council 57 46.15 46.15 Neither agree nor disagree - 23.08 50.00 69.23 61.54 40.00 30.77 7.69 - 7.69 10.00 - - 69.23 23.08 69.23 30.77 38.46 23.08 7.69 - 23.08 - 7.69 7.69 Skills for Employability- South Asia Evaluation Disagree Strongly disagree 7.69 - Average 50.00 38.68 2.20 6.92 2.20 The above table shows students’ perception about the project’s successfulness. The majority of students strongly believed that knowledge and ideas have been generated due to this project and that they feel like respected people in society as a result of their involvement. A gap was seen in terms of team coordination as only 23.08% of them agreed that they have learnt from the other teams. About 46% of the students from the winning team strongly believed that the British Council supported them during the project implementation phase, and 69.23% responded that the youth is benefitting from enhanced employment opportunities. All respondents were of the view that the project outcomes will be beneficial to the youth in the future. By getting involved in the British Council’s project, the youth’s general employability skills have improved. They also believe that their participation in this competition helped them to enhance their entrepreneurship skills in one or the other way. Figure4. 8: Percentage of respondents from winning teams who started their own business According to a survey of ILO, the incidence of unemployment in Bangladesh has increased at the national level from 1.50 per cent to 3.27 percent between 1999 and 2000. There was an increase in the incidence of unemployment both for men and women. From the graph above, it can be seen that only 46.2% of students have started their own business also creating employment opportunities for the youth. All of them responded that they would like to participate in such activities by the British Council in future. 4.3.2 Results of Participating Teams Figure4. 9: Gender of respondents from participating teams 58 Skills for Employability- South Asia Evaluation Figure4. 10: Educational attainment of respondents from participating teams From the above graph, it is demonstrated that participating teams comprised of more men (92.9%) compared to women (only 7.1%). The statistics show that 50% of the students matriculated while 35.7% are intermediate and 14.3% are diploma holders. Figure4. 11: Employment status of respondents from participating teams The above graph shows the employment status of the respondents. It has been observed that 78.6% of the students are unemployed which is a major drawback while only 7.1% are students and employed as at the same time. Table4. 5: Perception of Participating teams about different Indicators of Project Benefits Respondents Perception about different Indicators of Project Benefits Indicators Excellent Good 71.43 Developing entrepreneurship skills 42.86 50.00 Upgrading Communication skills 50.00 50.00 Using innovation 37.50 62.50 Starting own business 50.00 28.57 Improving confidence level 78.57 14.29 Enhancing team Building skills 57.14 28.57 Improving leadership skills 78.57 21.43 Increasing interest in participation in future 71.43 28.57 Other benefits of the project Average 59.72 31.55 59 Skills for Employability- South Asia Evaluation Average 28.57 7.14 14.29 5.56 Poor 7.14 7.14 1.59 Very Poor 14.29 1.59 The above table presents students’ perceptions about the benefits of the project. Majority of the respondents believed that this project has benefited them in developing their entrepreneurship skills, starting their own business, and enhancing team building skills. Only 22% of the respondents think that they have improved their levels of confidence. If this table is compared with the responses of the winning team, a greater dispersion of results will be observed. The reason for this is that some students will have interacted less with the project than others. However, the results clearly indicate that the project has managed to uplift students’ entrepreneurial and communication skills, and definitely enhanced their team building skills. Research has proven that all this is directly correlated with the skills required to get a job but the British Council may still like to explore the reasons for perpetual unemployment. Table4. 6: Perception of participating teams about different Indicators of the Competition Respondents Perception about different Indicators of the Competition Indicators Excellent Good Average 71.43 21.43 7.14 Idea of Social enterprise award 57.14 28.57 14.29 Learning during this competition 64.29 21.43 7.14 Planning & management of competition 71.43 21.43 7.14 Level of support provided by teachers Average 66.07 23.21 8.93 Poor 7.14 1.79 Very Poor - The table above shows the rating of the competition by students where only 7.14% of them think that the planning and management of the competition was poor. About 71% of the respondents ranked the idea, and level of support received from the teachers as excellent. We have to consider that this group of participants interacted less with the British Council, but still during the workshops and orientation sessions the students realized the importance of this competition. Results indicate that they felt the management arrangements were either good or average and the level of learning out of this competition for them was great. Similar to the case in Pakistan, they see the support provided to them by their teachers as a vital element. Figure4. 12: Contribution of BC in knowledge acquisition of participating teams The above graph shows the British Council’s contribution towards knowledge acquisition: 64.3% of the students marked the British Council’s contribution as 80%-100% whereas no one in the sample marked its contribution as 0%- 40%. Table4. 7: Perception of Participating teams regarding the Extent of Problems they faced Respondents Perception Regarding the Extent of Problems they Faced Problems Greatly Great Moderate 7.14 14.29 Financial support 7.14 Confidence 60 Skills for Employability- South Asia Evaluation Some What 35.71 28.57 Not at all 42.86 64.29 Education Project presentation skills Community support Training Cooperation of government departments Other Problems Average - 7.14 7.14 3.57 21.43 14.29 7.14 28.57 35.71 15.18 7.14 21.43 21.43 7.14 21.43 17.86 92.86 57.14 57.14 85.71 42.86 64.29 63.39 Since the students from the participating teams had help from a diverse support system including their families and friends, as well as from their teachers, the British Council, 28% of them didn’t face many problems during the competition. The problems that have been noted by them included lack of cooperation from the government, the community and financial support as presented above. Table4. 8: Perception of Participating teams regarding Project’s Successfulness Respondents Perception Regarding Project’s Successfulness Strongly Agree Success Indicators agree British Council support in Project implementation British Council helped in launching project British Council contribution Respondent’s feeling as a respected person in society after project involvement Knowledge & ideas developed due to Project Respondents’ Learning from other teams Opportunities for youth due to British Council Average Neither agree nor disagree Disagree Strongly disagree 14.29 71.43 14.29 - - 28.57 14.29 14.29 71.43 85.71 78.57 7.14 - - 28.57 21.43 21.43 20.41 71.43 71.43 78.57 75.51 3.06 7.14 1.02 - The above table presents students’ perceptions about the project’s success. The majority of the students believed that knowledge and ideas have been generated as a result of the project. They additionally indicated that they are feeling respected people in society as a consequence of being involved in the project. As compared to the responses from the winning teams, only 21.43% of participating team members’ agreed that they have learnt a lot from other teams. 85.71% of the students from participating teams believed that the British Council supported them in project implementation and that the youth is getting greater employment opportunities due to the British Council’s efforts. All the respondents were of the view that the project outcomes will certainly be beneficial for the youth in future. By getting involved in the British Council’s project, they also believe that their general employability skills have been improved. 61 Skills for Employability- South Asia Evaluation Figure4. 13: Respondents from participating teams who started their own business Compared to the winning teams, the proportion of students from the participating teams (28.6% of the sample) who are engaged in starting their own business due to this project is very low. But all of them responded that they would like to participate in such activities by the British Council in the future. Figure4. 14: Respondents from participating teams who would recommend BC The above graph indicates that 71.4% of the students would be very likely to recommend the British Council to their friends and colleagues. 4.3.3 Results from Students who Participated but not Shortlisted Figure4. 15: Education level of students who participated but not shortlisted The group size sampled for this section comprised of a total of 21 respondents, all of whom were men. The graph shows the educational attainment levels of the respondents. Educational levels have a strong influence on the rates of employment. People with high levels of education experience less difficulty in accessing the labour market. The statistics in the diagram above show that 57.1% of the students who participated but didn’t get shortlisted had matriculated whereas only 23.8% of the participants were diploma holders, and some has only achieved an intermediate level of education. 62 Skills for Employability- South Asia Evaluation Figure4. 16: Employment status of participants who were not shortlisted From the above graph, it can be observed that there is a huge difference in the employment rate of participants of this competition. Since these students did not get the chance to implement their project ideas, their employment rate is very low. Only 9.5% of the students are employed all of which are selfemployed. Table4. 9: Perception of students who participated but not shortlisted about competition indicators Respondents Perception about different Indicators of the Competition Indicators Excellent Good Average Poor Very Poor 85.71 14.29 Idea of Social enterprise award 61.90 33.33 4.76 Learning during this competition Average 73.81 23.81 2.38 The above table shows respondents’ perceptions about the competition. About 88% of the participants suggested that the idea of the social entrepreneurship award was excellent and 62% of the participants responded that the competition had positive learning outcomes. Table4. 10: Perception of students who participated but not shortlisted about extent of problems they faced Respondents Perception Regarding the Extent of Problems they Faced Problems Greatly Great Moderate 26.67 40.00 Financial support 6.67 20.00 Confidence 12.50 12.50 Education 6.25 25.00 37.50 Project presentation skills 14.29 Other Problems Average 6.58 16.83 16.86 Some What 6.67 33.33 37.50 6.25 14.29 19.61 Not at all 26.67 40.00 37.50 25.00 71.43 40.12 As compared to members from the winning and participating teams, respondents from this team faced more problems such as in financial support, lack of education and lack of presentation skills. They faced these problems more than other teams because they couldn’t get enough support and attention from the British Council, according to the table above. 63 Skills for Employability- South Asia Evaluation Figure4. 17: Percentage of respondents who attended training before competition The graph above shows the statistics of respondents who didn’t attend any training sessions before the competition. 70% responded that they could not get any training before competition, and that could be a possible reason for their rejection. This demonstrates a strong link between training the quality level of the applicants. Table4. 