August 14, 2019
Unica Foundation, along with the Panchakanya training institute (PTI), has started basic training for plumbing in Pokhara in February this year. Twenty people were selected out of many applicants and they all completed the practical as well as the theoretical sessions. Their skills were also tested by the Council for Technical Education and Vocational Training (CTEVT), the national autonomous apex body of the Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) sector. Whilst waiting for the result, most of the participants already started a job or took a business opportunity available in the local market of the Pokhara valley.
Unica Foundation met some of them at their work stations and spoke about their experiences, the training as well as their current job in July 2019. Earlier, the Unica Foundation spoke with the officials of PTI, informing whether all boys are still working in plumbing after the training. Some of them have started working on construction sites, some have gone abroad, mostly in the Gulf countries and Malaysia, and some have started a business such as a hardware shop with available plumbing services.
As the Unica Foundation met four of the participants, they shared their stories. All of them seemed happy with the training, it allowed them to start working and earning money. They explained that since they have just started working, they feel that whatever is achieved counts as a success. They hadn’t yet been confronted with challenges so far.
Here are the summaries of the conversation with four trainees:
Amrit Gurung, 28/m, one of the students of PTI, is now working at a restaurant construction site. He started working three and a half weeks ago whilst completing the training. Because of his performance during the training, the trainer who does business at different construction sites gave Amrit an opportunity. He worked without payment as an employee until he had finished his training. Amrit feels that he got to learn a lot by doing on-site work. He said: “I got to work before completing the training. I have learned more in the construction site than I have learned in the training, which is why I don’t mind not being paid. Instead I am grateful to the trainer for providing me with this opportunity.” After his training finishes, he was sent to Dhampus, the countryside of Pokhara, to start working with the senior plumbers, and he now gets paid 1,000 rupees per day. After 3-4 consecutive assignments in different places, he is now working as a full-time junior plumber with the team, and performing quite well. His family is also happy seeing him working at an early age and supporting the family financially.
Amrit is quite satisfied with the work and is confident to perform joining the siphon to the commode, pipeline, water tap, basin, etcetera. He was happy to show us around his work during the visit. Regarding the future plans, he said: “I want to stay in Nepal and progress in my career as a plumber. We have a good scope of work in Nepal, and I want to become successful in this business by developing skills through more work, experiences and advanced training, such as advanced level of plumbing training.”
Keshav Gurung, 38/m, is married and has a wife and a son of 7 years old. He now works on a house that is being built. We found Keshav whilst fitting the pipeline at the site during the visit. In the beginning, he got work from his teacher, but now he has started working independently. He seems very happy to work on the site as a plumber. His relatives used to think this is an odd job with no social status, but Keshav argues differently. He likes to be with his family in Nepal, and plumbing provides him with enough money to feed his family. “My wife is now happy to see me earn money!” He continues: “I want to continue to work as a plumber and if possible I want to follow a level 2 training to advance my skills to become a high-level plumber.” The house owner also said he is very satisfied with the work of Keshav.
Surya Pandey, 30/m is an entrepreneur. He had a small hardware store before joining the PTI plumbing course. He realized the need for plumbing skills to run the hardware business in order to be able to offer the customer the complete service package. The customer is more inclined to buy the sanitary stuff in the store if the plumbing service is also available right there. After the training, Surya expanded his stores and increased the amount of items in the store. The store was still expanding while we visited the place. He gladly shared his story, saying: “Now that I have started visiting the customer’s home offering the plumbing services, the number of customers have hugely increased.” Surya hopes that after the expansion of the stores, the business will increase even further. He is happy with the training that allowed him to support his business. He said: “I am happy that I can expand my business because of the training of plumbing skills.”
Sulav Bahadur Rana, 19/m, works in a four-stage building that was under construction. After the training he started working as an assistant on a few construction sites with seniors. He still works as an assistant, but with more confidence than before and now receives NPR 600 per day as wage. He explained: “I am getting experience and I am happy with the work. The small amount of money that I now receive, is enough because I believe that this amount is sufficient for the work that I have done as a beginner.” He further added “as I get more work experience I will become more competent and I will be able to go abroad as a plumber and earn a higher salary.” His family is happy that he learned skills before he went abroad, which means he will receive solid money in the future.
