STRATEGIC PLANYear 2016 to 2025

ABRIDGED VERSIONSEPTEMBER 2015

ABOUT UCEP BANGLADESH

The Underprivileged Children’s Educational Program (UCEP) Bangladesh is a registered non-governmental and non-profit organization providing basic education and training for children and youth from poor marginalised communities in urban and peri-urban areas of Banagladesh.

UCEP was started in 1972 by a New Zealander, Mr. Lindsay Allan Cheyne, who came to Bangladesh originally to help war-victims. While here, he came across a study by faculty members of Dhaka University on the distressed situation of street children which prompted him to start a non-formal school for 60 “working” children. After four decades, this act of social entrepreneurship has expanded both programmatically and geographically. UCEP works in Bangladesh and Nepal although as separate NGO entities.

Initially, UCEP worked with the concept of "community schools" to provide an alternative schooling opportunity for working children from slums and those living in streets. In order to make UCEP’s approach more useful and effective, a vocational skills training programme was added to UCEP's general education course in 1983 with the establishment of one Technical School in Dhaka. By then, UCEP's general education program had been expanded to Chittagong and Khulna cities. In the later years, job-placement services and rights advocacy programs have been added. The size of program coverage also kept increasing and at present (year 2015), UCEP serves about 55,000 children and youth every year through its 53 general schools, 10 technical schools, outreach training services, child and woman rights advocacy; and job-placement services in 10 districts (including all divisional cities) in Bangladesh.

UCEP is governed by a voluntary group of people known as the UCEP Association which elects from among them a 7-member Board of Gover-nors (BoG) for a term of 2-years. The BoG hires the Executive Director who heads the Senior Management Team supported by a Management Com-mittee at head office and a Management Team that includes the district level management. UCEP’s programs are mostly offered in UCEP’s own infrastructure most of which has high quality learning enviornment in comparison to many similar organizations that offer such programs in Bangladesh. At present (year 2015), UCEP has a workforce of more than 1,700, majority of whom are teachers and instructors.

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THE NEEDS AND PROCESS OF DEVELOPING THE STRATEGIC PLANUCEP’s success in offering effective education and training is essentially because the organization has always adapted its programmes to changing needs and contexts in the belief that ‘change is the only constant’. This continual adaption to change can be seen in the composite range of services it provides its students today. From its inception 43 years ago when it only offered non-formal education, it has progressively introduced and expanded a new program of skills training, followed by other initiatives to provide employment support serivces, community mobilization and awareness building activities as well as the introduction and then subsequent closure (based on rigorous reviews) of its microfinance program. All of these initiaitves have improved the quality and effectiveness of its work. This next strategy for the period of 2016 ‒ 2025 also proposes extensive changes in how UCEP structures and delivers its education and training programmes. In this sense it represents a continuum with the same belief that change is the only constant in UCEP’s evolution.

The country contexts are changing fast. It has become inevitable for UCEP to bring about some changes that will enable it to remain viable and effective; and also to make it sustainable. The new strategic plan has noted some recent developments in the country’s educational progress as well as taking into account some of the forecasted changes in the country’s economy, its population profile, education scenarios, skills shortages, the government’s policy environment, employers’ interests, community expectations, global development frameworks and UCEP’s financial resourcing options.

The strategy development process has taken more than one year to complete involving extensive consultations with numerous stakeholders, engaging consultant, reviewing countless policy and research documents and seeking approvals and feedback through several stages of approval processes up until the final approval of the strategy by the UCEP Association and its Board of Governors. The serious dedication from UCEP’s Board of Governors and the Management Team throughout this exhaustive process can not be understated.

While the next 10 year strategy will have an increasing emphasis on skills training for youth, its continuing focus on under-privileged children still remains valid and accordingly, UCEP will continue to be the legally registered identity for the organization during the next strategic period even that the name itself doesn’t include ‘youth’ in it. The next pages summarize the key strategic focus for UCEP. It briefly describes what UCEP is at this moment and what it will become in the coming years. This abridged version has been developed to facilitate easier communication about the strategy. However, the reader is encouraged to read the full strategy for the detail.

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VISION AND MISSION OF UCEPThe vision and mission of UCEP remains mostly unchanged for the new strategic plan period with the only difference being the inclusion of ‘youth’ as a target group in the vision and mission statements. Allowing for the fact that the United Nations defines the term “youth” to mean persons between the age of 15 ‒ 24 years of age, UCEP already serves a large number of youth in its education and training programs. However, by including this group in the organization’s vision and mission, a clear statement is being made about giving a renewed focus to the importance of creating more access for the youth to quality technical and vocational educaiton and training opportunities, especially considering the ‘demographic dividend’ opportuities presented in the country’s population profile.

