Helping young people acquire skills that will facilitate their entry into the labour market

Program start 1993
Impacted population 8,000

An hour’s drive from Yangon, the FXB Vocational Training Center is located in the peri-urban area of Shwe Pyi Thar.

Context

This area is inhabited by a very poor population, mainly composed of migrants or displaced people because of ethnic conflicts. These communities’ main problems are domestic violence, marked inequalities between men and women and lack of access to education and vocational training.

Our action

On the outskirts of Yangon, the FXB Vocational Training Center permanently hosts about 100 apprentices who are offered various training courses – ranging from 3 to 24 months – in sewing, interior design, weaving, wood and metal work.

Our Centre also welcomes, on a daily basis, about thirty street children or children who have dropped out of the school system. They receive instruction in mathematics, reading and writing as well as lessons in the development of psychosocial and interpersonal skills.

In order to reach out to young men and women living in regions with little or no access to such services, FXB has also developed Mobile Vocational Training Units in the areas of garment making, hospitality and sustainable tourism, and wood and bamboo working.

In addition to practical and theoretical training, all apprentices receive various courses designed to strengthen their life skills and self-esteem, such as non-formal education, personal hygiene, labour code, and business management, knowledge of justice and conflict resolution, prevention of human trafficking and violence against women, human rights, gender equality, HIV/AIDS prevention, sexual and reproductive health or environmental protection.

Our beneficiaries are also accompanied in all stages of the job search process, until the conclusion of a dignified and decent work contract. Those who wish to embark on self-entrepreneurship are financially supported in the launch of their microenterprise and mentored until the success of the project.

Our work would not be possible without the support and trust of our partners: Solidarity AccorHotels, Fonds pour Eux, the Service for International Solidarity of the Republic and State of Geneva, the Fondation pour la Recherche et le Traitement Médical, the Coromandel Foundation, the Canton of Aargau, the Dr. Ernst-Günther Bröder Stiftung and the Gebauer Stiftung.

 

Program impact

Since 1993, 8,000 girls and young men have been trained through one or another of our vocational training options.

Testimonial

Ever since FXB changed my life, I want to help others improve the course of theirs.

Mo, former FXB apprentice