To promote life skills and improve livelihoods in remote areas, the labour ministry is providing short-term training for rural households across the country. One such training was conducted for about 50 individuals from Langthil Gewog in Trongsa. The training ended yesterday.
The participants were trained in home appliance maintenance and repair and in carpentry and masonry. They said the majority of the Bhutanese households, especially in the rural areas, depend on professional help for basic home appliance maintenance and repair works.
“If there is any electrical problems or related tasks in the village, we will not have to depend on others hereafter. I can fix it. Moreover, with the certificates I received after the training, I am ready to carry out community contracts as well,” said Phurba, one of the participants from Jangbi in Langthil Gewog.
“Although we could carry out basic electrification works in our homes, BPC does not issue meter boxes as we are not certified. But now with the certificates from the training, BPC will give us the meter box,” said Sonam Norbu, another participant.
Besides skills development, the training is intended to generate employment opportunities, particularly for youth in the villages.
“We have the potential to become self-reliant in vocational skills. And our objective is also to retain them in the village or gewog after acquiring such skills so that they don’t have to migrate to urban places in search of jobs. That way, they can help not only themselves and their family but the community at large,” said Tharchen, a volunteer training coordinator from Langthil Gewog.
“We had thorough discussions with the ministry and institutes. So, we will also offer opportunities to the rest of the districts who wish for a similar programme,” said Pema Tshering from Technical Training Institute Chhumey in Bumthang.
The labour and human resources ministry first initiated the programme in 1984 to enhance rural livelihood and build the capabilities of villagers to reduce dependency on skilled expatriate workers.
Passang, Trongsa
Edited by Phub Gyem