VISIONA society upholding good governance where all children and youth are able to develop their potentials in a child and youth friendly environment without any discrimination

MISSIONTo raise the socio-economic conditions of the urban and peri-urban working poor and under-privileged children and youth through education and skills training, awareness and advocacy for ensuring good governance to a level that they can effectively participate in national development with enhanced capacity and dignity and fulfilment of their basic rights.

EVOLUTIONS AND THE CURRENT PROGRAMSInitially, UCEP worked with the concept of "community schools" to provide non-formal schooling opportunity for working children from slums and streets.

At present (year 2015), UCEP operates in 53 schools in 8 districts of Bangladesh offering basic education for more than 43,000 students, each year. The original programme of non-formal education still continues today but during this recent decade it has been aligned to the mainstream education of the country enabling UCEP students to sit for the PEC (Primary Education Completion) and JSC (Junior School Completion) examinations.

While UCEP follows the national curriculum, it organises the content so that it can deliver a 12 month education programme in six months for grades 1-4 and 6-7. For grades 5 and 8, the programme is a full one year course. This means UCEP students can complete 8 years of basic schooling up to the end of junior school, in five years. Although the programme is shorter than the government schools, the pass-rates in both grade 5 and 8 public examinations are comparable to the national average.

In 1983, UCEP introduced a new programme of basic skills training courses which has had the additional advantage of providing young learners with practical vocational skills that enable them to find employment, more easily. Currently, it offers 25 different vocational training courses in ten technical schools (and in class rooms of some of the general schools and also government training centres). About 7,500 trainees participated in these courses in 2014 of which 96% passed and more than 95% of the job-seeking graduates were able to find jobs.

Few of the UCEP’s general education grade 8 completers progress to study at grade 9 and 10 in the Technical Education stream. This program allows students to sit for the S.S.C1 (Vocational) examination in 5 of its technical schools. For the past few years, these 5 UCEP technical schools have been rated the top-ranked five best technical schools in the country (amongst a nation-wide list of 2000 schools) in the S.S.C. (Vocational) examination results.

UCEP takes pride in promoting the importance of education and training for girls. In the past ten years, at least 49% of the basic education students and 38% of the technical students have been girls. Child & Woman Rights advocacy program of UCEP has the ambition of reaching gender parity in its technical education programmes during its upcoming 10 year strategy period.

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The education and training development (and empowerment) of women is important not only for the socio-economic development of underprivilged communities but also to address the chronic skills shortages in industry which will lead to improved national economic development.

These achievements ‒ high enrolments, high pass rates, high employment rates and the inclusion of girls ‒ have given UCEP an excellent reputation as a provider of good quality education and training programmes among parents, the community, government officials, international agencies and the private sector. Many employers claim UCEP graduates make better employees both in terms of their (soft and technical) skills and their attitude to work.

Taking account of the fact that UCEP serves children coming from very poor communities who are affected by severe economic and social difficulties, its success as an education and training provider gives it an additional dimension that deserves special appreciation.

Part of the reason for its success has not only been the high level of skills and motivation of its teachers/trainers but also it is due to the resources it has deployed to support non-teaching activities which have secured a stable education environment for the learners, especially females, and which have also supported them in finding employment at the end of the learning process.

UCEP Programs

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Advocacy

Skills TrainingEducation

Job placement & Entrepreneurship

CHANGING TIMES

Despite a long list of achievements, it is no longer possible for UCEP to continue to operate as it has done for the past four decades. The background environment in which UCEP operates is now significantly different to what it was even five years ago and therefore there is a need for a different approach. Three external factors have greatly influenced this situation and the need for change.

Firstly, the government has significantly increased its attention and capacity to provide primary schooling to the point where there is now almost universal coverage of the young population. In this scenario, there is no longer a valid case for arguing that non-government organisations, like UCEP, must fill the gap where the government cannot provide basic schooling. However, notwithstanding these important gains, there are still gaps in the education system for which UCEP feels the need to thoroughly review the scenario as it stands today and over the next 10 years to identify where UCEP can continue to meaningfully contribute to educational improvement, instead of covering a full cycle of primary and lower secondary education.

Secondly, Bangladesh has been experiencing a recent period of rapid economic growth fuelled by the expansion of certain economic sectors such as clothing garments & footwear, electronic goods, building and construction and shipbuilding. However, this growth is being constrained by the lack of skills of its workforce which has given rise to a huge demand from industry for the country to invest in vocational skills training. This critical shortage of skills in the country presents an important opportunity for UCEP to become one of the leading technical and vocational training providers in the country.

