Azerbaijan Vocational Training Programme

CARD’s Azerbaijan Vocational Training Programme, has been developed to meet some of the many needs we have come across while working in orphanages and amongst vulnerable people in Azerbaijan. We are particularly committed to the process of deinstitutionalization and supporting vulnerable people to become integrated in main-stream society with every opportunity to lead full lives.

CARD’s Vocational Training Programme centres around a house renovated for vocational training in the city of Genja, Azerbaijan. Children and young adults between the ages of 14 and 20 are supported and trained in a number of practical skills, including computing, carpentry, spoken English, mechanics and traditional carpet making.

All the students come from disadvantaged backgrounds including, Internally Displaced People as a result of the Negorno Karabah conflict, refugees, children with disabilities, orphans, and those from very poor families. Many of these children have been unable to attend school or have left at an early age. This means they are very unlikely to be employed and have a chance to break out of the poverty cycle.

We currently have 85 students and plan to increase to more than 100 students attending our courses at the vocational centre, giving them training opportunities and advice on future studies. For those children who have the opportunity to continue their local school education we run classes after school and provide study areas and support to enable them to do well at school. For many of our students this is the first opportunity to receive some sort of education.

In the near future we hope to offer courses in baking, mechanics, hairdressing and restaurant service.
Further training opportunities include business principles and job placements. We aim to work with businesses to offer students attending our courses scholarships, apprenticeships and work experience.

Emin left school when he was 14. His grandmother wanted to send him to school earlier but she couldn’t afford to because she had lost her home and his parents had died during the Negoro Karabah conflict, so when he was at school he was very behind. Eventually he left school. We met Emin when he was 16, He had not been able to work as there were so few jobs. We visited the temporary accommodation Emin and his grandmother live in and suggested he attend the training centre. Emin wanted to enrol in computer classes, and we said he could on condition he also studied carpentry. He was soon excelling in both areas. Within a few months Emin began a project in our carpentry classes making building blocks for a local nursery. This was very enjoyable for him, He visited the nursery class with us and helped to hand out the blocks to the young children. It was very exciting to watch Emin working with the children and seeing the benefit of his carpentry class work. Emin is now moving on to the third level course in carpenty and has developed his computer and English skills extremely well. He hopes to gain an apprenticeship and become a carpenter in the future.

Another part of the Azerbaijan Vocational Training Programme is a purpose built computer centre in the Genja Children’s home, encouraging the young vulnerable children in this institution by providing focused computer training and skills. We hope that graduates of this programme will attend the Vocational Training Centre and have full access to the wide range of Vocational training on offer.

Our Azerbaijan Vocational Training Programme also seeks to enable other groups to run similar projects around Azerbaijan. We offer training and support for another vocational training centre in a second region of Azerbaijan and support the work of other groups providing vocational training for children in orphanages in Baku.

"Coming from my background used to mean that you remained the most insignificant and forgotten people. Now I want to be the most significant part of my country’s future."