The Bhutanese Leading the way.
Ministry of Labour and Human Resources (MoLHR) is initiating a Graduate Skills Program (GSP) from next month and about 200 graduates will undergo training with registered training providers in the country.
According to MoLHR, the unemployed graduates constitutes to 8.6% of the total unemployed youth in 2011 and 12.7% of the total unemployed in 2012, which is approximately 900 graduates unemployed.
The Draft Labour Force Survey 2014 indicated that out of 9916 unemployed, 3210 are with graduate level qualification. The number of graduates entering the labour market is expected to grow in the 11th FYP period.
The Assistant Program Officer, HRDD, DHR, MoLHR, Jit Bahadur Bhandari, said, “The GSP is a program designed specifically for the graduate jobseekers who are aspiring to set up their own businesses or to seek employment in the private sector.”
The terms of reference (TOR) for GSP states that the program will have two core elements, first is the core skills, which will provide specific skill set to the graduates, such as mobile software development, food processing, noodle making, fishery, etc., and soft skills, such as communications, business management, marking, accounting, resource management and procurement skills.
Jit Bahadur Bhandari said the training will be imparted in collaboration with the registered training providers such as Rigsum Institute of IT and Management, Bhutan School of Management, and Institute of Management studies (IMS), Athang and one in Gelephu.
He said that GSP is mainly target for self-employment and will be also placed in the existing industries. MoLHR payments to the training provider are base on the employment, when training providers have submitted their proposal, training provider have identify the vacancies in the market. “However, if the training providers cannot provide employment to the trainers then MoLHR will not make payments to training providers,” Jit Bahadur Bhandari added.
He said that regarding the funding for self-employment, MoLHR will provide support and had discussed with Business Opportunity and Information Centre (BOiC) for funding.
The training will range from in-country, ex-country, institution based or industry based. The overall objective of the program is to promote gainful employment and achieve full employment target set by the government. The program support will be made available to proposals from registered training providers in Bhutan. The support will be from July 2014 to June 2015 (11th FYP period) and this program is under the Guarantee Employment Scheme supported by Economic Stimulus Plan (ESP).
