Kathmandu, August 17. Today, August 16, to expand apprenticeship-based job creation in Nepal in support of Confederation of Nepalis Industries (CNI), UKaid Skills for Employment (सीप), and Government of Nepal’s employment creation goals, CNI and UKaid सीप signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) in the presence of the Ministry of Industry and Commerce (MOIC). CNI and UKaid सीप intend to work together to broker transformational enterprise-driven partnerships to propel growth of employment and enterprise growth opportunities in priority sectors across Nepal, such as commercial agriculture, light manufacturing, tourism, ICT, and construction with special focus on Province 2 and Lumbini Province.
“UKaid सीप and CNI’s ‘Skill Nepal’ campaign supports our joint vision to build a skilled workforce within interested partner firms to expedite industry transformation and complements our ‘Make in Nepal’ initiative, remarked Vishnu Agarwal, President of CNI, at the event. As part of its collaboration, CNI and सीप will build on its efforts to leverage national and provincial Government budgets allocated for apprenticeship-based training in partnership with co-investments from the private sector—to ensure quality skilling and job-linked livelihoods for Nepalis.
Highlighting the programme’s approach and efforts, Baljit Vohra, Team Leader of UKaid सीप, explained, “सीप has catalyzed 13 enterprise-driven partnerships so far and plans to expand its engagements with industries that demonstrate capacity and incentives to generate large-scale skilling-based employment creation.” In operation since 2018, the British Embassy funded UKaid सीप uses an innovative Challenge Fund and Technical Assistance mechanism to expand job-aligned skilling, affordable financial products, and ethical migration services linked to gainful livelihoods for Nepali youth and enterprise growth for industries.
Affirming the Government of Nepal’s commitment to job creation, Arjun Prasad Pokharel, Secretary at the MOIC, applauded सीप and CNI’s initiative, and expressed commitment to enabling Government support to expand results for Nepali job seekers and industries.
Drawing on its longstanding experience on successful deployment of co-funding based Challenge Fund with the private sector in Nepal, UKaid सीप, led by WSP, seeks to support CNI in setting up a transparent, competitive co-funding based process and institutionalization of a ‘Skill Nepal’ Hub inside CNI, for interested member firms to productively contribute to and draw on public and private funding for maximized skilling and employment gains.
In Nepal, WSP has supporting entrepreneurial growth for over 108,000 MSMEs, enabled financial inclusion and access for over 2.6 million Nepalis (50% women), and mobilized $443 million in private capital from Nepali firms for accelerated expansion of innovative financial products, livelihood-creating services, and modernization of game-changing financial sector infrastructure.
