Help disabled Thai with IT work-study program

Dear Partners, 

This year, one of our most important goals is to recruit 3-5 disabled adults as apprentices who would join us for 18 months of training in partnership with another FCF project called Stronger Together. To fulfill this goal, we held three IT Fundamentals (ITF) classes with 5-6 disabled participants each. Our ITF classes are designed to introduce IT to unemployed adults who do not have an IT background. We do this in order to encourage people to consider joining the growing IT industry in Thailand as well as to help them improve their life and/or job. The ITF class consists of five different IT subjects including hardware, networking, internet, programming, and security. When the class is over, we evaluate the students and invite those we think would benefit from further training to our Programming Boot Camp (PBC). This week-long program introduces the basics of web application development. From the disabled participants who attended our ITF classes this year, we selected five to attend our PBC. Out of the five participants, we have selected three to be our new apprentices. 

One of the benefits and challenges of this program is our partnership with a government Foundation called YardFon. They have about 70 disabled adults living and training at their compound in Mae Taeng. They are preparing them with working skills and teaching them to live independently. This includes an IT training program that teaches basic office application skills. Those were some of the students for which we had a chance to provide further training. Since the students live there, we were able to use their computer labs to do our training. This all worked out very well. The main challenge came when we selected our apprentices and realized they would have to relocate near our office. We had prepared our office for training disabled adults but could not accommodate their living arrangements. This led us to our third partnership with the McKean Foundation. They have small houses for two people that are accessible for people with disabilities. They can also provide transportation and other facilities as needed. Everything is coming together to help us recruit the apprentices and provide them with the resources they need to become IT professionals. 

We are excited to welcome Mr A, Mr T, and Mr N to our apprenticeship program. They will start about May 1 after some minor renovations are completed at McKean. This will be a new experience for all of us and we will happily share the journey with you. When you partner with us financially, you are also participating in this journey. Everything should be ready soon after the Thai New Year break (April 12-14). We will also be continuing with new ITF classes after the break as well.