11: Perception of not shortlisted students about competition's successfulness Respondents Perception Regarding competition’s Successfulness Success Indicators Strongly Agree Neither agree agree nor disagree 61.90 38.10 British Council help in participating in competition 66.67 23.81 British Council contribution was satisfactory 47.62 28.57 4.76 Short listing criteria of BC was fair 61.90 38.10 Knowledge & ideas developed 57.14 42.86 Opportunities for youth due to British Council 47.62 9.52 After training respondent will start his own 38.10 business Average 55.56 36.51 2.38 Disagree Strongly disagree - - 9.52 - 19.05 - - 4.76 - 5.56 - The above table shows students’ perceptions regarding the competition’s successfulness: 62% of the participants strongly agreed that the British Council made it possible for them to participate in the competition and that their contribution was satisfactory; 47.62% of the participants strongly agreed that the British Council’s short-list criterion was fair and 57.14% of the participants believed that the British Council has provided employment opportunities to youth through this programme. This is very important set of percentages represent a much larger group than those of the winning and participating team questionnaires. 64 Skills for Employability- South Asia Evaluation Figure4. 18: Contribution of BC in knowledge acquisition of students who were not shortlisted The above graph indicates the contribution of the British Council in terms of knowledge acquisition. The gap is clearly shown if compared with other teams because 4.8% of the respondents marked the British Council’s contribution from 20-40% and 40-60% each. The majority viewed the British Council’s role as positive. They all believe that by getting involved in the British Council’s project, their general employability skills have been improved. Their participation in this competition helped to enhance their entrepreneurship skills in some way. Figure4. 19: Percentage of students who started their own business after training The above graph shows that only 4.8% of candidates started their own business after receiving training which is very low compared to the other groups. It therefore might be worthwhile for the British Council to look for alternative ways to help these students find themselves employment. Figure4. 20: Percentage of Respondents who would recommend BC It is very important to note that even given their low participation levels, students who participated but did not get shortlisted were still very likely to recommend British Council to their friends and colleagues. 65 Skills for Employability- South Asia Evaluation 4.3.4 Results from the Master Trainers Figure4. 21: Education level of master trainers This group is comprised of 5 people from Dhaka city. The data above shows that a good percentage of the respondents are qualified with at higher than a masters level degree (60%) and 40% have masters level degrees. Figure4. 22: Employment type of master trainers The above diagram shows breaks down where the master trainers are employed. It demonstrates that most of the respondents are working in the private sector (60%). Figure4. 23: Working experience of master trainers The graph above shows that 40% of the master trainers have more than 21 years of work experience, and that 60% have less than 20 years of experience. The British Council played a very important role in training the trainers and made a conscious effort to emphasize the quality of this role, and to provide the best training faculty to students for the development of entrepreneurship skills. Table4. 12: Training perception of master trainers Training Perception of the Respondent 66 Skills for Employability- South Asia Evaluation Statements Before training After training Standard of training manuals Quality of training Excellent 75 50 80 Very Good 25 50 20 Good 50 - Poor 25 - Very Poor 25 - The significance and value of training can be observed in the above table which presents that only 50% of the master trainers rated their skills on the concept of social entrepreneurship as good but this percent age increased to 100% after receiving training. 100% of them ranked the overall training programme as excellent because of the British Council’s satisfactory contribution. Figure4. 24: Master trainers who attended trainings before SfE program The above graph shows that the majority of the master trainers did not receive any training before participating in the School for Education Programme. The British Council provided the training which resulted in a marked improvement in technical skills for the respondents which was the ultimate goal of social enterprise competition. All the respondents were of the view that they need further training about entrepreneurship skills for delivery of effective training in the future. Master trainers strongly believe that British Council played a key role in project success. Figure4. 25: Contribution of BC in knowledge acquisition of master trainers The above graph shows the British Council’s contribution in terms of the knowledge acquisition of master trainers. 50% of the participants marked British Council’s contribution to be 80-100% and no one in the sample marked BC’s contribution as 0%. Table4. 13: Training assessment indicators of master trainers Training assessment indicators 67 Skills for Employability- South Asia Evaluation Sharing of possible knowledge and ideas with trainees British Council sufficient support to the trainers British Council contribution Training time duration Knowledge and ideas has enhanced the skills of trainees Good relationships development of British Council with different stakeholders Change in youth Change in society Changes in trainees Strongly agree 100 Agree Neither agree nor disagree - Disagree - Strongly disagree - 100 100 100 - - 100 - 0 - 100 - - - - 100 100 100 - - - - The above table shows that the British Council’s contribution to the training programme. All the respondents agree that British Council has provided sufficient support to the trainers and that because of this training programme the skills of trainees have been enhanced as a result of being provided new ideas and knowledge. All of the trainers agreed that the social entrepreneurship competition can bring change in youth and in the society. But all responded that the training duration was insufficient. Table4. 14: Perception about changes observed by master trainers Perception about change by the Respondent Developing entrepreneurship skills Upgrading Communication skills Using innovation Starting own business Improving confidence level Enhancing team Building skills Improving leadership skills Increasing interest in participation in future Others Excellent 100 0 0 0 0 100 100 100 Very Good 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Good 0 100 100 100 100 0 0 0 Poor 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Very Poor 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 The above table indicates the changes observed in the trainees after the training delivery. All the trainers believe that they have observed changes in entrepreneurship skills and team building skills which both have direct consequences for the creation of job opportunities for the students. They have also observed that students have improved their communication skills and confidence levels as well and that the students are now able to start their own business. 68 Skills for Employability- South Asia Evaluation Figure4. 26: Number of students and teachers trained by master trainers The above tables present the number of students and teachers trained through this programme. Figure4. 27: Need of improvement in training program The graph above shows that 80% of the participants believe that there is a need to improve the training programme. They suggested that the training duration should be increased, group work must be enhanced, participation should be made stronger and that greater consideration should be given to financials. However, all the respondents indicated that they would be likely to recommend the British Council to their friends and colleagues. 4.3.5 Results from Teachers and Principals Figure4. 28: Age of principals and teachers This group consisted of 20 respondents. Most of the respondents fell between the ages of 33 and 40 years old, making up almost 45% of the total population interviewed. The graph above shows that a major proportion of the respondents are mature with only 15 percent less than 32 years of age. 69 Skills for Employability- South Asia Evaluation Figure4. 29: Gender of principals and teachers The graph above indicates the gender composition of the respondent group: 95% of the groups were men and only 5% were women. Figure4. 30: Educational level of principal and teachers Education plays an important role in a country’s development process. The statistics show that 70% of the participants were qualified with a master’s level degree, while only 3.4% of them had intermediate degrees. Figure4. 31: Employment type of principals and teachers The graph above shows that the majority of the principals and teachers (70%) are working in the government sector. This is a good indication of government ownership of the project and bodes well for programme sustainability as government servants are participating actively in the project, building capacity and also simultaneously learning the lessons of the programme. 70 Skills for Employability- South Asia Evaluation Figure4. 32: Experience of principals and teachers The statistics from the above table show that the most of the principals and teachers (45 %) have 1 to 5 years of work experience. A few respondents (30%) have 6 to 15 years of teaching experience while 25% of them have more than 16 years of experience. Table4. 15: Perception of Principals and teachers about training assessment indicators Trainers perception of training assessment indicators Statements Excellent Very Good Poor Very Poor Good 5.00 25.00 30.00 20.00 20.00 Before getting exposed to competition 70.00 25.00 5.00 After getting involved in competition 25.00 15.00 5.00 Perception of students about cascading session 55.00 25.00 40.00 25.00 10.00 Standard of training manuals 30.00 50.00 10.00 10.00 Quality of training Competition plays a crucial role in compelling people to deliver their best. The table delineates that only 5% of the trainers rated their knowledge as excellent before exposure to the competition. However after participating in the competition the percentage of respondents who answered with “excellent” increased to 70%. This demonstrates that knowledge of how to enhance entrepreneur skills increased. Additionally very few of the participants rated the standard of training manuals and quality of training as poor. Figure4. 33: Training needs of principals and teachers The above graph shows the trainers’ view (80%) that as a principal or a teacher; they need further training on the concept of social entrepreneurship to ensure the quality of training in the future. Better training will lead to the provision of increased employment opportunities for the youth. 71 Skills for Employability- South Asia Evaluation Figure4. 34: Contribution of BC in knowledge acquisition of principals and teachers The above graph shows the British Council’s contribution towards knowledge acquisition. 50% of the participants saw the British Council’s contribution as being between 80% and 100%, 45% marked its contribution to be between 60 and 80%, whereas only 5% saw the its contribution to be between 0 and 20 percent. Table4. 16: Perception of principals and teachers about training benefits Perception of principals and teachers about training benefits Strongly agree Agree Neither agree nor disagree Disagree Strongly disagree 31.58 21.05 Knowledge and ideas for improving training quality 47.37 50.00 45.00 5.00 Learning through enterprise competition 45.00 50.00 5.00 Benefited knowledge through competition 35.00 40.00 10.00 15.00 Beneficent learning resources for teacher training 55.00 40.00 5.00 Useful training for the students 5.00 30.00 65.00 Sufficient training duration 35.00 45.00 15.00 5.00 Sufficient support from British Council 30.00 70.00 Contribution of British Council is sufficient 55.00 45.00 Useful part of curricula 50.00 30.00 15.00 5.00 Good relationships development of British Council with different stakeholders From the above statistics it can be noted that the majority of participants agree that knowledge and ideas have been developed for improving the quality of training. They also agree that they have found the competition to be a useful addition to the curricula and that training was useful for students. Respondents did, however, identify that training duration and resources were two areas of weakness. 65% of participants disagreed that the training duration was sufficient for them to learn social entrepreneurship skills. Table4. 