The ILO, together with the Lutheran World Foundation, is  building a Technical and Vocational Education Training Centre in Kebribeyah, Ethiopia. The centre, which is located in the vicinity of refugee settlements is designed to provide vocational training opportunities for both the host community and refugees.

In Ethiopia, the PROSPECTS team supported an initiative to establish a satellite TVET training centre in the district of Kebribeyah, in Somali Regional State. The satellite centre was the country’s first public TVET training facility in a refugee-hosting area. As a result, jobs were created for refugees and host community members during the construction of the centre itself, subsequently vocational training was provided to refugee and host community students who would otherwise have to travel long distances for TVET training (the closest public vocational training college was 55 kilometres away, in the regional capital, Jigjiga).

Consultations were organized with local stakeholders in Kebribeyah to promote buy-in and ownership, and to provide guidance on relevant, in-demand occupations, including finishing works in construction, general metal fabrication and aluminium works, electrical installation, plumbing and sanitary installation, irrigation technology and cobblestone-laying. Trainers from Jigjiga Polytechnic College were then trained as trainers to deliver courses in the satellite centre. As a component of the cobblestone course, graduates were awarded a trial contract to construct a 500-metre cobblestone road as a demonstration site for EIIP in Kebribeyah. Similar to the case in Kenya, this supported the upskilling of local refugee and host community labour, using a labour-based approach.

Find out more about the PROSPECTS programme’s wider learning on youth engagement.