AFGHANISTAN WORKFORCE

DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM (AWDP) Grant Final Report

January 07 – September 15, 2013

This material was made possible by the American People through the United States Agency for International

Development (USAID). The contents of this material are the sole responsibility of champion Technical Training Center,

and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States Government.

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Identifying Information

Project Title: Construction Training for Mid-Level Workers

Project Number: USAID/AWDP/003-02/2012

Type of project: Construction

Implementing Company: Champion Technical Training Center

Project Duration: Jan 2013 – Dec 2013 (9 months)

Number of Beneficiaries: 130

Project location: Jalalabad City

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Contents

ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS ................................................................................................................ 3

Executive Summary ....................................................................................................................................... 4

Overview ....................................................................................................................................................... 7

Milestone Based Activities and Achievement ............................................................................................... 7

Milestone One: Activities and Achievement description, ........................................................................ 7

Milestone Two: Activities and Achievemnt description ........................................................................... 7

Milestone Three: Activities and Achievemnt description ......................................................................... 9

Overal Achievement.................................................................................................................................... 10

Chellanges ................................................................................................................................................... 10

Lesson learned ............................................................................................................................................ 12

Annex (1: Graduation reports, 2: MOUs, 3: Pre-employment Trainings, 4: Pictures, 5: Follow up

Questionairs ) .............................................................................................................................................. 12

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ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS

ACCNA Advanced CISCO Certified Network Associate AFS Afghanistan Financial Services AHEAD Assistance for Health, Education and Development AMRAN Afghan Mobile Reconstruction Association AWDP Afghanistan Workforce Development Program BC&ES Business Communications and Employability Skills CC Construction Company CCNA CISCO Certified Network Associate C&O AWDP Communications & Outreach COP Chief of Party CTTC Champion Technical Training Center DBDM Database Development & Management DCS Destiny Consultancy Services DOC USAID’s Development Outreach & Communication Office DM-TVET Deputy Ministry of Technical Vocational Education and Training ERS Employment Related Services FM Financial Management GAM Grant Activity Manager HEIK Higher Education Institute of Karwan HO Creative Associates’ Home Office ICC Impressive Consultancy Company ICT Information and Communication Technology IP Implementing Partner KACSO Khatamul Anbia Cultural and Services Organization KBDS Kaweyan Business Development Services MCITP Microsoft Certified IT Professional MEHR MEHR Education and Human Rights MoE Ministry of Education MOU Memorandum of Understanding MST Management Support Team OHW Organization of Human Welfare PM Project Management PSC Private Sector Company PSCD&TTA Private Sector Capacity Development & Teacher Training Advisor QCM Quality Control Management RMC Risk Management Company SMART Smart Afghan International Trainings & Consultancy S2 Strategic Social SOP Standard Operating Procedure STTA Short Term Technical Assistant TOT Training of Trainers WELL DO Women Empowerment, Leadership, Literacy & Development Organization WPS Women in the Private Sector

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Executive Summary

The vocational skills training for mid-level construction addressed the challenges of high unemployment caused by the gap between the limited number of Afghans who possess technical and business management skills and the market demands for skilled labor, business administrators and managers. By improving the quality and access to trainings in market-driven skills, this project complements the workforce development goals of the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan (GIRoA) and the US Government while supporting key growth opportunities in the construction value-chain industries. One strategic intervention AWDP was to strengthen the capacity of Afghan technical and vocational education and training service providers to deliver demand-driven skills training in order to ensure TVET graduates possess marketable skills. By providing the labor market with skilled workers it got easier for graduates to find employment opportunities and contribute to the economic development of the country. This project focused on providing 130 Afghan mid-level workers with demand-driven skill set as determined by private sector construction companies so that current employees obtained with promotions and salary increases while job seekers found employment opportunities. In addition to providing demand-driven skills training for targeted construction sector employment opportunities, this project also provided employment-related services as a means by which facilitated the integration of trainees into private sector employment. This project implemented only in Jalalabad through CTTC, Champion Technical Training Center. Objectives:

1. To conduct a market needs assessment in the construction sector and adapt and validate training curricula for targeted construction sector occupations in order to ensure that mid-level skilled workers acquire the competencies and skill sets in skills training programs that are demanded by the construction industry in Jalalabad.

2. To recruit trainees for mid-level construction sector training and provide competency-based training in four mid-level construction sector occupations.

3. Provide employment-related support to all construction sector trainees in order to

facilitate their access to (a) mid-level employment; or (b) a promotion or salary increase in the construction sector.

CTTC responsibilities:

Coordination on all matters related to USAID/AWDP training programs with private sector.

Selection of occupational trainees in response to the feedback of private sector/construction companies.

Curricula adoption/development for the selected training occupations.