17: Perception of principals and teachers about training benefits for students Perception of principals and teachers about training benefits for students Excellent Very Good Good Statements 30.00 55.00 15.00 Developing entrepreneurship skills 72 Skills for Employability- South Asia Evaluation Poor Very Poor - - Upgrading Communication skills Using innovation Starting own business Improving confidence level Enhancing team Building skills Improving leadership skills Increasing interest in participation in future Others 25.00 27.78 25.00 30.00 55.00 55.00 50.00 89.47 50.00 61.11 50.00 30.00 40.00 25.00 35.00 10.53 25.00 5.56 18.75 25.00 20.00 15.00 - 5.56 6.25 15.00 5.00 - - The table shows the perceptions of teachers and the principal about the training assessment of students. The majority of the participants believe that this training has developed entrepreneurship skills, upgraded communication skills, and enhanced team building skills, all steps towards starting their own businesses. 15% of the participants felt that there is need to improve students’ confidence levels. Figure4. 35: Perception of principals and teachers about training program The British Council may find it useful to investigate the areas that need improvement as all of the participants responded that there is great need in this department. The areas of improvement identified included the donation system, development of time practice, communication with management, learning the mother tongue, and finding ways to cope with environmental issues. It can be observed that the participants (94.74%) want this teacher training programme to be further implemented in the future. Additionally the majority of participants responded that there is no voluntary work started by their college but teachers reported that students have themselves started the voluntary work. 73 Skills for Employability- South Asia Evaluation Figure4. 36: Principals and teachers who would recommend BC Only 35% of the principals and teachers are very likely to recommend the British Council to other colleagues and friends while 30% responded that they wouldn’t recommend the British Council, according to the above diagram. Since this is quite different from the results of most other groups, it might be worthwhile investigating why such a significant proportion of respondents wouldn’t recommend the British Council to their colleagues. 74 Skills for Employability- South Asia Evaluation Chapter 5 COMPARISON OF PAKISTAN AND BANGLADESH; AT GLANCE Table5. 1: Gender of Respondents from Pakistan and Bangladesh Gender of Respondents Pakistan Female Male Total Winning Teams 53.3 46.7 100.0 Participating Teams 16.7 83.3 100.0 Participants, not short listed 35.3 64.7 100.0 33.7 66.3 100.0 Winning Teams 7.7 92.3 100.0 Participating Teams 7.1 92.9 100.0 100.0 100.0 95.8 100.0 Total Bangladesh Participants, not short listed 4.2 Total The table is statistical comparison between Pakistan and Bangladesh showing the proportion of men to women participated in social entrepreneurship competition. We can see very clearly the active participation of women in Pakistan as compared to Bangladesh (33.7% females from Pakistan: 4.2% females from Bangladesh). Table5. 2: Educational Level of respondents from Pakistan and Bangladesh Educational Levels of Respondents Middle Pakistan Matriculation Intermediate Any Diploma Winning Teams 20.0 73.3 6.7 Participating Teams 13.3 6.7 30.0 20.0 51.8 28.8 4.3 0.7 Participants, 75 14.4 Skills for Employability- South Asia Evaluation Graduation Post Graduation and Above Total 100.0 30.0 100.0 100.0 not short listed 10.9 42.9 28.8 8.7 3.8 4.9 100.0 Winning Teams 25.0 41.7 16.7 8.3 8.3 100.0 Participating Teams 50.0 35.7 14.3 100.0 14.3 57.1 4.8 23.8 100.0 6.4 46.8 23.4 19.1 Total Bangladesh Participants, not short listed Total 2.1 2.1 100.0 The above table shows the comparison between Pakistani and Bangladeshi respondents’ educational attainment. Compared to the participants from Bangladesh, students from Pakistan have higher level of educational attainment as percentage of Intermediate, Graduate and Post Graduate students recorded as 28.8%, 3.8%, and 4.9% respectively. Table5. 3: Employment Status of respondents from Pakistan and Bangladesh Employment Status of the respondents Employed Pakistan Student Employed Total 13.3 33.3 53.3 100.0 Participating Teams 63.3 13.3 23.3 100.0 Participants, not short listed 3.1 3.9 90.7 2.3 100.0 14.4 2.9 72.4 10.3 100.0 Winning Teams 15.4 23.1 61.5 Participating Teams 7.1 7.1 78.6 7.1 100.0 90.5 9.5 100.0 79.2 6.2 100.0 Participants, not short listed Total Student unemployed Winning Teams Total Bangladesh Unemployed 6.2 8.3 100.0 This comparison table shows the employment status of participants. It has been observed that students are more unemployed in Bangladesh (8.3% unemployment rate in Bangladesh vs. 2.9% unemployment rate in Pakistan) which is a major drawback while only 6.2% are students and employed at the same time while in Pakistan, situation of employment is not better but good as compared to Bangladesh. 76 Skills for Employability- South Asia Evaluation Table5. 4: employment Type of respondents from Pakistan and Bangladesh Employment Type of the Respondents Pakistan Private Government Self Total Winning Teams 38.5 30.8 30.8 100.0 Participating Teams 33.3 55.6 11.1 100.0 Participants, not short listed 28.6 50.0 21.4 100.0 33.3 48.1 18.5 100.0 Total Banglades h Winning Teams 100.0 Participating Teams 100.0 100.0 100.0 Participants, not short listed 33.3 Total 33.3 100.0 100.0 33.3 100.0 The above table shows that equal number of respondents is engaged in self- business, and working in either private sector or in government sector in Bangladesh. In Pakistan, majority of the respondents (48.1%) are employed in government sector, some (33.3%) are working in private sector while only few (18.5%) are self- employed. Table5. 5: Working experience of respondents from Pakistan and Bangladesh Working Experience of the respondents Pakistan Up to 1 Year 2 to 3 Years Winning Teams 71.4 28.6 Participating Teams 41.4 10.3 Participants, not short listed 58.3 41.7 52.7 21.8 Total Banglades h 77 Winning Teams 100.0 Participating Teams 100.0 Participants, not short listed 50.0 Skills for Employability- South Asia Evaluation Above 3 Years Total 100.0 48.3 100.0 100.0 25.5 100.0 100.0 100.0 50.0 100.0 50.0 Total 50.0 100.0 The table shows that 52.7% of the participants of all 03 teams of Pakistan have up to 1 year of experience, 22% of them has 2-3 years of experience, and 25.5% of them have more than 3 years of experience. While in Bangladesh, participants had only experience of either 1 year or up to 2 years. Although British Council played a very important role but in Bangladesh, there is still need to train the students and help them in getting employment. Table5. 6: Perception of participants from Pakistan and Bangladesh about different indicators of Project Benefits Respondents excellent or very good Perception about different Indicators of Project Benefits Pakistan Bangladesh Winning Teams Participating Teams Participants, not short listed Total Winning Teams Participating Teams Participants, not short listed Total Developing entrepreneurship skills 92.3 86.2 94.2 92.7 100.0 71.4 81.0 82.9 Upgrading Communication skills 100.0 76.7 81.8 82.4 92.3 92.9 95.3 93.7 Using innovation 92.3 86.2 78.0 80.4 100.0 100.0 90.5 95.8 Starting own business 73.4 90.0 83.1 83.5 91.7 100.0 76.2 85.4 Improving confidence level 93.4 83.4 87.8 87.5 81.8 78.6 95.2 86.9 Enhancing team Building skills 100.0 86.7 85.6 86.9 91.7 92.9 95.3 93.6 Improving leadership skills 92.9 86.2 89.9 89.5 100.0 85.7 95.2 93.7 Increasing interest in participation in future 100.0 89.7 89.0 90.1 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 Other benefits of the project 75.0 100.0 64.9 67.6 91.7 100.0 100.0 97.0 Average 91.0 87.2 83.8 84.5 94.4 91.3 92.1 92.1 The table presents the respondents’ only “Excellent” or “Very Good” perception about different indicators of project benefits in Pakistan and Bangladesh. There is a very slight difference in responses of students from both countries. It is shown in the statistics that majority of students (more in Bangladesh) have upgraded their communication skills, enhanced team building skills, improved leadership skills, and increased interest in future participation. 78 Skills for Employability- South Asia Evaluation Table5. 7: Perception of participants from Pakistan and Bangladesh about different indicators of Competition Respondents excellent and very good Perception about different Indicators of the Competition Pakistan Idea of Social enterprise award Learning during this competition Average Winning Teams 93.3 100.0 96.7 Participating Teams 96.7 96.5 96.6 Participants, not short listed 95.5 84.6 90.1 95.5 88.3 91.9 91.6 91.6 Total Bangladesh Total Winning Teams Participating Teams 92.8 85.7 89.3 Participants, not short listed 100.0 95.2 97.6 97.1 91.5 94.3 Compared to responses of participants of Pakistan (where 95.5% of the participants ranked idea of social enterprise competition as “Excellent” or “Very Good” and 88.3% responded that they have learnt a lot during this competition), it has been observed that that participants of Bangladesh were more satisfied with the idea d social enterprise award competition and that they have learnt a lot during the competition. Table5. 8: Contribution of British Council in knowledge acquisition in Pakistan and Bangladesh Contribution of British Council in Knowledge Acquisition 0% to 20% 20% 40% Winning Teams Pakistan 6.7 Participating Teams 79 to 60% 80% to 80% to Total 100% 20.0 46.7 26.7 100.0 25.0 35.7 39.3 100.0 Participants, not short 5.3 listed 7.1 34.5 28.3 24.8 100.0 3.8 5.8 31.4 31.4 27.6 100.0 30.8 46.2 23.1 100.0 Total Bangladesh to 40% 60% Winning Teams Skills for Employability- South Asia Evaluation Participating Teams Participants, not short listed Total 7.1 28.6 64.3 100.0 4.8 4.8 52.4 38.1 100.0 2.1 12.5 43.8 41.7 100.0 This table depicts the comparison between responses of participants’ views from Pakistan and Bangladesh on how much British Council contributed towards students’ knowledge acquisition. Majority of the respondents from Pakistan marked British Council’s contribution as 40% to 80% and same was the response from Bangladesh where they marked its contribution as 60% to 100%. But 3.8% of the participants from Pakistan gave the question a negative response ranking knowledge acquisition at 0 to 20% which should be investigated by British Council to know where and why it needs to be improved. Table5. 9: Problems faced by respondents from Pakistan and Bangladseh Respondent faced problem during the Competition Yes Pakistan Total Winning Teams 100.0 Participating Teams 62.1 37.9 100.0 Participants, not short listed 44.7 55.3 100.0 55.0 45.0 100.0 Winning Teams 50.0 50.0 100.0 Participating Teams 21.4 78.6 100.0 Participants, not short listed 33.3 66.7 100.0 34.0 66.0 100.0 Total Bangladesh No Total 100.0 This table is statistical comparison between Pakistan and Bangladesh showing the proportion of Problems faced during the Social Entrepreneurship Competition. We can see very clearly that the respondents in Pakistan faced more problems (55%) in comparison with the Bangladesh (34 %) and British Council may like to explore the reasons that why Pakistani participants faced more problems. Table5. 10: Perception about extent of problems faced by participants from Pakistan and Bangladesh Respondents Greatly or great Perception Regarding the Extent of Problems they Faced Financial Confidence Education Project support presentation 80 Skills for Employability- South Asia Evaluation Other problems Average skills Pakistan Winning Teams 53.3 73.3 53.3 50.0 62.5 58.5 Participating Teams 39.3 33.4 27.6 33.4 45.4 35.8 Participants, not short 47.4 listed 29.9 18.3 23.0 20.8 27.9 46.7 34.1 22.7 26.8 29.0 31.9 Winning Teams 10.0 16.7 25.0 18.2 100.0 34.0 Participating Teams 7.1 7.1 - - - 2.8 Participants, not short 66.7 listed 6.7 12.5 31.2 - 23.4 30.8 9.8 11.9 17.1 8.6 15.6 Total Bangladesh Total As shown in the table, all the participants faced problems during this competition. After identifying the details of their problems faced, we come to know that participants from Pakistan faced more financial problems, lack of confidence, and lack of project presentation skills as compared to participants from Bangladesh. Table5. 