My Experiences in Afghanistan-Part 1

Skill development lessons from Afghanistan…Surprised!!!

Yes. Afghanistan.

I will take you through a journey in a series of articles covering one of the best skill development projects ever I have been through. Since the purpose is to share the lessons, I will use the names of the organisations and people involved restrictively. It certainly was a show of detailed coordination between the Governments and various organisations and leadership, courage, innovation and never say die attitude of the team members at all levels.

As of now I roll back to the year 2005.

The then President of Islamic Republic of Afghanistan along with his Cabinet Ministers came to India for a series of meetings in Feb 2005. The meetings besides the Govt of India were also facilitated by the Indian High Commission at Kabul. One of the apex Industry Associations was entrusted the task of making a presentation to the Afghan President and his team of Ministers on skilling the human resource for re-construction of the war-torn country. The presentation was sharp and effective. The hesitation was that the concept of focused short term training had not been tried and tested. But the industry team was confident and hence committed to train 25 trainees from Afghanistan in India at own cost for a duration of 150 hrs, equip them with necessary skills and launch them back in Afghanistan, carry out an impact assessment after 3 months and report back. The promise from the Afghan side was that if the test project was successful, permission to open the India Skill Centre in Kabul will be accorded. 

The challenge was accepted.

In the second week of March 2005, a team to two people, fortunately I was one of the two, set off to Kabul. The aim was to short list 50 potential trainees, 25 in first list and balance 25 as reserve. Both of us were very clear of the task in hand and the shortlisting process. We were looking at only three things viz comprehension, hand, and mind coordination and of course a valid passport.

The touch down at Kabul airport was an experience in itself. The site of destroyed helicopters and planes along the runway narrated what the country had gone through. The Indian High Commission staff escorted us from the airport straight to the High Commission and then to the Dy Labour Minister of Govt of Afghanistan, who gave us a traditional cup of black tea along with sweetened almonds and defined our time lines by asking for the detailed reports on the selection of potential trainees by 2 pm the next day.

Next day early morning, we were in front of an eager crowd of over 200 aspirants at the local employment exchange. We had about 6 hours to complete and close the selection process, hence looking at the gathering of aspirants, took a few quick on the spot decisions. First, all without a valid passport were requested to identify themselves, second, all below the age of 18 years were requested to step forward, and third, the women aspirants were requested to sit in a separate group since we were not completely sure of the local culture and our selection team did not have a women. The responsibility of correctly communicating to these three groups was left to the three officials of the Ministry of Labour, Govt of Afghanistan, who were present as observers to oversee the selection process.

After the first round of elimination, approx. 100 + aspirants were left, which appeared to be a manageable within the time frame available.

The comprehension test and part of the hand mind coordination was done directly on the set of power tools which we had carried with from India, with support from a leading manufacturer of power tools and Ministry of External Affairs. The other tests for hand and mind coordination were a set of time bound exercises to match different shapes and sizes using both hands simultaneously.

The selection of the first 25 and the reserve 25 was almost done by mid-day, when the lunch was announced by the Ministry of Labour officials. Since our aim was to close the selection process report and report back to the Dy Minister of Labour by 2 pm as directed, hence we requested to wait for some time. “The Minister can wait the lunch will not” .. was the clear and precise response from the officials. We had no choice.

The 2 pm meeting with the Minister was very encouraging. The selection process was appreciated. The timelines for dispatching the 25 potential trainees to India were confirmed for 1^st week of May 2005. The youngest in the list was 18 the eldest was 42 years old with education levels ranging from class 10 to no schooling history.  The meeting ended with a customary cup of black tea with sweetened almonds.

A job well done. We retired to our hotel rooms with a sense of satisfaction.

The important lessons learnt for the beginning of this skills development project: (a) A clear and honest sense of purpose and conviction (b) concise listing of achievable competencies aligned to the potential work place (c) Identification of skill needs of the potential target audience (d) seamless coordination between organisations at different levels (e) project ownership – each organisation believed that they owned the project (f) clear and precise selection criteria and process aligned to the potentially achievable competencies irrespective of the educational background. (g) respect the culture and way of life of the locals (h) like any other project, strict adherence to the agreed time schedule.

The next story (Skill Development: Lessons from Afghanistan (2) in the series will focus of the training of these 25 trainees in New Delhi and their launch in Kabul.