Thirdly, the international donor community which has been providing technical and financial support for improving education outcomes in the country have noted these important improvements in education and therefore they no longer see a justification for funding NGOs to provide basic education services in a new climate where these services can now be provided for free by the government; and also where there are competing demands for these donor funds from other areas of social policy. Here it must be noted that UCEP’s ability to offer free basic education to an expanding population of school children over the past four decades has largely been due the funding contributions from international donor agen-cies. Unfortunately, despite its successes and high standards, the source of this funding (which currently accounts for 99% of UCEP’s total income) is becoming increasingly insecure and therefore UCEP cannot expect to rely on donors in the future to finance these activities.

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Accordingly, in the light of these significant changes in the socio-economic background, it is no longer viable for UCEP to consider expanding its prima-ry education activities - as it was envisaged in the last strategy, in 2010. Instead, these changes have given rise to the need for UCEP to make a corresponding adjustment in its forward planning trajectory if it is to survive financially and to continue to play a meaningful and value-adding role in supporting under-privileged children from poor communities to find employment and improve their livelihoods. In other words, without an alternative plan and with a declining funding base, UCEP would be forced to close its doors. A key component of this plan is to ensure that UCEP adopts a sustainable self-funding approach by deriving a large proportion of its annual income from government, private sector and individual fee paying clients for technical and vocational education training programmes. Consequently, after much analysis, reflection and discussion, the UCEP management and Board of Governors have agreed to implement a new strategy over the next 10 years (2016-2025) which will lead to chang-es that are intended to place the organisation on a more self ‒funding sustainable basis.

ADJUSTMENTS IN FOCUSIn very broad terms, the key objective of the strategy is to transform UCEP from a basic general education provider into a technical and vocational education and training provider serving underprivilged communities to help them to learn skills to earn and bridging it to the skill needs of business and industry in country and abroad. However, it does not mean that UCEP will completely abandon its general education commitments, for two reasons.

Firstly, even though the country has now achieved almost 100% net enrolment rates at the primary school level, the completion and pass rates in primary and secondary education schools are still below acceptable levels due in part to a high number of students who are dropping out of school. Some of the factors contributing to the high drop-out rates are directly related to poverty and cultural practises which discriminate against girls. UCEP still has a commitment to support these drop-out learners.

Secondly, UCEP recognises from research that has been carried out in OECD2 countries that a good basic education directly contributes to better outcomes in technical and vocational education and training. Children with a better general education are less likely to drop out of training programmes and achieve better pass rates than those with little or no basic education. In other words, basic education provides a solid foundation on which the performance of technical and vocational education and training is enhanced. UCEP understands that it’s reputation as an excellent technical and vocational education and

2 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

training provider depends critically on providing a good foundation of basic education for its students. To make this all possible, UCEP’s services and activities will be re-organised into the following programmes:

1. General education: a. Grades 5-8 education b. 6 months Literacy & Life Skills remedial program

2. TVET (Technical and Vocational Education and Training): a. Higher Technical Education: i. Technical Education (Grades 9-10) ii. Diploma program

b. Vocational Training (Basic and Intermediate level) c. Specialized Training Services

3. Job-placmenet services (both wage and self-employ ment) 4. Awarness building through Child and Woman Rights Advocacy

The diagram above symbolizes more emphasis to TVET3 than general education during the 2016-25. As per the below diagram, contribution of primary education will decrease significantly in size as a proportion of total activity whereas secondary education will decrease slightly. Upper Page | 08

General Education

TVET & Employment

3 Technical and Vocational Education and Training

secondary (technical) education and vocational skills training will increase substantially and will account for more than 66% of UCEP activity by 2025.

The education and training services will continue to be backed up by two complementary programmes. The first one is Child & Woman Rights Advocacy, which is focussed on awareness building around the rights to education and employment especially for girls/women, persons with disability and members of ethnic groups. The CWRA also aims to engage families and communities and employers in improving the programme quality as well as increasing community/private sector contributions targetting toward sustainability.

The second support activity is the job-placement services which help UCEP graduates to find jobs either as wage-employment or self-employment. This function also serves as an important bridge between UCEP and employers that will continue to be explored for building partnership with the private sector in a number of areas e.g. (i) to keep ensuring the training curriculum is demand-driven, (ii) to obtain industry experts’ contributions in enriching classroom learning, (iii) to offer apprenticeships/industry attachment training, (iv) to explore financial and other contributions for making the training programs sustainable, (v) to provide specialized training services to the private sector and (vi) finding jobs for the graduates, and (vii) to help employers developing its own training facilities.

The key aspects of these changes in all the programmes are summarized in the following sections. Further detail on these changes are available in the full version of the strategic plan document. Besides, the specific targets of various projects that will be implemented under this strategic plan will also carry an explanation and interpretation of each of the respective project’s targets.