11: Perception of participants regarding projects' successfulness in Pakistan and Bangladesh Respondents Strongly Agree or Agree Regarding Project’s Successfulness Pakistan British Council contribution Knowledge & Opportunities for Average ideas developed youth due to due to Project British Council Winning Teams 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 Participating Teams 96.6 96.6 96.7 96.6 short 97.1 94.6 96.5 96.1 97.2 95.6 96.8 96.5 Winning Teams 90.0 100.0 92.3 94.1 Participating Teams 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 96.8 Participants, listed not Total Bangladesh Participants, listed 81 not short 90.5 Skills for Employability- South Asia Evaluation Total 93.4 100.0 97.9 From the table above, it has been observed that there is a very slight difference in the perception of participants from Pakistan and Bangladesh about projects’ success. The majority of the students strongly agreed that knowledge and ideas have been developed due to this project and that British Council contributed a lot during this competition. They also believed that youth is getting more employment opportunities due to British Council’s efforts. Figure5. 1: Improvement in employability skills of participants from Pakistan and Bangladesh British Council through social entrepreneurship competition improved the general employability skills of participants of all the teams both in Pakistan (98.3%) and Bangladesh (100%) which is a very good indicator of the success of SfE Program. Figure5. 2: Enhancement of entrepreneurship skills in participants of Pakistan and Bangladesh British Council played a very important role in training the trainers in order to provide the best faculty to students for development of entrepreneurship skills in both countries. And it is clearly shown in the graph 82 Skills for Employability- South Asia Evaluation 97.1 (90.6% in Pakistan and 97.9% in Bangladesh) that the participation of winning teams, participating teams and even the participants who were not shortlisted have enhanced their entrepreneurship skills through this competition and training. Figure5. 3: Respondents from Pakistan and Bangladesh who started their own business after training After getting training, 67.1% of the total respondents in Pakistan has started their own business in Pakistan while only 22.9% of the respondents in Bangladesh has started their own business which is very low as compared to Pakistan. This percentage is high in Winning teams in both countries. It, therefore, might be worthwhile for British Council to look for other alternate ways to help the students of Bangladesh in finding themselves the employment opportunities. Figure5. 4: Respondents from Pakistan and Bangladesh who would participate in future activities This comparison graph does not show much difference in the response of Pakistani and Bangladeshi participants. 96.7% and 97.9% of the total participants from all the 03 teams of Pakistan and Bangladesh respectively would participate in such activities in future. 83 Skills for Employability- South Asia Evaluation Table5. 12: Participants who would recommend British Council in future Respondent would you recommend BC Very Unlikely Pakistan Neutral Likely Very Likely Total 7.1 28.6 64.3 100.0 3.3 3.3 3.3 80.0 100.0 Participants, not short 4.4 listed 0.7 11.7 25.5 57.7 100.0 5.0 1.1 9.9 22.1 61.9 100.0 100.0 100.0 14.3 71.4 100.0 14.3 85.7 100.0 10.6 85.1 100.0 Winning Teams Participating Teams Total Banglades h Unlikely 10.0 Winning Teams Participating Teams 14.3 Participants, not short listed 4.3 Total The table shows the likeliness of participants of Pakistan and Bangladesh to recommend British Council to their friends and colleagues. 85.1% of the participants from Bangladesh would very likely to recommend British Council while 61.9% of participants from Pakistan would very likely to recommend and 5.0% would not like to recommend British Council. British Council might like to explore the reasons why few participants from Pakistan would not recommend. 84 Skills for Employability- South Asia Evaluation Chapter 6 SUCCESS STORIES 6.1 Pre- Fabricated Houses “Empowering and enabling the environment for the youth; the hope of country is the greatest contribution of British council” said Fowad Fowad Ahmed is the shining star and dedicated entrepreneur who has successfully implemented the concept of social enterprise; coined by British council in Pakistan. Ahmed belongs to a far flanged and difficult area of Pakistan “Balakot” which was severely hit by the disastrous and outrageous earthquake of 2005. This massive destruction has not only swallowed the precious human lives but also has taken the basic need of shelters from them. This natural calamity brought an idea in his mind; and he decided to put his maximum efforts towards the benefit of the society. British council has contributed and inculcated the sense of responsibility and ownership for the community and society by providing social entrepreneurial training and information. When he saw that most of the habituates are cutting the trees and exploiting the environment for the sake of shelter he decided to build the pre-fabricated houses made of Aluminum. The main theme of this concept was to save the tress and soil from erosion; as the tress and the healthy soil is the only source to save this piece of land from unforeseen natural calamity like earthquake. Although it took half decade to transform this concept in to the implementation phase but this only happened when financially and morally BC helped the team in this innovative idea. In 2010, Fowad and his team of 10 members got the opportunity of understanding the social entrepreneur thus enabling them to use their skills and capabilities in an effective manner. British council supported Fowad with the seed money of 0.15 Million and he used this money wisely for the purchase of new raw material. “The best feature of these houses is that they are portable, repairable and cost effective” Fowad said confidently. Due to this reason the team Fowad has helped many poor families by offering them a choice of size and they can also build in the houses in segments as well. In the short span of 8 months Fowad has not only implemented the direct benefit of this idea but this has generated the livelihood opportunities for 30 persons and hence provided the relief to 250 people in form of shelter. Further to this he was able to maintain the profit up to 40 %; thus this concept has been implemented in an effective way that is running the business for the sake of the community uplifting. He said in a pleasant way that youth is the major striking force of Pakistan in bringing change; if and only if they are taken care in a right manner. British council through this novel approach is bringing change in the lives of marginalized youth of the south Asia. I and my team are much obliged for providing me the life time opportunity for unleashing my talent and giving the right direction to my thoughts. 85 Skills for Employability- South Asia Evaluation 6.2 Solid Waste Management Jhang the state of Punjab, Pakistan; situated on the east bank of the Chenab river, about 210 kilometer from Lahore has given birth to some innovative and brilliant minds named as Fairda and Nazim. These shining stars presented their ground-breaking idea of solid waste management in 2008 and it eventually strike in the Annual Youth Social entrepreneur competition held in United Kingdom. “We belong to a region with the population of 387,418; here people are not aware of healthy environmental practices. I always feel very bad when I passed through the streets from my house to my institute and see that the waste was dumped outside the houses; spreading the diseases and infections.” Said Farida in blue mood. Solid Waste management is the collection, transport, disposal, managing and monitoring of waste materials. The purpose of this process is to work in such a way that it can reduce the hazardous effect on health and the environment. This novel approach flourished when British council helped the team of this project to implement this idea. British council with the purpose to inculcate the sense of responsibility in the youth for the betterment of the community has helped them a lot. With the guidelines provided by BC; Nazim and Farida Team is not only saving the community but also they are able to earn sufficient money by selling the beautiful fabric bags in institutes, book shops and markets. Farida and Nazim along with their team did the extensive research on the subject matter; however they concluded their idea with the reduction of paper bags, re-using the waste and recycling. The main challenge at this point of time was to make people aware about the hap hazardous outcomes of this waste. This can only be done if you had strong interpersonal and communication skills. Nazim said “I am much grateful to the British council for providing me this wonderful opportunity of learning the new skills; they polished our skills and made us confident enough to raise our voice in front of masses”. Nazim and his team organized more than 340 awareness campaigns; reaching people at home steps. They also organized the campaigns at schools and colleges with the message how plastic bags and waste material is eradicating the beauty of the motherland. The third part of their idea carries the Incineration process. It is a disposal method in which solid organic wastes are subjected to combustion so as to convert them into residue and gaseous products. Incinerators convert waste materials into heat, gas, steam and ash. As a leading part of this idea they are working with one of the sugar mill in Pakistan; which provides them waste material and they decompose them in the form of fertilizer which is again used for increasing the fertility of the sugarcane. Keeping the idea of recycling in mind they are also working in different hospitals making people aware on the safe disposal of medical wastes. As a part of social entrepreneur they are not only earning money now; but also have installed the systems in many houses where people can easily generate and utilized the bio gas by disposing the solid and organic wastes. Making people aware for the green land is their motive which is achieved with the help and support of British Council. Every first step is difficult to take; when you do something against the routine life people oppose but thanks to British council for supporting and encouraging us. They always taught us lay a firm foundation with the bricks that others throw at you. We feel privileged when people listens us and accepts the 86 Skills for Employability- South Asia Evaluation importance of this work. It was an honor and sense of pride when we won this competition amongst the seven countries. Nazim and Fairda said in a pleasant way. 6.3 Paper Recycling Three years ago British council’s youth social entrepreneurship has carved the diamond from Rawalakot. British council through this novel program in South Asia is unleashing the potential of the youth who has some hidden skills but are marginalized segments of the society. Zohaib is one of those brilliant young entrepreneurs who got the benefit from the trainings and information sessions provided by British Council. Zohaib is a nature loving and environment friendly person; his nature has inspired him to look around his environment and from there an idea struck in his mind that people use the paper very ruthlessly .Zohaib Said “It is always very difficult to change the attitude of the people on re-usability of the material which they always think of no use. When I got to know how the people of one of USA’s state worked on the water conversation; it stimulated my thoughts that why not we. But the dilemma is we are not even aware how we can use; rather re-use the paper”. Zohaib with the seed money provided by British council started the massive awareness campaigns on how to save the paper and tress. He introduced in schools, colleges and offices that how to use paper effectively; rather than ragging and dumping it into dustbins. Without the help of British Council it was quite difficult for me to accomplish this task, as when I started I even don’t know what to say and how to say. But after the guidance I been able enough to talk and convince masses on why and for what reason I am doing this? Zohaib said confidently He worked on this idea in three dimensions which include the paper mashing technique. Team Zohaib requested the community to donate them the rough and used paper so that they can use this in beautifying and preparing the models and decoration pieces. Zohaib effectively and efficiently engaged the community by involving the skilled students of technical institution.These unique products is sold at Zohaib’s own shop. This idea has enabled him to earn sufficient money and serve the community in a productive way. Making envelops by old papers is a simple technique; but people don’t like to use this. Zohaib Said “Today, 90% of paper pulp is made of wood. Paper production accounts for about 35% of felled trees, and represents 1.2% of the world's total economic output. Recycling one ton of newsprint saves about 1 ton of wood while recycling 1 ton of printing or copier paper saves slightly more than 2 tons of wood”. Zohaib uses two methods; one is to sell papers to whole sellers at lower cost and saving money on the other hand serving the under-privileged youth by giving those books. With the support of British council Zohaib has not only created the job opportunities for the people of his age group but also he has introduce the idea on conservation of resources. Currently he has engaged many students and women for making envelop and paper mashed products. British council has showed him a right direction and he is currently working on broadening the scope of work. Zohaib with the help of British Council has not only doing networking with multi cultural people to inform them with universal problems of paper recycling but also he is able enough to do the capacity building of the communities. 