SOS Vocational Training Centres

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The SOS Vocational Training Centres are an important building block in the work done with youths running parallel to the facilities where the youths live and in continuation of the training schooling they have received. They provide the youths from the SOS Children's Villages and young people from the neighbourhood with realistic chances for the future on their way to being independent. Being trained in welding at the Tibetan centre in Dehradun (India) - Photo: SOS Archives High unemployment, bad social starting criteria, the changing demands of the job market, economic marginalisation, a lack of training places - these are only a few of the factors with which the youths are confronted once they have finished school. Through the SOS Vocational Training Centres, SOS Children's Villages is trying to offer the youths fair starting possibilities so that they can become independent and so that they are able to cope with the social and economic demands made on them. The economic imbalance between north and south does, however, demand regionally varying training programmes and methods of guidance. The diversification of the job market, supply and demand, national economic factors, regional job offers, the social background of each individual youth, their own perspectives and those thrust upon them from outside, the particulars of the location of the training centres - these are all aspects which have to be considered when constructing an SOS Vocational Training Centre. Farming as part of the agricultural training in Bahir Dar (Ethiopia) - Photo: SOS Archives What is taught is therefore strongly orientated towards the local and regional job prospects. This is so that the youths are not trained and are then unemployable. SOS youths and young people from the neighbourhood who are socially disadvantaged or who have hardly any other training prospects are therefore given vocational qualifications and skills which will allow them to live an autonomous life as an adult. Some of the SOS Vocational Training Centres offer temporary jobs where the youths can gain practical experience and either sell the products they make or offer their services. SOS Vocational Training Centres can either be in the form of small workshops or they can be projects which offer training in various trades to hundreds of young people. Often the centres work together with local firms or other partners. They also do research into the job market and offer careers advice. View of the successful SOS Vocational Training Centre in Kality (Ethiopia) - Photo: A. Gabriel Each of the branches of training are the same length as is the norm for that country, follow the same curriculum and offer the same practical experience. On completion the youths are awarded a state-recognised diploma or certificate of apprenticeship. There are over 130 SOS Vocational Training Centres worldwide offering courses and apprenticeships in trades, industries and various service branches. The range of courses on offer is therefore very varied: Motor mechanics, metalwork, printing, plumbing and electrical engineering, carpentry, pottery and tailoring, old traditional trades (for example in the vocational training centres for Tibetans in India and Nepal), home economics, office administration, cookery, agricultural courses in farming and breeding animals, computer training, etc.