The Underprivileged Children's Educational Programs (UCEP) Bangladesh has acknowledged the contributions made by the Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office (FCDO) Bangladesh and the UK government.
A virtual event titled – Partnership Celebration – was held to celebrate the acknowledgment and the completion of YES4Growth Project 2016-2020 on Thursday, said a press release issued in this regard.
The event was chaired by UCEP Bangladesh Chairperson Parveen Mahmud, FCA while NGO Affairs Bureau Director General Md Rashadul Islam was present as the chief guest while FCDO Bangladesh Development Director Judith Herbertson was the guest of honour.
Officials of the government, development partners, and private sector representatives along with governing members of UCEP Bangladesh attended the event virtually among others.
Addressing the event, NGO bureau chief Rashadul said: “UCEP Bangladesh has been fortunate to get the long-term generous support of the UK government for more than three decades supporting the children, youth, and adults from disadvantaged communities.”
Echoing the same, British High Commission in Bangladesh Development Director Judith Herbertson said: “Over the years we are delighted to have been able to support some 145,000 Bangladeshi children to access education; 65,000 young people to receive technical and vocational skills training; and 42,000 to secure decent jobs and apprenticeships.
“Our partnership has played an important role in increasing female participation, particularly in technical education. About 39% receiving technical education were young women – significantly higher than the national average at 25%.”
“This partnership has brought many positive changes in graduates’ incomes and living conditions by offering quality education and market-oriented skills. I am happy to see the graduates’ incomes increased by up to 300% after training; and their career progression has been faster than unskilled workers in the same industry. I am proud that the UK has ensured a route to an economically viable future for a large group of young people across the country,” Judith furthered.
The YES4Growth Project has been working to providing second-chance education to the poor and disadvantaged children, decent work to youth from similar backgrounds through technical vocational education and training, skills and entrepreneurship development, access to quality higher technical education, and capacity development to professionals and institutions in the sector, read the release.
The project focuses on social inclusion and it prioritized providing services to the poor, females, people with different kinds of disabilities, social and occupational minorities etc.
This initiative also contributed to address the skills shortage of the country and develop the much-needed skilled human resources to strengthen the economy. The project was implemented in Dhaka, Jatrabari, Chittagong, Khulna, Barisal, Sylhet, Rajshahi, Rangpur, and Gazipur.