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SHIFT IN PROGRAM FOCUSESNumber of student/trainee per year Number of student/trainee per year

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1. GENERAL (BASIC) EDUCATION SECTOR: SECOND-CHANCE EDUCATION

The changes to the general education programme will involve a signifi-cant reduction in the numbers of primary school students and a corre-sponding reduction in the number of general schools. The reduction in UCEP’s primary school numbers is being influenced by the improved ability of the government to provide free primary school education in public primary schools. It is no longer feasible or justifiable for UCEP to compete with the government schools to take these learners.

The existing practise of focusing on ‘drop-out’children from mainstream education schools will continue in targetting and selecting students for this programme. As mentioned above, The focus on ‘drop-out’ students serves to provide a safety net for young people, especially those who drop out for social or economic reasons, and to give them a ‘second-chance’ to continue their studies.

The change in the profile of these students will give rise to the need for UCEP to engage teachers with special “remedial education” skills to support the special learning difficulties of these children (who may possibly have missed a year or two of schooling before they have been identified and brought to UCEP). UCEP will improve the capacity of its teaching workforce to provide “remedial” literacy and life skills to these children.

Another consequence of these changes is that the curriculum will only be offered from grades 5-8 yet implemented over three years where grade 5 and 8 will continue to be offered as a full year of schooling while Grades 6 and 7 will be offered in a 6 months abridged version based on the nation-al curriclum. Grades 1-4 will be abolished. In order to increase contact-hour for students and to allow all of them to appear for public examination, there would be two-shits in school in place of the current three-shifts. This would also influence the number of students in UCEP’s general schools.

The exclusion of students in Grades 1-4 will mean that the majority of the students in these schools will be studying at the lower secondary level which will, in turn, require a larger number of teachers that can teach at this level. Accordingly, there will be a need for increased investment in capacity building of primary school teachers to enable them upgrade their skills and knoweldge to teach at the lower secondary level.

While there will be awareness and motivation building activities for these students to go for technical and vocational education and training, those who would chose and can afford to continue in the general stream mainstream education would also be perceived as a success of the program.

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Summary of Key Changes:

1.1 Lower number of students (down-sizing):

1.1.1 Student numbers will be reduced.

1.1.2 Closure of few General schools.

1.2 Student profile and curriculum:

1.2.1 Priority given to enrolment of “drop-out” students from mainstream education.

1.2.2 Preferred Entry level is Grade 6 for those who have PEC certifi cates.1.2.3 The option of getting enrolled in Grade 5 for those without PEC certificates.

1.2.4 Grades 1-4 will be abolished

1.2.5 Provision of Literacy and Life Skills remedial education support to drop-out learners

1.2.6 Requirement for more teachers with remedial education skills and lower secondary subject knowledge and skills.

1.2.7 Continuation of emphasis on gender parity. 1.2.8 Inclusion of more children with disabilites and children from ethnic groups.

1.2.9 Continuation of following national curriculum and textbooks.

1.2.10 One full year schooling each for both grade 5 and 8. Six months schooling for grade 6 and 7.

1.3 Completion and Pass rates:

1.3.1 Increasing the total number and proportion of Grade 8 students to appear for the JSC examination.

1.3.2 Continuation of allowing all grade 5 students to sit for the PECE.

1.3.3 Introduction of two shifts (in place of the current three) to allow more contact hours for the students which will be essential for quality education and increased pass-rates.

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2. HIGHER TECHNICAL EDUCATIONThe Technical Education schools will increasingly become the “flagship” of UCEP around which its reputation for producing highly skilled techni-cians for the workplace will be built. Current estimates of the labour market indicate that there is a critical shortage of skill workers available in front-line supervisory level managers and technicians across a wide spec-trum of industries.Currently only a small number (about 600) of students are enrolled at grade 9-10 but the plan over the next ten years is to increase these numbers significantly and to extend the programme to another two levels. In other words, UCEP will offer technical education programmes over three qualification levels:

a) a 2-year programme (grades 9-10) resulting in a SSC (Vocational) certificate. Students emerging at this level will have the equiva lent of a Level 3 NVQF qualification. This programme is currently being offered but it will be revised/adapted to include a higher practical content. b) a BTEB-registered 4 years diploma programme. c) an Advanced Certificate program which will also be equivalent to a Level 4 NVQF qualification. This is a new course programme which has to be developed and registered with the BTEB.

These courses will be fee-paying and open to students from any school provided they meet the minimum entry level education requirements. As much effort as possible will be given to encourage some UCEP grade 8 graduates to continue their studies at this level, especially with financial support through bursaries, and therefore it is hoped that there will be an increasing proportion of UCEP students enrolled at this level, each year. It is also expected that the revenue from schools fees which is generated from this stream of education, especially the polytechnic institutes, can be used to cross-subsidy its free-of-cost vocational skills training program and the general education program for the students from underprivilged communities. However, during the initial years of the strategic plan period resources will be invested in developing these programs and therefore the finanical return from these insitutes will not happen immediately.

