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Case Study

Photo: USAID/Virginia L. Foley

Young Novi learned data-entry skills at a training course and is using them at her new job with the Banda Aceh Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber of Commerce has sent a list of names of graduates from a USAID and Chevron training effort to all of its 38 associations in 17 districts of Aceh, increasing employment opportunities for program participants.

Challenge

After the 2004 earthquake and tsunami struck Indonesia’s Aceh province, boats lay upturned in fields, acres of farmland and trees were destroyed, and neighborhoods that once held businesses, houses, schools, and places of worship were reduced to rubble. Families were left without breadwinners, and the task of making an income suddenly fell to any family member who was able to work. But the tsunami also destroyed livelihoods — families needed to earn a living, yet many existing businesses had been washed away and jobs were scarce.

Initiative

In 2005, USAID and Chevron formed an alliance to support training for young people in post-tsunami Aceh province and Nias island. The alliance supported efforts to restore livelihoods by providing three-month technical training courses to 18 to 22-year-olds for jobs in reconstruction and rehabilitation. With support from USAID, Chevron ran the training courses at its polytechnic institute. The three-month-long courses aimed to provide marketable skills to these young people that would be useful during and after reconstruction. USAID and Chevron continued to work together to help participants get jobs after completing the courses. Graduates began working for various organizations, including the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce, road construction contractors, international organizations doing home reconstruction, and Indonesia’s Bureau for Reconstruction and Rehabilitation for Aceh and Nias.

Results

In the nine months ending April 2006, 346 young people from Aceh and Nias, including 86 women, completed three-month vocational courses in welding (44), masonry and home construction (65), electrical installation (50), carpentry (38), computer applications (51), bookkeeping (80), and automotive repair (18). The Chamber of Commerce has sent a list of the graduates and their qualifications to all of its 38 associations in 17 districts of Aceh, increasing employment opportunities for program participants. Now, businesses can tap into a new generation of skilled workers, helping to revive the local economy while rebuilding coastal communities.

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