During last February, I interviewed Mr. Thomas Brittner, the head of Higher Education Department from Child’s Dream. During the conversation, I happened to share what I had been passionate to do for the education in my country. I told him that I expected to be working on something that would allow the students to get the exposure to the diverse professional fields and understand the 21st century skills that would be necessary to open the doors for them. Then, he replied me that there’s an organization in Mae Sot named “Youth Connect Foundation”, working on providing the essential life skills to the students and youths outside the schools. Looking at a glance at Mae Sot, there were growing youth population who struggled to have employment and on the other hand, the local businesses also strived to get the skilled labor. “Youth Connect Foundation” focused on addressing the needs of these two target groups by
The program takes minimum of 10 months during which the youths go through
Besides working as employees in local businesses, the students started a number of social enterprises, one of which is “The Pciturebook Guesthouse” which becomes a top tourist destination in Mae Sot now. It offered a unique place decorated with the artsy decorations and the fact that the whole building including the furniture and the decorations were created by the students themselves. As well as a hub for students’ employment, the guesthouse acted as a training site for upcoming apprentices in the hospitality industry. You can visit the following website to take a tour of the Picturebook Guesthouse. http://picturebookthailand.org/ Being aware of the unique context in the region, I found the program being implemented by Youth Connect really impressive since it offered a truly inspiring opportunity to all those youths to become motivated to learn and have the confidence to take the initial steps required to establish a start-up. Acknowledging the challenges and limited options for the migrant youths, Youth Connect offered essential life skills and actually connected them to the future opportunities.
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AuthorHtet is a medical doctor from Myanmar working at the development sector with strong passion in education sector Archives
April 2016
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