87 Skills for Employability- South Asia Evaluation 6.4 Ladies Shop “Working as a female social entrepreneur in an area which has strict socio- cultural barrier is always a challenging Job. This courageous work is appreciated and encourages by British Council”. Shaiza Said. Shazia belongs to Rawalakot; the area which was severely attacked by the outrageous earthquake. Shazia along with her group members worked on an innovative idea which supports the female to work and shop without fear of male harassing factor in the market. This shop is exclusively for the females by the females; however this initiative is supported by British Council. With the seed money of around 65,000 PKR Shaiza and her team dexterously and professionally worked on this idea; with the purpose to meet the social issue of her area. The females of the area due to the socio-cultural issues faced many problems in purchasing the daily necessities of life; one of them is buying undergarments. Shazia had the opportunity to get awareness about empowering self and community and she used this quite effectively. She is trying to eradicate the social issue as well as now earning at her own. “Becoming an entrepreneur at this very young age; it always feels privileged when females come to you; appreciate and get inspired. She said. Shazia is now considered a successful entrepreneur in her community; she has successfully employed two (02) females who are earning their livelihood and supporting their family. As a symbol of tomorrow she is emerging as a successful female entrepreneur who is addressing the need of the community in a better way. She gives the credit and this success for her to British council. From the platform of British Council she has reach to self- actualization stage and now she is equipped with the skills and abilities that has enabled her to work for the community and with the community. She is currently expanding her business with the vision that you can only bring gender equality if you give women the equal opportunity and acceptability to work. 6.5 Hepatitis “Covered in the veil and working for the community; which has defined and stereotyped role is always a difficult task to accomplished. But this all happened when I am endorsed with confidence given to me by British Council” Said Asia Quasar. Asia is one of distinguished and young female social entrepreneur who got a chance to work under the umbrella of Youth Social entrepreneurship program for South Asia. Aisa showed her talented by working in the difficult sector of Community up lift; which is Health. Living in the most densely polluted and populated city of Lahore; it is always difficult to make people massively aware about the disease. It is the dilemma of the city that despite of the many campaigns and easy access to information people are not that much aware of the symptoms and remedies of this perilous diseases. However she picked up this challenge and start running the massive awareness campaigns about the Hepatitis with the target to reach people in suburbs of the city. 88 Skills for Employability- South Asia Evaluation During the tenure of one year she not only successfully managed to maintain her business but also managed to serve the community in a very challenging way. Aisa successfully organized more than twenty (20) awareness campaigns in different schools, colleges; academics. She also approached the community by organizing the awareness campaigns as she believes that you need to make people aware at grass root level, that you can eradicate any social issue. Her passion to achieve and contribute in the up lift of the society has been supported by British Council. Since her selected area doesn’t have sufficient laboratories and the one that is dedicated to the testing of Hepatitis only; she took this initiative and managed to test around 2000 victims at her own; with the ratio of 70 % as youth. But this is not the end of her achievements she continued and started to work for the Dengue campaigns as well. She has also been contacted by some students with the vision to work on Anemia as well. “I must say that with the help of seed money and the ideology that British Council has mapped in mind is brining major changes in my life. I being a girl have never thought that I can run my very own business. This is a great moment of satisfaction for your soul and mind that you as marginalized segment is not only serving for society but also making enough profit” Asia said with a big smile. British council is changing the lives of the under privileged youth by showing them the ray of hope; equipping them with the skills and ideas and making them the productive part of the society. Like many other social entrepreneur produced by British council Asia has the vision to run her campaign on the country level, she want people to have easy and relatively lower access to basic health facilities like vaccination. Her dream and vision to bring change in the society has been polished by British Council.” I am always thankful to British Council for revealing my potential and brining the best out of me.” said Asia 6.6 Honey Production Bilal Akhtar is one of the emerging youngster from Rawlakot Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) - who has effectively implemented the idea of social entrepreneur stimulated by British council. Bilal with the idea to have a sustainable society started worked on the honey production with exotic species of bees. Rawlakot is one of the coldest areas of Pakistan; community always needs nutrition which can keep them warm. The idea of producing honey at local level with providing the sufficient job opportunities has been supported by British council. Beekeeping is considered as a profitable business in Pakistan. About 7,000 beekeepers are now nurture exotic species. There are about 300,000 colonies producing 7,500 metric ton honey annually. Genial climate conditions and bee flora in the country provide excellent opportunities for the expansion of beekeeping. Honeybee flora is present on vast areas in all the provinces including Northern areas, FATA and AJK and can support 1,000,000 honeybee colonies. But the need of hour is to support the people of that areas by providing them education and training on the methods to maintain the bee broods. British council provided the enough seed money to initiate this Nobel cause; and Bilal with his team successfully implemented the concept. He involved the local community, provided them the training on production with the bee broods and community started to earn the money. They successfully engaged over 40 families in honey production and generated around net income of over Rs100, 000. Bilal and his 89 Skills for Employability- South Asia Evaluation team with the help of the British council started eliminating the major problem of the area that is unemployment. This step has helped them to be employed and started working for their own business. The honey produced by the bee broods are now sold in the market at comparatively fair price. “Being a part of this challenge I always feel happy that I am not only earning; empowering people by educating them but also serving my community. Now i am proud enough that I am a useful and important part of this community; with the believe that my generation will bring change and prosperity in the uplift of the nation and communities. For making me aware and putting me on right track is the contribution of British Council. They helped me to learn the communication, management, leadership and the empathy for society”. Bilal Said Bilal is currently working as a Lecturer at Faran Institute in Rawlakot city; and brining vision and life skills in the lives of his own age fellows. He is passing through the knowledge and skills he learned from the trainings and support of British council thus this young social entrepreneur is inculcating the sense of social responsibility and importance of a health society in the upcoming generations. 6.7 Tourism Tourism is said to be the big industry some years back as Pakistan with its diverse cultures, people and landscapes has attracted 0.7 million tourists to the country, almost double to that of a decade ago. Before the Global economic crisis Pakistan received more than 500,000 tourists annually .However, this number has now come down to near zero figures since 2008 due to instability in the country and many countries declaring Pakistan as unsafe and dangerous to visit” Yasir Ilyas an emerging social entrepreneur said. Yasir belongs to an area of Pakistan which is said to be the heaven for tourist. Azad Jammu and Kashmir with its magnificent and awesome beauty has attracted him to work for the tourism and hospitality industry of the country which is in dilapidated phase. The soul to this spirit was given by British council; when Yasir was given help; guide lines and encouragement to promote the tourism in Pakistan. Yaisr believes that Pakistan has so much potential to be visited and appreciated; he study in Surrey University of United Kingom and while doing his masters in Tourism he realized that his very own motherland is full of beauty but this is unrevealed and once it was; it is exploited. This provoking though has given him a direction and as he contacted British Council. Soon he realized that this is the right platform which can not only give me a source of earning but also he can be a light for rest of others. The 2008 World Economic forum’s Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report (TTCR) ranked Pakistan 103 out of 124 countries to visit. This low figure was due to a weak travel and tourism infrastructure, low branding, market effectiveness, and most importantly ignorance about the tourism of Pakistan. Yasir believes that there is a dire need to motivate, educate and sensitize the community to promote, inter country and intra country tourism; which in result will not only generate the revenue for the country but also provide the livelihood opportunities for the locales. With his vision to reduce the poverty of the areas and increase the tourism in the country he started awaking people about the importance of the tourism and hospitality. Tourism for life.org is a plant which is nourishing and has flourished from the help of British council. He is successfully running an institute with the purpose to provide people the necessary resources and knowledge in order to run their own 90 Skills for Employability- South Asia Evaluation business in the domain of Tourism. He has conducted many awareness campaigns and workshops for students and youth to understand the importance of tourism for the country and how they can choose this industry for their career. British council provided him a platform form where he is doing networking with national and international tourism policy makers and institutions. Within year he has successfully managed to train and developed more than 1000 followers who are on the board now and promoting the tourism industry in Pakistan. Yasir is thankful to British council who has not only provided him the opportunity to understand this industry on international level but also has helped him to learn the basic rules and principles for living in varied cultures. He has attended the conference in United Nations and this has helped him a lot to under the tourism industry from another perspective. 