The International Labour Organization (ILO) defines decent work as “productive work for women and men
in conditions of freedom, equity, security and human dignity”. In general, work is considered as decent
when:
Increasing employment and ensuring decent work for all are essential aspects of sustainable development.
Quality employment and decent work conditions help reduce inequalities and poverty, and empower
people, especially women, young people and the most vulnerable such as people with disabilities. We
therefore support our partner countries in creating and promoting jobs that provide decent earnings,
ensuring safe working conditions, providing social protection, and safeguarding workers’ rights.
Unemployment statistics do not reflect the full picture, in most partner countries, people can’t afford not to
work. People accept precarious jobs when they can’t find decent ones or are self-employed with extremely
low incomes.
Therefore, precarious employment and under-employment are the main issues in developing countries: 1.4
billion people work in vulnerable or informal employment. To survive, people accept to work in bad
conditions, at low productivity rates, in jobs with high turnovers and low incomes, and no social security.
They even accept to be underemployed and combine several jobs to try to make ends meet. The result is a
high proportion of working poor in developing countries. Informal work seems to be the norm in most
developing countries, with women and children being the most exposed. Informal work represents more
than 50% of non-agricultural employment in most regions of the developing world: It is therefore essential to
foster the creation of secure and decent jobs, taking into account demographic and regional trends and
guaranteeing every worker’s rights.
Aparajeyo-Bangladesh Interventions:
Community based Learning Centres: Non-Formal Education: Children working in factories/workshops are
freed from work for two hours each day to attend non-formal education. The girl children who are otherwise
engaged in looking after the households as well as younger siblings also attend the learning centers. They keep
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their younger siblings in our ECD centesr for 3 hours. A child-centered, interactive, modular, gender sensitive
curriculum and participatory teaching methodology that respond to the need of the working children and builds
on their skills is used. The integration between literacy, numeracy and skills is ensured. Education is provided
for 1,260 children aged between 9-14 years through 42 learning centres country-wide. There are three steps in
the curriculum i.e., step-1, step-2 and step-3, which is equivalent to class 3 of formal education. The education
curriculum is consulted with the children and revised as per need. AB’s exiting curriculum as well as Hard to
Reach curriculum is concise while pictorial and all participatory methods are followed. All lessons are
conducted using appropriate education materials that can be prepared, purchased and collected by the staff
members. The centers are able to deal with learners with different learning abilities; also to achieve equivalence
with formal education. Learning objective are defined for each cycle and regular assessments of learning by
each child is ensured. The Employers’ Associations assist to hire the room within the target area that are known
as ‘Learning Centers’. AB provides the Social Workers, Teachers, Field Workers, all educational & recreational
materials, healthcare support, counselling etc.
Adult Education: AB uses a practice in which adults engage in systematic and sustained self-educating
activities in order to gain new forms of knowledge, skills, attitudes, or values through Community Learning
Centres. It ranges from any form of learning adults engage in beyond traditional schooling, encompassing basic
literacy to personal fulfillment as a lifelong learner and ensures the fulfillment of an individual. In particular, our
adult education reflects a specific philosophy about learning and teaching based on the assumption that adults
can and want to learn, that they are able and willing to take responsibility for the learning, and that the learning
itself should respond to their needs.
Vocational/Skills Development Training: All adolescents, youth and women attending Aparajeyo’s
programmes have access to vocational/skills training through in-house skills development training courses and
partner NGOs facilities. Adolescent children in a street situation, who otherwise had no access to or not
interested in education or employment opportunities and highly mobile, are regularly counseled in order to set
their mind to adapt appropriate skills development training.
Aparajeyo provides vocational development training courses for the beneficiaries on 10 trades. These are: (i)
Tailoring and Embroidery, (ii) Jute Products, (iii) Dying and Printing (vi) Computer Training (v) Paper Cutting
& Paper Bag making, (vi) Handicrafts and Souvenirs, (vii) Candle making (viii) Cell Phone maintenance &
repairing (ix) Operating business machines (photocopier, fax, laminating, phone, spiral binding etc), (x) Flower
designing. Beneficiaries who want to take up a certain skill as a profession can undergo a thorough training
course, which includes an internship at relevant workshops. AB’s Vocational Training is registered with
Bangladesh Karigori Shikkha Board.
Aparajeyo has also created a referrals network for the adolescents/youth to undertake comprehensive vocational
training at its partner NGOs facilities. These courses are textile, motor mechanics, electronics, electrical;
garments etc. and the duration of these courses are 2-3 years.
Youth/women employment and entrepreneurship: Aparajeyo-Bangladesh also boosts youth and women
employment, by offering young people and women the opportunities to increase their technical, professional,
social, and entrepreneurial skills. Our training and mentoring schemes improve their access to employment,
markets, finance and new technologies.
Source: Annual Report 2022