SWAPNO focuses on improving women’s access to skills development opportunities as skills are possibly the least erosive ‘assets’ a poor person can own. SWAPNO’s mandatory savings component facilitates an accumulation of capital for asset purchase; but poor and marginalized women often do not have the skills necessary to successfully generate income from their assets. Therefore, with training on livelihood skills including basic financial literacy and linkage with relevant markets, SWAPNO is giving them the tools to carve their way out of poverty.
So far, 12,492 beneficiaries have received livelihood skills development training. Based on Market Opportunity Survey and Training Needs Assessment, SWAPNO had identified four major areas for decent livelihoods: poultry and bird farming, cow rearing and beef fattening, goat and sheep farming, and small business management. Training modules were also developed on these topics. Beneficiaries also received mandatory kitchen garden training to harvest or manage at least one nutrition item from their household.
The project organized trade-based apprenticeship training for women over 32 years old with the goal of becoming self-employed this year. Master Craft Persons (MCPs) were assigned to ensure learner engagement, perform hands-on practices, and assess each learner at the end of each session. A total of 258 project participants have finished the training and are now working in various trades in their community.
Apart from informal sector, SWAPNO facilitated the beneficiaries to get jobs in formal sectors. To engage the women in various formal jobs, SWAPNO works in delivering accredited industry skills to its beneficiaries by partnering with the formal sectors especially with the RMG and the Leather sector. The project initiates the formal employment following a concreate screening guideline to identify eligible women among the beneficiaries followed by a pre-job motivational session to make them understandable and be sensitized about the formal sector employment. The sessions are conducted in collaboration with the relevant employer at the community level and women can directly interact with the employers and come to know details about vocational training, eligibility criteria, pre-training preparation, employment facilities etc.
SWAPNO has developed cost-sharing partnerships with export-oriented green factories such as Ecofab Ltd, Green Smart Shirt Ltd and skills providing organizations like the Center of Excellence for Leather Skills (COEL) to transfer industrial skills and placement in jobs after assessing their learning.
SWAPNO’s strong partnership with these factories helped to place 800 women in formal sector jobs (200 in Readymade Garments and 600 in the Leather sector). So far, job placement was done for 480 women in several RMG and Leather factories like EcoFab Ltd, Green Smart Shirt ltd, FB footwear, Runner footwear, MK footwear, Royal footwear, Shoes BD, etc. After job placement, SWAPNO conducts post job counselling session to know about the working experience of the beneficiaries.