6.8 Skills Training Center Pakistan is going through the hard time and during this time of recession, there is a pressing need to empower women economically and to create employment opportunities and income generating activities to facilitate them to endure, flourish and provide support for their families. For the development of women-to-women business potential, women entrepreneurs require support in the form of training and development, broadening the vision and special life skills. The idea of social entrepreneur is also encouraged and adopted by the females. A group of females from a slummed area of Karachi, Pakistan also approached British Council and their desire to work for community uplift was appreciated by them. Iqra and her team started working on the skills training initiative exclusively for the females. Iqra said “The area from where I belong is a slummed where most of the females are illiterate and unskilled. We always though what we can do for them and one day when we get the platform we decided to participate in this event” The most difficult part of this project was to make people aware about the importance of equal participation of females in society. The business environment for women in Pakistan reflects the complex interaction of many factors, one of them is social, cultural, traditional and religious elements. Keeping all these constraints in mind they are trained in such a way that we can easily communicate our message to intended recipients.” The best part of the training center is variety of courses we are offering Beautician, Handy Craft and stitching course and Computer course; all of these are quality oriented and cost effective courses”. Said the team mate of Iqra. Iqra as an innovative entrepreneur is trying to eradicate the social issue of the community and she carried out this approach with the training and vision given to her by British Council. This project is not only providing the assistance to the team in order to earn money but also helping the trained women for Skills enhancement and development of self-confidence. These trained women will be the future entrepreneur of the country. 91 Skills for Employability- South Asia Evaluation 6.9 UPS Unit The latest crisis that has Pakistani’s from all walks of life up in arms is the lack of electrical power throughout the country. During 2010 Pakistan floods and 2005 Kashmir earthquake power stations, power distribution and transmission and other energy infrastructures were damaged. Since the shut of electricity is at its frequent; you are ultimately forced to purchase an alternative device. Rehmat Ali from Multan was a team member of low cost UPS (uninterrupted power supplier) manufacturing emerged as a young entrepreneur with the resolution to this problem. “When you live in a society which is under developed and people don’t have enough capacity to meet the daily needs then this is need of time that you have to come out and become a shining star. My vision was to serve the community because I saw people including me suffering from shut of electricity and waiting for its availability even for preparing exams” Said Rehmat. His vision in life was to do something extraordinary which can not only serve the community but can also be a mean of his livelihood. British council found this diamond and the training provided to him yield a result. He is being trained on communication skills to leadership skills and that is the result of his effort and dedication that he is now fearless. This is of the fact the training, coaching and guidance provided to him by BC has enabled him to work as a lecturer in an institute of his area. His knowledge is now transforming a new shape; and this sense of responsibility and ownership of society is passed to generation of the future. Rehmat said in a pleasant way “Formal education provides you the livelihood; self-education will make you a fortune and my day to fortune was when I meet the team of British Council.” Rehmat is not confident enough; he is not only earning money by selling the low cost UPS but also teaching and both sources have made him capable of earning his livelihood with dignity. He is serving the community by facilitating them with lower cost energy saving product and the major issue of the community is resolved by this. Einstein said “Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.” Rehmat imagined the idea of Low cost UPS and this imagination was transformed in to the reality with the help of British Council. 6.10 Skills Coaching Unemployment is a central problem of Pakistan because when unemployment is high, resources are wasted and people’s incomes are depressed; during such periods, economics distress also spills over to affect people’s emotions and family lives. Saifulla Quoted. Two years back team Saifullah started working on the project which can develop the future of Pakistan. The aim of this initiative was to help the aim less youth in finding the right path for their career. There are 160 million unemployed people in the world and 40 percent of those out of work are young people. Pakistan is no exempted from this label, not only unemployment rates have been beyond reasonable limits but also a vast majority who fall prey to this belongs to youth category. Technical training is one type of formal education which can resolve the issue of employability and skills enhancement; with the fact that majority of the youth is illiterate. 92 Skills for Employability- South Asia Evaluation These technical trainings includes Computer Repairing, Mobile repairing, Electronics, Motor Winding, Electrical wiring, welding etc. These training focused the under privileged youth with a low income capacity and that is one of the reason the fees of these courses are nominal than that of the other training institutes.” Currently our institute has 56 students and this is an achievement for our team; as the effort exerted on us by the British council has brought the result for us. British Council stood side by side in that project and trains us how we can launch that idea and now we are using that idea and support to take this project as business.” Team Said Said 6.11 Plant Nursery Finding a resources and right platform, for which you are searching for is not a piece of cake; but good luck never comes too late. This luck strikes to Adnan khan when he meet the team of British council in his technical institute based in Kotli, Pakistan. “Sometime dreams come true and things start working in the way you always desire and same happened with me when I found social entrepreneurship program carried out under the umbrella of British Council. Adnan is an environment friendly person and his eager to serve and conserve the world has forced him to work for a plant nursery. Environmental protection is a practice of shielding the environment, on individual, organizational or governmental levels, for the benefit of the natural environment and humans. Due to the pressures of population and technology, the biophysical environment is being degraded, sometimes permanently. He started working on this idea when he saw a rotten piece of land near by his house and this place was used by the people to dump the waste material. He always feels that why not make this place a beautiful land and starting a plant nursery was his achievement. He said that in schools, houses and in the vacant areas people don’t make their places clean; one of the reason is that at the gross root level people are not aware why environment is important for community and the world. He always emphasizes on the importance of teaching the students regarding the environment and most importantly it must be a part of their curricula; and particular knowledge should be provided in form of botany practical. Adnan is serving the community by making it green and beautifying this with colors of flowers and his theme was appreciated and laddered by British Council. Adnan is serving the community by providing them healthy and green environment on the other side he is earning by decorating the lawns and houses of the people. He invested the seed money provided by British council for purchasing the model plants and today he possesses more than 10,000 plants. The best thing about his idea is that people are buying the plants at relatively lower cost. This young and enthusiastic social entrepreneur is working with zeal and zest for his community. “My aim is to provide people a healthy environment which can refresh them, it is of immense pleasure when people sit in the nursery recall their relish memories and spent the pleasant time over here.” Adnan Said. British council at his best has infused the spirit of healthy socity in his mind and this has yield result in form of this model garden. Now days Adnan is looking forward to work with Agriculture research center for doing some more productive vision in future he wants to see himself and his community ecology friendly community and for this reason he is networking with the experts of his domain. In future he wants to more productive and 93 Skills for Employability- South Asia Evaluation effective for the society by introducing something new in the field of plantation of fruits and plants. With the hope to the best Adnan vision has been changed and he is focusing to learn and upgrade his skills and this is supported and broadened by British Council. Adnan Said “I must thank and acknowledge the support provided by the British council; it is for me like a dream come true. Now I realize how much important it is to work for the community but in a way that both parties can get the benefit. If today I communicate confidently with the community on this issue than it is the effort of British Council who has given me strength and broaden my vision. I am thankful to them for having a believe on my skills and abilities.” 6.12 Blind Master Trainer In terms of the worldwide prevalence of blindness, it is present on a much greater scale in developing world countries than in developed world countries. According to numbers from the WHO, 90% of blind people live in the developing world; where most of the people are deprived from basic necessities of the life. Out of these many visually impaired people Ammara is one of the female entrepreneurs who is running her NGO. Ammara quoted “A day that is spent without the sight of beauty, the meditation of mystery, or the search of truth or perfection is a destitute day; but when you live in a world of unseen and unrevealed sculptures you are always bestowed with something extra; believe me it’s a rule of nature”. She believes that nature has given me skills and hopes to keep determined and to work for the humanity and this though is encouraged and appreciated by British Council. This exemplifying trainer was working for visually impaired people and she conducted training and workshops on her own. The main aim of Ammara was to quip people with the basic life skills and empower them to become the social entrepreneur as she is. She always had an urge to inspire people with the skills she possess and British council provided her the right platform. She trains people on life skills and not only earn sufficient money but also served the community by making them aware. From the platform of British Council Ammara has successfully managed to be part of the international trainings. Certified compensational benefit manger is one of such training. She is currently working on the business plan for her Ngo and this training has helped her out to understand the cultural diversity and exposed her benchmark she wants to achieve for her community and for herself. It is always very difficult to be part of these international trainings; you need to have a strong financial background to attend these multi cultural and diversified trainings. Being a part of training conducted by Cultural advancement institute of management, USA I am much obliged to BC for providing me this wonderful opportunity. Ammara said The credit goes in to the bank account of British Council; who helped Ammara to achieve her ultimate target of life. Now she is not only renowned as the empowered social entrepreneur of the country but also as the first visually impaired trainer of Pakistan and Duabi. She acknowledges the contribution of British council for coloring her life with the spirit of social work with the blend of earning. 