A total of 36 women who completed training courses, from October 2020 to February 2021, in hairdressing, beauty care, and floral arrangement under the Back to Work (BTW) programme received, today, certificates, in Port Louis. The Minister of Labour, Human Resource Development and Training, Mr Soodesh Satcam Callichurn, was present.
In his address, Minister Callichurn recalled that the BTW programme was introduced by the Ministry of Labour, Human Resource Development and Training in 2015 for unemployed women aged 35 yrs and above who wish to join or rejoin the labour market. The objective, he stated, is to design training courses for unemployed women so as to improve their entrepreneurial and communication skills.
He indicated that since the launching of the programme in 2015, some 1,300 women have been able to find employment or have set up their own enterprise. Moreover, from June 2015 to March 2022, 1,328 out of 4,414 eligible registered women have been placed in private enterprises and 53% of the women placed got permanent employment after their one-year placement, he underlined.
He added that the programme is evolving based on the market needs and new courses are therefore being devised jointly with the Ministry and the Mauritius Institute of Training and Development such as beauty care, hairdressing, pastry, floral decorations, as well as Early Childhood, and Care of the Elderly and Disabled Persons. Since July 2021, 134 women have been trained to work in different fields, he said.
Minister Callichurn highlighted that new measures were brought during this financial year whereby the age criteria has been revised from 35 to 30 yrs and the monthly stipend allocated to women placed under the BTW Programme has been increased from Rs 5,000 to Rs 10,575. He indicated that since the launching of the BTW programme in June 2015, a total of 682 women have so far completed training in the various training courses.