Facilitate training implementation for the recruited trainees.

Provide job placement services for the trained trainees.

Commitment to the results of this training through follow up activities. Role of Private Sector:

Feedback on specific occupational sector as per their requirements.

Validation of curricula and content.

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Introducing staff for training to CTTC, Champion Technical Training Center.

Place/promote/increase wages of trained staff introduced to CTTC, Champion Technical Training Center.

Agreement on training requirements through a MoU with CTTC, Champion Technical Training Center.

Result:

70% of the trainees in the mid-level construction sector courses have been successfully integrated into either new mid-level positions or promoted to the higher mid-level positions

20 of the participants who have been trained are women Database in place of the trainees with their capabilities, Employers with their skill needs

131 trained in skills other than Vo-Tech including planning, preparing CV and job maintenance Strategy in follow up of the placed skilled trainees and upgrade the skills and wages of trainees in the private sector.

With this plan put forward and activities above, we cover 131 direct beneficiaries’ and 910 indirect beneficiaries.

A total of 131 direct beneficiaries got trained under this program.

The number of men was counted to 102 and 20 women trained in skills of Vo-Tech trainings.

The indirect youth girls made approximately 112 and 108boys which made a total of 431youth indirect beneficiaries in these two categories.

Each trainee on average is thought to have 7 to 9 family members and this program covered a whole of 1028 people in average. This number of people included men, women, youth boys and girls less than 18 year of age

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Graphical Representation of the Results

Trained , 131Promoted, 93

Placed , 15

0

50

100

150

Training Promotion Placement

131

95

1520 180

111

77

15

Total Female Male

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Overview

Milestone Based Activities and Achievement

Milestone One: Activities and Achievement description,

According to AWDP scope of work CTTC submitted a work plan which was revised before the

actual implementation and was finalized

and approved to implement the program

accordingly. The first milestone included

signing of at least five MOUs with

construction companies in Jalalabad. CTTC

was able to have seven MOUs with

construction companies stamped and

signed by both parties, meanwhile after the

award CTTC submitted a financial report as

per AWDP standards after joining an

orientation workshop conducted by AWDP

Finance & Grants at AWDP office for the

grantees. On accomplishment of the above

tasks various meetings were held with

private sector construction companies in

Jalalabad. The purpose of meetings were

assess the market need and demanded in the city. All these activities and tasks were

accomplished and reports, were submitted to AWDP and according to the work plan along with

documentations.

Milestone Two: Activities and Achievemnt description

The physical training and major activities of the project tasks were planned to take place in the

second milestone. CTTC Jalalabad financial reports were submitted for approval by AWDP and

we sent every upcoming monthly financial reports to AWDP. To support the right training for the

trainees introduced by construction companies we regularly took the curriculum to them for

validation of the curricula. All seven companies who singed MOUs, revised the curriculum and

with the forms signed were submitted to AWDP.

While doing all these major activities CTTC staff worked with the construction companies to find

and recruit appropriate midlevel employee workers from the companies as well as job seekers.

The next step to get the employee and job seeker trainee’s registration in the internal and

AWDP database and filing record. The recruitment and registration process was supported by

the Job Placement & Development Officers and CTTC HQ Kabul.

The trainee attendance sheets were submitted continuously with registration and Database to

AWDP head office.

Shabir Samim and Moh Qais Qayoumi while signing MOU with Zularistan Ltd, Jalalabad. 9/2/2013

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Over all we hired 6 trainers and one assistant for the trainings to be conducted:

1. Khan Mohammad (Carpentry Trainer)

2. Javeed Nasiri (Electrical Trainer)

3. Moh Sadiq Ibrahim (Masonry Trainer)

4. Moh Qaseem (Plumbing Trainer)

5. Zulmai Nasiri (Steel Fixing Trainer)

6. Nafas Gul (Painting Trainer)

7. Najeeba (Assistant Painting Trainer)

We designed our trainings for two months for each class and conduct the trainings in two

rounds to achieve the target of 130. The first round we trained 58 male and 20 females including

20 male job seekers. First round training started on March 11th 2013 and finished on May 15th

2013. Female painting class which was arranged outside of CTTC training campus in the

employer contractor’s facility started on April 6th 2013 and completed on Jun 8th 2013. The

second round trainings for males started on June 6th 2013 and was completed on July 29th

2013. We recruited only two job seekers in this round and rest of the trainees were all

introduced by construction companies and were their employees.

All the trainees’ information and details sent and submitted to AWDP office and CTTC main

office in Kabul.

Upon successfully completion of every training CTTC Jalalabad conducted a three days pre-

employment training. These trainings were held simultaneously on the 2nd day of trainings

closing dates, the attendance, the singed In/Out sheets along with training materials reported

and submitted to AWDP.

