New Education Coordinator – Aaron Pied
After a long process, a lot of thinking and having to choose from a great many amazing candidates Youth Connect has hired a new education coordinator who has just joined the team. His name is Aaron Pied and he brings a great amount of experience in education with him. Look here for a soon to be added profile on Aaron.
I want to say a big thank you to all those who applied for the position and know that this was not an easy choice to make. Best wishes to you all in the future and we would love to hear about what you are up to in 2010.
Motorbike Training: January 16 – 23
We have continued offering short technical skills trainings for students we work with. Starting on Jan 16 and going to Jan 23 a very talented mechanic, carpenter, plumber etc., Jose, will be conducting an introduction to motorbike operations and repair at the Youth Connect office. We are able to offer this first training to a small group of 5 students. These students were selected because they have expressed interest in working as mechanics in the future. The training will be a short certificate course that students will be able to use when applying for apprenticeships in the future.
Furniture Raffle Winner!!
The very lucky winner of the Youth Connect armoire was our dear friend Ann from Help Without Frontiers. So sorry to all of you who played but did not win, and congratulations to Ann! (Pictures are on Pi Ahe’s camera and will be uploaded shortly.)
There was a great turnout on Friday for the drawing of the furniture raffle. All 1,000 tickets were sold, so thanks to the excellent work done by the Youth Connect staff and friends, especially Mr. Timothy Syrota and Mr. Omar Vazquezcarreto. The raffle earned over 16,000 baht. Of this 8,000 was donated to the students and the staff at STTC to use for updating equipment and the rest of the money has gone into purchasing (and paying back) materials that were used in the project. So a big thanks to everyone who took part.
Career Center Opening Ceremony
On November 6 Youth Connect officially opened services for the career center. This is located in the Youth Connect Mae Sot office and is staffed by by our three employment staff, who you can learn more about here and here.
The ceremony was attended by local employers who worked with us on the apprenticeship placements, our Youth Connect apprentices, school directors of the 6 local high schools Youth Connect works with as well as Sky TV, who filmed the ceremony as well as one of our trainings at BHSOH. This was then shown on television the following Saturday night in Mae Sot.
During the opening ceremony we were also able to announce that for the first year’s apprentices all of them have found full time work. This is the result of all the hard work done by the apprentices as well as the Youth Connect Employment Staff. So to everyone involved, congratulations.
Please follow this link for the opening ceremony to see some more pictures.
Youth Connect’s Furniture Project with STTC
During November, Youth Connect also began a pilot project in furniture making with the staff and students at STTC. We were lucky enough to have a very talented and dedicated carpenter, Omar Vazquezcarreto lend his time and talent to making this happen. The pieces are now finished (final photos coming very soon) and the first piece will be open to a raffle. We are very excited about the future of this project and the opening of the Youth Connect furniture showroom at the beginning of the next year.
Here are some pictures of the work in action. Enjoy!
Youth Connect has now begun its second year of work
Starting on October 20, 2009, Youth Connect began its second year of operations. This year brings many new ideas and opportunities for the future. The main components of our project, training and apprenticeships, will be expanded to reach a greater number of young adults. This year as well will see the beginnings of Youth Connect social enterprises. Here we are looking at developing developmentally friendly for profit businesses that will create more opportunities for decent work, act as a training center for apprenticeship candidates and use profits to expand opportunities for the young adults we work with.
This year we are very happy to announce that we will be able to expand our activities to reach more schools, more students and more employers in Mae Sot. For 2009-10 we are working with 6 high schools in the area. At the end of the school year we will be supporting 30 graduates with paid apprenticeships in local businesses. For all of the students we work with, whether tey will go into the apprenticeship of not, we are happy to announce that on the first week of November Youth Connect will open its career center, taking graduates from our program as clients and working with them one-on-one to find the best job opportunities for each client.
In order to provide these expanded services we have taken on some new staff members, as well as moved into a new office right in the center of Mae Sot. For pictures and bios of all the staff members please click here and for pictures and a map to the new office please click here.
As always we are happy to hear from you and if anyone is interested in visiting our project or learning more about what we do and the young people we work with, we welcome any calls or visits.
Currently our first group of apprentices is just about to finish their 3 month placements. Below you can see three apprentices who worked in the Centara Hotel, the Mae Sot General Hospital and Jesawat motorbike repair. Out of the 19 apprentices we placed 17 have successfully finished their apprenticeships. Many of these students have already found or been offered opportunities after the apprenticeship. Those who are looking for work will the the first clients of the Youth Connect Career Center.
Working reception at the Centara Hotel, Hay Mahm on the left side.
Assistant Chef at Centara Hotel, Kyaw Soe Naing on the right.
Kyaw Soe Naing taking a relax.
5 apprentices at the Centara Hotel in Mae Sot, Kyaw Soe Naing, Trinity, Hay Mahm, John Khai and Sam Lin Htwe.
Di Di (second from the left) and Htain Lin (on the right) working at Boy Auto Mae Sot.
DiDi at work at Boy Auto Mae Sot.
Kaung Myat working as a translator at the Mae Sot General Hospital
Saw Du working in motorbike repair at Jesawat Autobike.
Here’s our first group of Youth Connect apprentices from 2009.
Youth Connect is a project currently fully funded by Child’s Dream Foundation in Chiang Mai, Thailand.
