Mobile Training Center: Closing the Digital Divide for Marginalized Youth. Skills to Succeed Bangladesh
Save the Children (2021), 2 pp.
"The opportunity for further growth in the ICT sector by leveraging the sizeable youth workforce, including females, is immense. The Skills to Succeed program in Bangladesh helps vulnerable youth (ages 15-24), living in slum communities, develop employability, ICT technical and entrepreneurship skills, and provides job linkage services to prepare them to obtain decent work in the ICT & Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) value chain, from which marginalized youth have traditionally been excluded. Since 2017, 10,800 youth have received employability skills training (41% female). Additionally, 6,810 youth have received vocational training in ICT and 2,730 entrepreneurship training. Of these, 3,117 youth have been placed in jobs and 504 in self-employment.
One of the key learnings from the S2S program in Bangladesh is that, in order for youth to be more likely to advance in the ICT sector, where technology leaps forward at a fast pace, they need to become lifelong learners and, ideally, develop technology skills at an earlier age. This is why the S2S program is expanding to reach marginalized in-school and out-of-school very young adolescents (ages 10 to 14) to build their life skills, growth mindset and digital skills so they are able to continuously learn, adapt and be prepared to take advantage of the jobs of the future.
An innovative approach for providing access to the internet and build the digital skills of to the most marginalized adolescents and youth in Bangladesh, particularly girls, is the use of a Mobile Training Center (MTC). The MTC moves around Chattogram to provide skills training to adolescent girls and boys at their doorsteps. The MTC has one technical instructor and two life skills trainers. These instructors facilitate a 24-hour training on life skills and growth mindset, and a 24-hour training on digital literacy and citizenship. The MTC is set up in a large bus, it is equipped with 15 laptop computers, internet connection, and furniture to facilitate trainings. Internet access is provided through 3G/4G portable Router Access Points. Service is procured from high quality mobile network service providers in Bangladesh, such as Grameen Phone or Robi, with whom the program has corporate agreements.
By meeting adolescents close to their homes and communities, the MTC will overcome common participation barriers for marginalized and vulnerable adolescents, such as personal safety and the time and cost of traveling to training centers. These barriers frequently prevent girls from pursuing or completing trainings." (Pages 1-2)
One of the key learnings from the S2S program in Bangladesh is that, in order for youth to be more likely to advance in the ICT sector, where technology leaps forward at a fast pace, they need to become lifelong learners and, ideally, develop technology skills at an earlier age. This is why the S2S program is expanding to reach marginalized in-school and out-of-school very young adolescents (ages 10 to 14) to build their life skills, growth mindset and digital skills so they are able to continuously learn, adapt and be prepared to take advantage of the jobs of the future.
An innovative approach for providing access to the internet and build the digital skills of to the most marginalized adolescents and youth in Bangladesh, particularly girls, is the use of a Mobile Training Center (MTC). The MTC moves around Chattogram to provide skills training to adolescent girls and boys at their doorsteps. The MTC has one technical instructor and two life skills trainers. These instructors facilitate a 24-hour training on life skills and growth mindset, and a 24-hour training on digital literacy and citizenship. The MTC is set up in a large bus, it is equipped with 15 laptop computers, internet connection, and furniture to facilitate trainings. Internet access is provided through 3G/4G portable Router Access Points. Service is procured from high quality mobile network service providers in Bangladesh, such as Grameen Phone or Robi, with whom the program has corporate agreements.
By meeting adolescents close to their homes and communities, the MTC will overcome common participation barriers for marginalized and vulnerable adolescents, such as personal safety and the time and cost of traveling to training centers. These barriers frequently prevent girls from pursuing or completing trainings." (Pages 1-2)
