Episode Notes

About 85 University Graduates with Disability Trained on Pre-Jobs Skill and Job Hunt

   An integrated Training at Adama, Sodo and Hawassa in Collaboration with Ethiojobs

ENAB in collaboration with Ethiojobs, has organized a series of trainings on Pre job skill and job search at Adama, Hawassa and Sodo for persons with various disability. The training was conducted for the third round and about 97 graduates with disability were trained who are currently unemployed and graduated over the last 3 years from July 18 – 26, 2022. Specifically, about 45 Blinds, 12 deaf and 28 physically impaired persons are reached in the subsequent trainings.

The training was diverse and participatory which empowers the participants to share practical challenges and get insight about the basic skills in CV development, personal job readiness, dressing and interview protocols, etc. In addition, experience sharing sessions were held with HR experts and successful employees with disability.

Employment opportunity is an integral intervention which brings sustainable income and economic security among the people with disability in particular. It has significant impact given the employment rate among these target group is the lowest (about 10%) in Ethiopia as compared to other population groups.

Unemployment is higher among persons with disability and one of the major factors is lack of pre- Jobs skill and employability readiness which limits their personal competitiveness and potential employment advantage. Therefore, providing these trainings for them is pivotal activity under the project.

Hence forth; as an exclusive TOFI EE partner to implement the pre -job skill training in Ethiopia,  ENAB has established cooperative engagement with Ethiojobs which is the leading HR company in the country. Signing an MoU, the two parties are working in collaboration to provide the standard trainings in selected 7 major towns.  It has been given in 4 towns by now and reached to 190 target groups. As a consortium project, this is a big success bringing meaningful collaboration with the private sector and potentially ensures sustainable engagement with greatest reach out at national level.  

Along with the training, a two days workshop was conducted on employment rights of persons with disability at Hawasa with diverse partners from GoE, OPDs and Industrial Park areas. About 38 participants involved and successfully completed. As an outcome, better awareness and sprit of partnership brought and to this end, the Hawasa Industry park key persons promised to recruit PWDs and took the trainee list from the pre -Job training made at Hawassa.

In general, the trainings were well organized, resourceful and engaging which bought full attention of participants and witnessed importance of our collaboration with Ethiojobs. Of course, Ethiojobs commitment was greater and found out to be more than cooperative in the sector to discharge their social cooperative responsibility. There are participants from Hawassa industry park and fortunately job linkage created to link graduates and the graduate list is also provided to them.

We have received big applauses from participants in the feedback sessions and will keep the momentum accordingly. ENAB thanks all partners i,e Ethiojobs, Wereda sector offices and DPOs for their cooperation. The training will continue and scale up to other towns nationwide in similar and innovative way.            

Lessons Learned and best Practices

• The skill gap is real and observable in the community. So that the training is valuable to be extended to others and another towns
• Addressing both the employer and employee sides is with such awareness and skill trainings is pivotal to ensure inclusive employment
• Including private companies in employment workshops and other inclusive programs is detrimental which ensures local ownership and sustainability

Challenges

• Budget need to reach out more persons with disabilities
• Integrating more activities to do is efficient but tiresome to manage

Participants attending the Pre Jobs trainings at Adama, Sodo and Hawassa

Participants in Employment Workshop at Hawassa in group work and plenary sessions