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Summary of Key Changes:

2.1 Higher number of students (Expansion)2.1.1 Expand the number of students in higher technical education (Grades 9-10) courses. The student numbers will be doubled from 600 to 1,200 over first 5 years and at least doubled again in the following 5 years. 2.1.2 Introduce fee payments (subject to donor funding support).2.1.3 Open to any students (not limited to UCEP graduates).2.2 Commencement of Diploma program2.2.1 First intake of students in 2015-16 session in one college increasing by one college each year. By 2025, all ten Technical Colleges will be able to offer this diploma course.

2.2.2 Fee paying with search for scholarships for students from poorer families. 2.2.3 Increase the number of technical education teachers.

2.3 Introduce a new intermediate level 1-2 year Advance Certificate course 2.3.1 Primarily aimed at poorer students who cannot afford to partici pate in a 4 year diploma course introduced by 20182.3.2 Fee paying with search for scholarships for students from poorer families. 2.3.3 Explore affiliation with international bodies for such course.

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3. BASIC AND INTERMEDIATE VOCATIONAL SKILLS TRAINING The objective in this area is to rapidly expand the provision of vocational skills training at basic and intermediate level (Levels 1-3) on the National Technical and Vocational Qualifications Framework (NTVQF) in response to the demand for skilled workers from industry in the country and also abroad. Presently, UCEP offers short training courses for its Grade 8 students although these are not aligned with the NTVQF qualifications, neither in terms of content or minimum learning time. One big problem is that graduates from these training courses are below the minimum working age of 18. This will change.

In future, the plan is to offer skills training courses through three different streams of learning (A, B and C) which caters to different needs and training markets.

Stream A will be short full-time Basic level courses of 3-6 months targeted at below age UCEP students who are graduating from the generaleducation schools. The courses will be offered in a limited number of skill areas/vocations where students may usually expect to find employment and/or self-employment in the informal sector of the economy (examples include hair dressing, bicycle repair, sewing machine operator, etc). Gradually, these courses will be converted to CBT and accredited by BTEB at Level 1 of the NVQF, thereby enabling national recognition by industry. There will be an increased effort to find apprenticeships and internships for young people in the formal sector, especially for youths aged 15 and above, which will allow them to deepen their knowledge and skills that will enable them to make the transition from informal sector to formal sector employment.

Stream B will be longer (6 months to 1 year) entry-level training courses targeted at unemployed youth of working age and tied to an internship or an apprenticeship with an industry employer. The trainees will be drawn from the local community but may not necessarily be ex UCEP students although former graduates will be encouraged to enrol in these courses when they reach the minimum working age. These courses will cover a wider range of skilled occupations resulting in qualifications at Levels 1-3. Ideally, funding for these courses will come from industry although, in the early years, it may be sponsored by donor TVET projects which have specific targets to meet. There might also be scope for getting fees from the trainees either as an immediate payment or as a ‘training loan’.

Stream C will be customized skills training courses targeted at employed or soon to be employed workers who are under-skilled for the jobs they perform or would perform soon. In other words, they will be “skills specific” courses and will vary in content and duration according to the

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customised requirements. Possibly, these courses will not result in a national NVQF qualification because they may fail to meet the minimum learning time required by BTEB. Nonetheless, with additional work experi-ence, trainees in these courses can always present themselves for an RPL assessment at a later time should they seek to obtain a recognised qualifi-cation. UCEP has accredition from BTEB for RPL assessment on certain trades that eventually would expand in future.

All three streams will be managed and delivered through the Technical schools although increasingly, over time, as suitable physical facilities and equipment becomes available, the Stream A courses will be shifted to the general schools. Through partnership with industires and government, UCEP will also provide training at workplaces and outreach centers where there is already an existing scope e.g. government training setups.

There will also be improvements of the currently offered self-employment training. There will be a development of a modularised entrepreneurial business skills training course that to be offered both to the training graduates and outsiders who are interested for starting their own business. This course can be offered based on a fee.

Summary of Key Changes:

3.1 Reorganise the vocational training (VT) component to serve three different categories of learners

Stream A: Basic skills training for self-employment and low skilled jobs, especially for learners who are too young to join the workforce;

Stream B: Basic and intermediate “entry-level” skills training for out of school unemployed youth of working age;

Stream C: Basic and intermediate short skills training courses for “under-skilled” employed or to be employed workers;

3.2 Higher number of students (expansion)3.2.1 Expand the total number of students participating in vocational skills training from the current annual (2014) output of 7,772 trainees increasing up to 27,000 annually (on an average during the strategic plan period).3.2.2 Increase the proportion of vocational skills trainees (in all three categories) who are participating in NTVQF-aligned courses.

