Umeed Kuch Baqi Hai

The story we have in focus is a recent initiative by the government of Sindh, one of the biggest in the public sector to address the issues of unemployment and poverty in the province. The government has launched Benazir Bhutto Shaheed Youth Development Program, through this program the government plans to offer to the unemployed youth various skill development opportunities, like youth empowerment and job oriented certification courses for raising their employability in the local and international job market. This will help curtail poverty and improve the socio-economic conditions of common citizens. In addition, the public and private sector business efficiency will increase through a well-placed, developed and skilled workforce.

BBSYDP was made possible with the effort of 11 renowned institutions including Spelt, British Council, Dadabhoy Inst.of High.Edu, Aga Khan University EB, Habib Univerersity Foundatin, SOL, TDC, FEN, ERDC, NDI, IEARN. that worked collectively to make the mountain task a shining success.

ERDC with other consortium partners put a hard work of four months to develop a high quality training programme. The programme offered six modules that include English Language Teaching, English Language Proficiency, Teaching of Maths, Teaching of Science, Youth Leadership, and Pedagogical Skills. Out of these six modules ERDC conducted 2 modules, Science and Mathematics. ERDC aimed at providing technical expertise through the dynamics of Science and Mathematics making it contextually appropriate and using modern pedagogical approach.

In the first phase of the programme an intensive residential training of master trainers was conducted during the month of November 2008. For this mission 50 resource persons provided their expertise to impart training to 375 master trainers who were selected from all across the province. In the 2nd phase of the programme, these master trainers will then train 6000 unemployed youth in their districts.

Educational Resource Development Center received this opportunity as a great honour and service for the potential/precious youth of the nation. A team of five resource persons from ERDC, Kanwal Laiq, Rashida Murtaza, Amna Meher, Zeeshan Paul under the leadership of Salman Siddiqui were involved throughout the process.
It was a daunting task to bring teachers of all calibers and diverse backgrounds and get them all to work for the same cause and to expect them to be equally motivated with a sensitive and urgent heart. The whole program was conducted efficiently and as per schedule.

Training individuals is a challenging task it is a task of credibility. It requires a degree of excellence. The Master Trainers have the beacon in their hands to take it further and make the youth shine. It’s a gradual process and it will bear the fruit if the trainers keep their promise and do it the way it has been conceived.

Let’s all keep our hopes high and join hands with the cause by considering the youth as potential leaders and gems.

This is a living story we can do something to make it not just sound good but also practically realistic and possible.

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Issued on March 8, 2009 All rights reserved
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