Background

1      Background

1.1       Introduction

B-SkillFUL aims to improve the well-being of poor and disadvantaged men and women by increasing their access to the labour market and sustainable income, while safeguarding their fundamental rights at work. The project facilitates training programmes through local Training Service Providers (TSPs) in 5 selected districts of Bangladesh for demand driven skills and after training support. B-SkillFUL also raises awareness amongst the graduates and informal sector enterprises on issues of Labour Rights and Decent Work (LRDW). The duration of the project Phase I is 4 years.

The project aims to facilitate the training for people whereby the majority of beneficiaries are from disadvantaged groups such as school drop outs, divorced or widowed women, single mothers, differently abled people (DAP) and people from ethnic and religious minorities. The project follows market principles and adopts a facilitative approach instead of direct service delivery to foster sustainability. Training programme development, training delivery, employment of the beneficiaries and addressing LRDW issues are realised through local partners that are likely to remain functional in the labour market in the long run.

1.2       Objective of the Training Manual

This Training Manual provides a framework to TSPs and instructors to deliver this common module as a complementary course to the technical training course. To ensure that the trainees of any occupation perform well and apply their technical skills effectively, they also need to develop their soft skills, life skills, knowledge about social issues, labour rights and entrepreneurship.

This training manual aims to develop the personal character traits or qualities required to equip the participants with relevant soft skills encompassing rights and responsibilities at workplace. At the same time, the manual will also focus on employability skills including developing entrepreneurship. Finally, the manual will help trainees to learn about social issues i.e. gender, social diversity, drug and substance abuse and HIV/AIDS.  At the end of training on common issues, the trainees will be able to:

·         Articulate strength and weaknesses and identify personal goals

·         Acquire skills to better take instructions, communicate and solve potential conflicts in a pro-active manner

·         Acquire a work attitude by learning about values and ethics required in the workplace, including honesty, respect, hygiene, punctuality, nutrition and reliability

·         Identify and pro-actively address inequality and discrimination by better understanding social issues

·         Define and explain Labour Rights and Decent Work (LRDW) concepts and obligations

·         Explain clearly his/her rights and responsibilities at workplace

·         Explain what all it requires for starting an enterprise.

The training manual applies interactive (i.e. group discussion, debate) and participatory learning approach (i.e. homework, interview) to complement ongoing technical skills development. Besides, integration of institutional training learnings into the logbook will help to gauge how far institutional training been reflected at workplace.