Provide Skills for Indonesian Unemployed Youth

Regular Class

For the sixth term of the VTC we were able to open 13 classes consisting of 2 Sewing Classes, 6 Computer Classes and 5 English Classes with a total of 218 students, starting on January 20^th until mid of April 2014.

At the beginning of this term, we explained to the students that if they could not attend 75 % of the classes, they would not be entitled to receive the VTC certificate. After 3 months of classes, we held a final exam for 2 weeks in early April consisting of written and practical tests. In the end, a total of 191 students out of 218 students were entitled to receive the certificate.

Workshops

The Job Seeking Skills workshop was held 3 times for 105 participants, consisting of VTC and non VTC students and discussed about; How to make an Application Letter and a Curriculum Vitae; Job Interview; and Knowledge and Skills needed by Companies. The workshops aim to help the participants prepare for facing the highly competitive working world.

Besides that, we noticed that the majority of the mothers who bring their toddlers to the YUM pre-school were waiting for the end of classes without have much to do. Because of this, the idea rose to include these waiting mothers in a new workshop: The Women Empowerment Workshop. We offered to train them in making recycled products by hand such as pouches and bags made from plastic waste of coffee packaging. All the mothers showed their interest in this workshop.

At the same time, YUM conducted a survey in which the community’s needs were assessed. Out of the 47 respondents, we found that 32 respondents or 68.08 % of the respondents were interested to follow a cooking class (food or snacks processing) in order to increase their income and help them to find work.

The cooking classes were included in The Women Empowerment Workshop, besides making recycled products. We started this workshop as a pilot project with the 15 mothers who bring their children to the pre-school. The workshop is held once a month for 2 hours and has been held now for 6 times. YUM provides the material and the tutor, and after that the group will continue to make the products themselves, supervised by the tutor. The workshops ran smoothly and they could even earn some money by selling their products. We have good faith that the project will be sustainable as it is both for and from the women.

VTC Renovations

Thanks to Priscilla Hall Memorial Foundation (PHMF) we could renovate the VTC building, which had served for more than 30 years. The renovations started mid-April, after the classes and final exam finished. Initially, we were only planning to repair the roof and replace some of the doors and window frames. But by the time the renovations began, we found out that other window frames also needed to be replaced as well as some broken windowpanes, and we also decided to fix the ceiling and paint the walls. These additional works make the renovation longer than planned, but hopefully it will be finished before the seventh term starts.  Thank you!!!