3.3 Development of a modularised entrepreneurial business skills training course

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4. SPECIALISED TRAINING PROGRAMMES: UCEP TRAINING INSTITUTE

In the year 2014, UCEP has established the UCEP Training Institute (UTI) to serve different fee-paying clients who are seeking to upgrade and or re-train their own staff. The other objective of UTI is to develop UCEP’s own workforce capacities.

The UTI will offer a range of specialized training programmes on a fee for service basis in such areas as understanding and implementing CBT-based curricula; developing skills standards, providing training to assessors, moderators and training industry-based mentors, etc. These cours-es are intended to improve skills of individuals and organisation to manage and coordinate wider national and sector skills development system. Clients will not only include business firms but also government, industry skills councils (ISCs) and other technical schools and organisations. The Table below provides a (not exhaustive) list of potential courses.

Specialised training courses

Some of these courses (for example the Skills Assessor and Moderator training) will be developed to comply with NTVQF requirements so that the trainees are able to gain a recognised NTVQF qualification. These courses will have the flexibility to be offered at UCEP technical schools or offsite at other training venues and/or the workplace; and therefore needs to be highly mobile. The UTI will be self-funding and will not depend on funding from donors or other donations.

UCEP will seek donor support for the training of the UTI staff by recognised international agencies to ensure that it can offer these courses to the highest international standard.

Type of Training Potential clientCBT training for technical education teachers and training instructors.

Public technical schools and private NGO training providers

Training for workplace mentors (in managing students during an internship)

Industry Skills Councils and private companies

Training of industry skills assessors Industry Skills Councils and private companies; BTEB

Training of school based skills assessors Public technical schools and private NGO training providers

Carrying out RPL assessment on individual learners

Individuals, companies

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5. JOB-PLACEMENT SERVICES (WAGE/SELF-EMPLOYMENT)

The mantra of the new strategic plan is ‒ ‘help to learn skills to earn’. UCEP’s programmes’ key outcome indicators would be employment of the graduates from UCEP’s training programs which will be supported by the Employment Services team located at each Technical school. The job-placement support will consist of three key elements:

i) Career advisory services:The provision of advice and information on choosing a vocation will be upgraded and introduced at an earlier age. General education students will be exposed to making vocational career choices from as early as Grade 7 in order to enable them to make better choices when selecting training courses. The quality of the information materials on different vocations will also be improved.

ii) Job-placments services:The support provided by the current Employment Support Services will be extended so that they are able to provide a range of services atnational and regional level: career advice, job placement, management of the relationship with business and industry through the UCEP skills development committees. A key task of this function will be to provide employment and skills demand data to the training development teams for ensuring that skills training at UCEP is aligned to industry skills needs. This function will also help in finding apprenticeship placements for trainees which is expected to eventually lead to employment. An effort will be made to make these services fee-based where the employers are expected to meet part or the full cost of supplying the trainingEntrepreneurial skills training.

iii) Entrepreneurial Skills Training:A modularised entrepreneurial/business skills training course will be developed, which can be offered either to the UCEP training graduates who are interested in self-employment; and also to outside students on a fee paying basis. This service is also mentioned under the vocational skills training stream of programming as the technical schools and job-placement officials will design and conduct these coureses with very close collaborations.

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6. AWARENESS BUILDING THROUGH CHILD AND WOMAN RIGHTS ADVOCACY

UCEP already has a Child & Woman Rights Advocacy programme which will continue with the objective of increasing access to all programmes, especially technical and vocational education and training for girls/women and children/youth including those with disabilities and from ethnic minorities.

In order to increase girls/women’s participation into these programmes, UCEP will undertake various initiatives including making increased efforts to ensure that its education and training facilities are female-friendly;promoting awareness among parents and the communities about the importance of education and training for girls; and encouragingemployers to employ more women.

A greater effort will also be made to make TVET more ‘inclusive’ for children/youth with disabilities in, at least two training centers during thefirst five years and eventually to as many centers as possible. In achieving this, it will be necessary to review and make modifications in physical infrastructure, materials, assessment system, teaching support, and job-placement support. UCEP will also provide free transportation for disabled children/youth to make it easier to access the programs.By building strategic partnerships with organizations working with persons with disabilities, UCEP will try to make persons with disabiliteis aware about the availibility of its training programmes and encourage them to enroll where possible, fee-based services for persons with disabilities from solvent families will be imposed, the earnings from which might contribute to the sustainability.

Finally, UCEP will increase its effort of enabling youth from ethnic groups to access its General and Technical schools, especially in regions where there is a high concentration of ethnic communities. Where funding is available, UCEP will consider embarking on more community campaigns in the neighborhoods with a high presence of ethnic communities, arranging residential training facilities, offering outreach training services, etc.