In the middle of the second round trainings

we began to introduce trained trainees to

their respective construction companies, 37

trainees including 18 females were

introduced back to their respective

companies. Salary increment verification

forms, in confirmation letters back from

construction companies have been

submitted to AWDP grant and M&E. The

remaining employee trainees were

introduced by CTTC in the later part of the

2nd milestone.

Previously to this 23 other construction

companies were met for placement

purposes as part of 2nd milestone, reports have been provided in our weekly highlights. Total

MOUs that were signed with construction companies are 14, all MOUs submitted to AWDP.

DISAGGREGATION Training Promotion and placement

Trainees in electrical class busy with their group work. Jalalabad 25/4/2013

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Male Female Total Male Female Total

LOCATION

Jalalabad 112 20 131 74 18 92

PRE-AWDP EMPLOYMENT STATUS

Job Seeker

Employee

TOTAL 112 20 131 74 18 92

Milestone Three: Activities and Achievemnt description

This milestone mainly covers all M&E and follow up activities. The follow up process has been

running throughout the project, but for the confirmation of trainees’ placements and performance

on the placement commitment to AWDP. As the component of the grant CTTC checked the

overall outcomes that occur after project implementation.

CTTC presented the data accumulated from the follow up to AWDP with a notice of 30 of the

male training participant were not reachable. On the AWDP follow up we were notified that

AWDP could only validate the 77 employee trainees and seven of the job seeker trainees. In

results CTTC followed up again for the purpose of the placements in the available construction

companies. In the process CTTC was able to reach the 17 of the 30 unreachable trainees and

found that 16 were employed. Seven of the remaining employees were re-introduced to the

construction sector. The results are mentioned in the table below.

We completed 91 placements which indicate our move beyond the target for the whole project.

Follow up data/questionnaires already handed over to AWDP both in soft and hard copies along

with the Follow up Sheet.

Over all we held 3 graduation ceremonies:

1. First Round Graduation Ceremony:

May 16th 2013

2. Female Painting Class Graduation

Ceremony: June 16th 2013

3. Second Round Graduation

Ceremony: August 4th 2013

DISAGGREGATION Training Promotion and placement

Male Female Total Male Female Total

LOCATION

Jalalabad 112 20 131 82 18 100

PRE-AWDP EMPLOYMENT STATUS

Female trainee receives her course completion certificate from Dr. Abdul Nasir-AWDP/CTTC PoC.

Jalalabad 16/6/2013

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Job Seeker

Employee

TOTAL 112 20 131 82 18 100

Overal Achievement

DISAGGREGATION Training Promotion and Placement

Male Female Total Male Female Total

LOCATION

Jalalabad 112 20 131 82 18 100

PRE-AWDP EMPLOYMENT STATUS

Job Seeker

Employee

TOTAL 131 82 18 100

Chellanges

1. After we designed and implemented our trainings, during our follow up and site visits we found

out that those who were introduced were not mostly employees and have been showed on

papers because of being a friend or a close relative/family member to that company.

2. Unavailability of heads of the construction companies, we faced in very much troubles in finding

the doors open, though JDPOs did their best to reach them but this issue really effected major

tasks of the program from the start to follow up process.

3. Lack of works unemployment and construction projects in the region. This challenging point has

affected our placement process and put us in a problematic situation. Although there was

construction works but private sector/construction companies finished their on hand projects

before AWDP trainees were introduced to the respective construction companies. The

verification forms, the follow up questionaries’ and all M&E documents were submitted

properly. Due to the nature of the construction work and size of the projects employees & job

seekers introduced were not able to sustain their job in one project. Thus to date, we were

struggling to find vacant positions to fill out and place graduates back to the work particularly

job seekers. Similarly we found out that construction works in Jalalabad remains closed during

summer season because of hot weather.

4. Late submission of documents especially 2nd and 3rd milestones and follow up papers, this was

due to unavailability of construction offices.

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5. We organized three graduation ceremonies and a project opening ceremony. The invitations to

all appropriate guests were sent but didn’t see anyone coming from AWDP office. This had a

close link to our graduates and project effectiveness as their grantee in Jalalabad.

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Lessons learned

Recruiting the Trainees would need more in-depth analysis of their marketability

Constant Follow ups would greatly help in trainings

Better internal control is needed when implementing such projects to oversee every step of the

implementation

Commitment by all parties involved would enhance and strengthens the chances of success

AWDP model would be the best serving model to use for the further trainings that would help a great

deal with the unemployment issue. As it considers the market demand and produces the market need.

Annex (1: Graduation reports, 2: MOUs, 3: Pre-employment Trainings,

4: Pictures, 5: Follow up Questionairs )