94 Skills for Employability- South Asia Evaluation Chapter 7 CONCLUSIONS & RECOMMENDATIONS The Skills for Education programme in South Asia is now entering its fifth year and thus far the response has been positive to the radio programme, the Enterprise Challenge and the College Partnership initiatives. However the feedback generated from the various stakeholders including members of NAVTTC, TEVTA institutions, competition participants, teachers and trainers has demonstrated that there are still some areas that need to be improved upon. The results of the evaluation conclusively show that stakeholders, from trainers to competition participants and NAVTTC members, all have positive opinions about the programme as it has been implemented thus far. In Pakistan especially, the inclusion of many women in the programme, and the overall excellent feedback is a commendation to the work. However there were some recurring threads that emerged regarding areas that the British Council may want to explore further as they continue to expand their presence in the region. In Bangladesh although the radio programme was a widespread success, the British Council’s involvement in policy dialogue activities were limited in most other respects. The evidence also demonstrates that currently government involvement in the both country programmes is limited. Overall the success of the Skills for Education programme is indicative of the timeliness of this development intervention, and the British Council's key role in assisting the youth in South Asia to be globally competitive as they enter the labour market. 7.1 Policy Dialogue In general a strong recommendation is that the British Council needs to be more engaged in taking on an advocacy role in the government. The TVET system in the region is evolving so there is ever-increasing potential to work closely with key stakeholders to make long term interventions. Currently the entire region appears to be focusing on apprenticeships, employer engagement and entrepreneurship initiatives and there appears to be a unified move towards developing proper TVET structures and improving the capacity to monitor and enhance current National Vocational Standards. These changes signal a window of opportunity to further expand the British Council’s involvement in the growth of this area. A further area that the British Council should focus on is to make more sustainable interventions, along the same vein as the current interventions to bring the experience of the Sector Skills Council UK to Pakistan. Representatives from the IAGs also indicated that there have been some issues communicating with NAVTTC on various industrial curriculum questions which should be addressed by the British Council in consultation with NAVTTC. The radio show has been extremely successful. Therefore across the region feedback from listeners, government representatives, teachers and others has highlighted the start of knowledge, attitude and behavior changes directly linked to the radio programming. This suggests the need for continuation of the radio program in all four countries where the pilot project ran in. However, for sustained impact the British Council will need to look into finding support for longer term programming to see increases in audience penetration, audience interaction and a deeper impact from program messaging. One way to achieve this is to continue programming in collaboration with other British Council programs such as Active Citizens and Global Exchange or by leveraging external contracts to ensure sustainability 95 Skills for Employability- South Asia Evaluation and long term behavioral change in the society. Moreover greater outreach and expansion into the British Council’s priority areas in the region is also recommended. Any information on employment opportunities or skills-development must be disseminated widely and repeatedly. In addition to this, capacity should also be built to produce local versions of the radio program, in local languages, to connect the youth to service seekers in the area. This includes imparting more information regarding local vacancy announcements and community level training opportunities. The reporting was not done on regular basis and occasionally the deadlines were not met, preventing efficient monitoring. This lack of diligence was also evident in the contracts between partners drawn up, which were devoid of important clauses and stipulations. In addition to this operational difficulties were also faced due to the fact that local partners in the different countries were running the program instead of Equal Access itself. This not only meant lesser responsibility shown by these organizations towards the show but also a lack of British Council’s branding and promotion. While there seems to be a robust policy dialogue strand active in Pakistan, other than the radio programme, this seems to be lacking in Bangladesh. A key recommendation would be to broaden the work done in terms of Policy Dialogue Bangladesh, where the events needs to be linked to a agenda 7.2 College Partnerships Although assessing the college partnership strand of the programme was not an emphasis in this evaluation, some impressions were gathered in the course of collecting data. The link coordinators were of the opinion that the college partnerships have not only helped the colleges themselves but that the skills that have been learned as a result of the exchange had a larger scale impact in terms of learning. One recommendation is that the courses created and updated under this partnership, should now be put forward for international accreditation. The British Council has completed this strand and they are now thinking of replicating it but we recommend that they should look into the following: Replicating the curricula worked and and finalized during the course of these college partnerships in Pakistan, and extending it to the entire region. Facilitating the process of starting dual certification between both the colleges in the same manner that it is currently done in Rawalakot College in AJK, Pakistan. Widening the range of colleges that are brought into the programme in this strand is highly recommended. 7.3 Entrepreneurship Award Strand The British Council needs to analyze this program from two angles; at direct impact and at the legacy that it will leave behind. 7.3.1 Legacy The British Council needs to consider methods of making its programmes more sustainable. The fact that many of the teachers and trainers are employed in the government sector is a good demonstration that there is increasing public ownership. However this must be further strengthened as much as possible in the future. Examples of successful handovers to the government can be seen in Uzbekistan, where the state took full ownership of this strand. 96 Skills for Employability- South Asia Evaluation Simultaneously, the British Council needs to look for sustainable partners for this strand to upscale its visibility at policy level to incorporate enterprise as part of curricula in TVET 7.3.2 Impact One area that the questionnaires continuously revealed a deficit in was in the training given to students in the course of the Social Entrepreneurship Challenge. A majority of participants when asked about the quality of training agreed that there is a strong need to improve the training programme. They suggested that the training duration should be increased, new topics and experiences should be integrated into the curriculum, and master trainers should be given laptops so assist them as they deliver trainings. This will be a good step towards strengthening the skills imparted to the students. 7.4 Overall conclusions and recommendations Although the project has achieved a lot in last three to four years, there has been little emphasis on marketing materials, stories or publications to support it. The British Council should also be forward thinking and look into what the foundations are doing and how to possibly get sponsorship from them to work on different strands or perhaps even act as a local implementation partner. Finally, the British Council should propose the project to Governments in the region as they do have funding which BC can further explore. 97 Skills for Employability- South Asia Evaluation Annexure ANNEXURE A: List of Participants TableA 1: List of Participants COMPETITION WINNERS Team 1: Team 2 Team 3 Team 4 Organization/School Affiliation Name Designation Cell Muhammad Nazim Zafar Fareeda Saddique Kanawal Nashaba Nasir Muhammad Khurram Abbas Saifullah Muhammad Rashid Kaved Zeeshan Manzoor Ehsan Ali Rana Muhammad Adeel Asia Kosar Maham Sadia Iqra Jabeen Sundas Javeed Iqra Jabeen Ms. Sikandar Rahila Ibrar Student Student Student Student Student Student Student Student Student Student Student Student Student Student Student Student Student 0313-7124259 0332-6635516 0315-6191655 0313-6501309 0333-6726303 0306-7222516 0334-7737863 0302-7810325 0321-8890098 0341-6292201 0312-4195627 0321-8816642 0322-3412199 0322-36-4098 0322-3412199 0341-2280882 0347-3547561 Sadia Hussain Gulfran Ahmed Rashid Ali Baber Mehmood Sadaf Saleem Mudassir Rehman M. Yousaf Ubaid Anwar Adnan Fawad Ahmed Basit Shah Faiz ul Haq Naqash Khurram Saleem Student Student Student Student Student Student Student Student Student Student Student Student Student Student 0345-7101022 0304-7320279 0344-2727118 0307-4893769 0313-6686039 0305-8619563 0331- 7113317 0331-7015545 0344-9008132 0313-5821828 0345-7932421 0308-8301677 0332-2934177 0303-6523716 COMPETITION PARTICIPANTS MASTER TRAINERS Mr. Sohail Abbas Mrs. Tabassum Roohi Mr. Imran Ashraf Mr. Abid Ali 98 Skills for Employability- South Asia Evaluation 0300-6206199 0300-6620063 0300-6301196 0302-7632810 Mr. Riaz Mr. Rahmat Gull Mr. Ahsan Mr. Imran Nazir Mr. Zohaib Khalil Mrs. Shagufta Sohail Mr. Mukhtar Mr. Naved Jafar Mr. Abdul Masood Mr. Adbul Masood Mr. Qasim Shah Mr. Abdul Haseeb Mr. Bilal Akhtar Khan Ghulam Jafer ISLAMABAD IAG Representative IAG representative Dr. Naeem Mushtaq Mr. Usman Mumtaz NAVTTC Mr. Shahid Ashraf Tarar NAVTTC Mr. Tariq Shafiq Chak NAVTTC Mr. Muhammad Riaz NAVTTC Javed Malik 0345-5873500 0300-5999486 0342-5574411 0345-5695394 0333-9340573 0333-3106388 0300-4605578 0300-3848326 0300-7661921 0300-9030560 0314-9041664 0302-8106837 0334-5908505 0300-766-1921 HR Manager Director Development Director General Executive Director Ex-Director General Ex-Director Islamabad Club Halcrow Pak (Pvt) Ltd NAVTTC NAVTTC NAVTTC NAVTCC 051-90461889 0321-513-5376 051-2203451 0302-2618188 051-9205816 0300-2151000 0300-5338951 KARACHI TEVTA Sindh Adbul Wahid Uquaily TEVTA Sindh Syed Nazir Ali TEVTA Sindh Dr. Masroor Ahmed LAHORE PVTC Member IAG Representative Yes Network Sajid Naseer Khan Mr. Abdul Khalique Mr. Ali Raza TEVTA Punjab Mr. Javed Iqbal TEVTA Punjab Mushtaq Ahmed Ex-TEVTA Punjab TEVA Punjab Ex-TEVTA Punjab TEVTA Punjab 99 Managing Director TEVTA Director Director A&T TEVTA MD Senior VP/Director CEO GM Academics Manager Training ExChairman Ex-Chief Operating Officer PVTC Skills for Employability- South Asia Evaluation TEVTA Training (Pvt) Ltd Yes Network TEVTA Punjab TEVTA Punjab TEVTA Punjab 0300-5555149 0300-2025083 0333-2156760 0300-9450000 042-35169376 042-7068219 0343-4001001 042-99263078 0333-4216064 TEVTA Punjab 0301-4489986 AJK TEVTA (AJK) TEVTA (AJK) Mr. Shaukat Ali Manzoor Kiani TEVTA (AJK) Zahoor-ul-Hassan Gilani 100 Director Chairman ExChairman Skills for Employability- South Asia Evaluation TEVTA (AJK) TEVTA (AJK) State Disaster Management 0300-7661921 0300-9030560 0314-9041664 ANNEXURE B: References British Council, “Clean Life Green Life- A Tale of Changing Lives” British Council, “Skills for Employability- Bangladesh” British Council, “Enlightening Lives: Enterprise Challenge Award 2009” British Council, “Skills for Employability: Meeting the Global Challenge,” Leitch Review of Skills, Final Report, HM Treasury, December 2006. British Council Pakistan, ‘Skills for Employment,” 2011 British Council, “Skills for Education-Radio Programme” British Council, “Market Driven Skills Standards Validated for Technical & Vocational Education,” British Council, “Social Enterprise Award- South Asia Region,” British Council and National Vocational and Technical Education Commission, “Meeting on Market Driven Skills Standards Validated for Technical & Vocational Education,” Islamabad, 20th May British Council, “Policy Dialogue in Bangladesh, Feedback from the British Council Staff,” 101 Skills for Employability- South Asia Evaluation ANNEXURE C: Additional Results from Pakistani Respondents 102 Skills for Employability- South Asia Evaluation 103 Skills for Employability- South Asia Evaluation ANNEXURE D: Focus Group Discussions with Pakistani Participants 1) The participants presented their projects briefly in the start of discussion. The project themes included evacuate Plastic Bags, Reuse of Old Electronic Parts, Online Franchise, Domestic Bio Gas Plant, Dengue Spray, Employment Journal, Mosquito Repellent, Solar Energy, Honey Projection, Mushroom Cultivation and reuse of Papers. The brief detail of each project is given in the table below: TableD 1: Brief description of Projects of participating teams Sr# Project Name 1. Plastic Bags Description To introduce fabricated bags for reducing the use of plastic bags which decreasing pollution from the plastic environment. 