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ORGANIZATIONAL KEY CHANGES

A number of organisational changes will happen in UCEP in order to implement the strategic plan. Corresponding with these organisational changes, there will be changes in the organogram, job descriptions, job titles, management structure, etc. Some of the key changes are described below briefly:

Upgraded Curriculum and Qualifications Development UnitDue to the need to develop more technical and vocational courses which are competency-based and can be registered on the NVQF ‒ a lengthy process which requires accreditation by an external agency (BTEB) - therewill be a need to expand the capacity of the curriculum development unit. This is also to make sure that the curriculum offered are highly demand-driven. There will also be needs for development of UCEP’s staff capacity in this regard.

Monitoring and EvaluationUCEP will transform its current Monitoring Evaluation Research department’s by upgrading its capacity to implement and manage a results-based monitoring system (RMBS) to monitor and report on the implementation of its activities for outside interested parties and to improve UCEP’s management performance. The prime purpose of the RMBS is to provide UCEP with a comprehensive tool, enabling its staff and management to achieve the best possible results with high value for money. There will be new positions at the field level for continous monitoring, shared-learning, reporting and capacity building purposes.

Decentralization: Strengthening Regional OfficesDuring the first two years of the new strategic plan period, all the functions relating to the implementation will be decentralized to the regional level of the organization while the role and functions of the Head Office will be limited to planning, supervision, evaluation providing feedback and coordinating the preparation of annual plans and budget. To make this possible, it will be necessary to deploy the use of appropriate technology and management information systems combined with adequate capacity building and policy changes for ensuring increased efficiencies, effectiveness and accountability.

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Marketing and Partnership development unitA Marketing and Partnership Development Department will be developed to serve as the fund raising and partnership development/management purpose. The fund raising will involve a large range of activities that is demonstrated in the next diagram under the sustainability section. There will be a big role of private sector employers in the sustainability effort of UCEP and thus the Job-placement team of UCEP would work as the link to explore partnership opportunities, which the Marketing and Partnership development unit will explore, formalize and manage. The linkage with the communities would be esablished through the Child and Women Rights Advocacy and a similar complementary role would be played between CWRA and the Marketing and Partnership Development deparmtent in exploring community supports.The effort to market the services of UCEP would be a role of this department along with brand compliances and donor management.

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SUSTAINABILITYAn important objective of the new strategy is to create the conditions fora more sustainable funding basis by diversifying the sources of funding. In essence, the 5-Year Plan hopes to create the conditions where the higher technical education, the intermediate skills training and the non-core specialised training service activities are ultimately financed by either the students, the private sector and/or government clients. However, this should not be interpreted to mean that UCEP will no longer require the assistance of bilateral donors, as continued funding assistance from donors will be necessary particularly to sustain and to scale-up UCEP’s activities.

The diagram below provides an indication of the potential sources of funding for UCEP’s activities. Different funding sources (donors, govern-ment, zakhat and corporate social responsibility) are highlighted in the blue boxes across the top of the diagram. The arrows from each source indicate potential end uses. For example, by following the red line, donor funds can be used to finance general education activities and basic skills training for Stream A for UCEP students (highlighted in the red circle). Student fees can pay for upper secondary education courses (green circle). Skill levy contributions from private companies supplemented by donations/grants from the government, CST and Zakhat are channelled into a UCEP Trust Fund which sponsors the Stream B (apprenticeships and internships) training activities. Alternatively companies can pay fees for Stream C trainees. A separate Resource Mobilization strategy will be developed to detail out this framework and also to plan real actions in achieving the goal of sustainability.

Funding Flow Mechanism

ZAKAT FUNDS CSR FUNDSGOVERNMENT HRD

FUNDS

UCEP TrustEndowment

FundsPolytechnic

Grade 9-10

Grade 5-8

C

DONOR FUNDS

Direct GrantFunds

Voluntary Skills Levy (Short Term)

Mandatory Skills Levy (Long Term)

Fees

Fees

NVQFTrainingA B

Apprenticeships

Student fee

Company

ProjectFunds

PARTNERSHIPS

In the course of its history, UCEP has sought to establish partnerships with many types of organisations. Indeed, to a considerable extent, these partnership relationships have been central to its success and will continue to benefit the organisation during the next phase of its development and its transition to a lead TVET provider in the country, in the future.

These partnerships include international donors such as DFID and the Netherleands government who have generously provided the funding that has made it possible for UCEP to provide its education and training services for underprivileged children. It has also included partnerships with specific donor-funded projects such as the STEP project funded by the World Bank in which UCEP has been commissioned to train skills assessors for the wider labour market. Over the next ten years, UCEP will seek to extend the number of partnership agreements with more donor-funded projects in terms ofproviding quality- driven training services for the marginalised youth seeking skilled employment across different sectors of the economy.

Another important partnership has been forged with the private sector through strengthening the already on-going Employers Forum at district-level. Through these Committees the private sector advises UCEP on its skills needs, provides feedback on the content and quality of the training curricula and in opening job opportunities for UCEP trainee graduates.

The high success rate in placing UCEP graduates in employment (more than 90% of all UCEP job seekers) can be directly credited to the strength of this important partnership. This relationship will be extended and re-organised during the next phase through the establishment of economic sector-specific committees as the number of training courses and the population of skills trainees expands. Further, UCEP looks forward to forming partnesrships with many of the new Industrial Skills Councils as they start to become operational during the course of the next few years.

The other main partnership has been forged between UCEP and government Ministries and agencies. Among these are BTEB whch is the agency that accredits UCEP’s technical education courses and the NSDC. UCEP has also worked directly with the Directorate of Women Affairs to provide skills training courses insitutions against specified government training targets. Page | 22

A key objective of this abridged version of the strategy to aware the potential partners about the endless possibilities that UCEP has in meeting their objectives e.g. better productivity, better economic growth and better socia inclusion while also serving the underprivilged communities because UCEP bridges both the demands of market for certain types of employable skills and the demands of underprivileged children and youth for a way out from socio-economic hardships.

We hope many more public and private organizations as well as individuals will come forward to join UCEP’s ‘Help to Learn Skills To Earn’ movement during the upcoming decade and meaningfully contribute in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

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UCEP AssociationProf. M. Hafizul IslamProfessor, Institute of Social Welfare & Research, University of Dhaka

Mrs. Niloufer MahmoodRetd. Teaching Administrator & ConsultantSOS Kinderdorf International in Bangladesh

Prof. M. Anwarul Haq Khan MajlisFormer Director, BANBEIS

Prof. Dr. K. M. MohsinVice Chancellor, Dhaka International UniversityFormer Member, University Grants Commission of Bangladesh

Mr. Ferdouse KhanFormer Additional Secretary, Government of Bangladesh

Col. Mujib Ur Rahman Khan (Rtd.)Managing Director, Al Kashif GroupFormer Principal, Jhenaidah andFouzderhat Cadet Colleges

Barrister Abul MansurBarrister, Supreme Court of Bangladesh

Mr. Salahuddin Kasem KhanTrustee Secretary, A. K. Khan Foundation and Managing Director A. K. Khan & Company Ltd.

Dr. Mohammed AlauddinFormer Country Representative Pathfinder International

Mr. Chaklader Mansurul Alam FCAChairman, Kapita Holdings Ltd.Former Managing Director, IPDC

Mrs. Zeba Rasheed ChowdhuryChairman, Rasheed Enterprises Ltd.

Mr. A. G. M. Shamsul KamalFormer MD, Reckitt & Colman Bangladesh Ltd.Chittagong Stock Exchange Ltd. &Central Depository Bangladesh Ltd.

Dr. Sufia AhmedNational Professor, University of Dhaka

Mr. A. Matin ChowdhuryManaging Director, New Asia Limited.

Mr. Iftekharul AlamChairman and Managing Director Omnichem Limited.

Mr. A. Q. SiddiquiFormer Chairman, Bangladesh Commerce Bank Ltd. Former Managing Director of Sonali Bank, Agrani Bank and PDBF

Mr. M. Mokammel HaqueFormer Secretary to the Government of Bangladesh Chairman, Kabi Mozammel Haque Foundation

Mrs. Husniara HuqFormer Associate Professor Dept. of English, University of Dhaka

Dr. Ubaidur Rob Country Director, Population Council,Bangladesh

Mr. Hossain Toufique ImamAdviser to the Prime Minister Govt. of the People's Republic of Bangladesh Former Cabinet Secretary to the Government of BangladeshChairman, Parthmark Associates Limited

Ms. Parveen Mahmud FCAManaging Director, Grameen Telecom Trust

Mr. Jitendra Lal BhowmikPast Governor, Lions International Managing Director, Shatarupa Group

Dr. Mehtab KhanamProfessor, Dept. of Psychology University of Dhaka.

Mr. Hafiz Ahmed MazumdarChairman, Pubali Bank Ltd., Brindaban Tea State, Rupantar Ltd., Bichitra Garments ltd.

Ms. Laila Rahman KabirManaging Director Kedarpur Tea Company Limited

Ms. Rafia ChowdhurySocial Worker Mr. Mikhail I. IslamExecutive Director, CSDC, ChittagongManaging Director, I-K Foundation

Mr. Shaikh Abdud DaiyanRetd. Managing Director, Grameen Fund Mr. Syed Shapir KhasruManaging Director,Information Solutions Limited

Ms. Luna ShamsuddohaChairman, Dohatec New Media

Ms. Shahamin Shahadat ZamanCEO, CSR Centre

Ms. Sabrina IslamDirectorConcorde Garments Limited, Dhaka.