2. Reuse of Old Electronic Parts To ruse the old electronic parts for efficient use of country’s economy/ for saving country’s economy. 3. Online Franchise To provision of employment through online ad posting on the web sites. 4. Domestic Bio Gas Plant To provide the gas for domestic use to the villagers through Bio Gas Plant. 5. Dengue Spray To introduce a spray prepared by using Metatheses for reducing the risk of dengue in local communities. 6. Employment Journal To provide all the job advertisements from all the newspapers in one journal weekly in Urdu language for people’s convenience. 7. Mosquito Repellent To introduce a mosquito repellent for reducing the dengue’s risk. 8. Solar Energy Unit To establish a solar energy unit and introduce it in residential societies for providing electricity at cheaper cost. 9. Nursery To plant the seeds at lower cost for poor people in a nursery. 10. Fabricated Houses To make fabricated houses for Azad Kashmir affectees. 11. Honey Production To produce or collect honey from bees and sell at lower cost for local community as compared to market price. 12. Mushroom Cultivation To cultivate the mushrooms for heart patients and which also helps people to reduce cholesterol and fatness. 104 Skills for Employability- South Asia Evaluation 13. Reuse of Papers To collect the papers from all over the community and reuse them to a void wood cutting. Thus saving natural resources and reducing pollution. 2) On asking about getting any kind of training or ideas from BC and YES Network for project implementation, most of the candidates replied that they got training from YES Network and their teachers. As Sadia Hussain stated that, “we got training by our Instructor and a proper guideline was provided to us. The sessions were arranged for our convenience”. Another participant Rashid also told us that they learned all the rules through the trainings provided by their teachers. The member of project “Dengue Spray” also participated that they were guided about the YES’s Project by their teachers and was trained by them. For participants BS and YES Network was like a way of hope. These organizations provided them a path to move on and start their own businesses. 3) The participants, when asked about the learning for this competition, gave very positive response that they have learned many good and productive lessons through this competition. Such as, one participant mentioned that she learned how to work in team/ team work and how to share ideas among each other. She also stated that they never even thought of starting their own business, but after this competition, their team learned a lot that how to improve the business. Moreover, another participant told that their learning capacity has been increased and that how to use ideas as participant’s team worked on the project,” Reuse of Old Electronic Parts” in which they used their brilliant idea of reusing the faulty components of electronic machines, thus saving the country’s economy. Babar Mehmood also told us by contributing in the discussion that because of their project implementation their social contacts have been improved. He mentioned that every fuitful ending needs a hardworking start and if we will work hard, we will directly benefit our community which will also be beneficial for our future generation. A member of project “Solar Energy Unit” who was a DAE Mechanic designed the solar energy units for energy conservation. Added in the discussion that through this competition we got chance to implement what ever we had in our minds for the benefits of society. They also learned that how to use ideas and the most important encouraging factor is that many youngsters gained self confidence after participating in this competition. 4) When the discussion com to the point of problems faced during this competition all the participants contributed in the discussion elaborating their problems one by one. The first participant form “Evacuate Plastic Bags” told us that her team faced problems in selling the fabric bags as people questions a lot about the whole project. However, for this purpose they planned to provide awareness about the project first so that they can easily conveyance the community for purchasing fabric bags. Form the project team of “online Franchise”, a participant 105 Skills for Employability- South Asia Evaluation told that they face problem in project implementation when their fellows start getting jobs. As it was an ongoing process of online and posting, the process got slow due to decrease in number of project team members. Another problem they face is load shedding. They told us that they have generators in their college but when they come at homes, they cannot work for longer hours due to load shedding that badly affects their business. A member from project “Domestic Bio Gas Plant”, added that they face problem when they needed to dig the land 16 ft deep and 16 ft wide for plant fixing. Another participant form “Dengue Spray Project”, added that it is very difficult to conveyance the peoples and for this purpose awareness is the only tool to overcome this problem and that they cannot implement their project before March or April as they need to vacant the houses for one day which not possible in the winter season. So, the weather condition seems to be a natural problem coming in the way of their project implementation. The member of “employment Journal” mentioned that they are facing problems in the printing of journal as it is costly for them to afford as they are using A4 size paper for this purpose. Moreover, the problem continues as they cannot extend their business on larger scale due to heavy cost involved in this project. Mostly, the problems were related to finance or lack of awareness among people about the projects. However, another participant from “Honey Production”, added that they faced problems were very much expensive and their availability depends on the season. Bees are not available in extreme winters as they cannot survive in winter season. Another problem was that whenever we did not get food for bees, we had to provide the homemade food (indigenous food) for survival of bees. 5) All of the participants are still running their projects. Two of them told us that they are still waiting for the grant funds for the project implementation. One of the respondents added in the discussion that its not only their wish that they keep on continuing their project as their business but its also the wish of their teachers who trained them very well and want their students to continue this program. 6) When the students were asked that do they have any plan to take over their project as their business, all of them responded that they willingly want to take over their projects as their business because through these projects, they are not only getting employment rather they are also giving employment opportunities to others. Such as, a participant, member of project “Reuse of Old Electronic Parts” said during the discussion that they have opened a shop where they reuse the mechanical parts of machines and sale those parts. For this purpose, they have hired some boys, whom they provide training and gibe jobs in their shop, thus providing on opportunity of employment to others in the society. A member of “Nursery”, added that they have built a nursery on about 3 canals of land through which they are providing of plants at low cost. This project is not only providing the employment opportunities to others rather it is gibing the profit of about Rs. 10,000/- per month due to this they are planning to rent more land for the purpose of expanding nursery area. 106 Skills for Employability- South Asia Evaluation 7) Participants very confidently discussed the benefits of their projects and the impact of their projects on overall community. Because, their projects are really providing benefits to their society in one or the other way. The first participant actively said that as there are lot of factors involved in polluting the environment where use of shopping bags is very common. It is very dangerous for our health and is badly affecting our sewerage system. That’s why we thought of stitching fabric bags and selling them in our community to save our environment and to provide safe and healthier environment to community people. Moreover, community also get involved in our project as they helped us in stitching fabric bags and coordinated with us in promoting our project positively. She added that they will also implement this project in other cities when they will feel that people form all over the Jhang are completely using fabric bags instead of plastic bags, making the environment clean and healthy. Ghufran mentioned in this discussion that his group is helping other uneducated boys of their community by providing them training plus employment without any degree which is a very positive initiative for improving their community’s economy. From the project team of “online franchise”, Rashid told us that their project’s benefit to community is that they have engaged the children/ young boys in work instead of wasting their time. Babar Khan also added with a pride that there was no gas in the village they live. Women were used to ignore their children and had to spend maximum time in collection of wood through tree cutting that was also a cause of increasing air pollution. They planned to fix the gas plant through the use of dung cakes on a small level which will provide gas to almost 7-8 houses which is a great achievement for them. People from their community are very happy from their project due to the availability of gas. Moreover, the time durability of bio gas plant is 30-35 years, and people have just to pay 2000 per month for its installation, where as they were spending 7-8 thousands per month on wood. Thus, it is very beneficial for the community, where gas availability was not possible due to government’s ignorance. The participants working on “Dengue Spray” and “Mosquito Repellent” added that their projects will have very healthy effects on community. The member of “Employment Journal”, told us in the discussion that their project is very much useful for youth as the people belonging to their community cannot read English newspapers due to which they cannot access every job. They collect all the ads form all the available newspapers and translate the English ads into Urdu so that everyone can read the journal. It is a very good initiative to provide the employment opportunities to the well acknowledged people of society who couldn’t get employment due to lack of access and information. Adnan said that through Nursery, people are getting enough benefit that they are now planting they are now planting four times more plants due to easily available seeds and plants in their surroundings. Even they do not need to travel long distances for this purpose. 107 Skills for Employability- South Asia Evaluation The discussion ended with the comments of last participant who was member of “Reuse of papers”, that their project is beneficial for community in many ways. Through recycling of paper pollution can be avoided along with the benefit of saving economy. 108 Skills for Employability- South Asia Evaluation