Influencing policy (training slides from Fast Track Impact)
Amal academy: Year 1 Lessons Learned
1.
2.
3.
4. “we have a lot of ideas
in our head, but we
don’t know how to talk
about them and so we
don’t get job offers.”
5. “Life is going a bit tough… It’s been a year that
my mother passed away and since then I am
fighting with depression and loneliness… Your
lecture boosted me a lot to see things in a
positive way and try not to stick to negative
things. Instead of sticking negative things I try
to add some positive meanings to the incidents
of life. I remember your examples, that was the
most motivating factor for me.”
6.
7. “The session was superb and
I definitely got the most
from the videos, but it would
be good to show more
Pakistanis”.
8. During
our
ini*al
research,
we
believed
that
there
was
tremendous
opportunity
for
us
to
provide
so;
skills
training
for
students
in
technical/voca*onal
training
programs.
Throughout
the
country,
there
are
hundreds
of
hard
skills
training
centers,
however,
less
than
10%
of
them
are
teaching
so;
skills.
Employers
have
iden*fied
this
as
a
major
gap
and
the
government
is
now
planning
to
invest
heavily
in
this
type
of
training.
Addi*onally,
the
opportunity
to
make
an
impact
here
is
significant,
given
that
nearly
80%
of
these
students
dropped
out
of
school
and
earn
less
than
20,000
PKR
a
month.
Given
the
significance
of
this
opportunity,
Amal
ran
a
one-‐month
(40
hour)
pilot
with
a
small
group
of
students
at
Descon
Training
Ins*tute,
in
order
to
determine
if
we
can
enhance
their
so;
skills.
Unfortunately,
we
discovered
that
weren’t
able
to
achieve
the
type
of
impact
that
we
wanted,
primarily
for
the
following
reasons:
As
a
result,
we
realized
that
we
need
to
focus
on
industries
and
student
popula*ons
where
we
can
make
the
most
difference,
and
then
eventually
incorporate
those
lessons
and
successes
in
order
to
reach
more
marginalized
communi*es,
such
as
voca*onal
students.
-‐ Language
barrier:
we
needed
to
transliterate
the
majority
of
our
content
into
Urdu
and
Punjabi,
and
some
of
the
impact
was
diminished
as
a
result
-‐ Industry
knowledge:
given
that
we
don’t
have
experience
recrui*ng
for
technical/voca*onal
skills,
it
has
been
difficult
finding
jobs
for
our
students
-‐ Timing:
Due
to
*ming
constraints,
Descon
wanted
to
complete
the
program
in
40
hours;
given
that
only
20%
of
our
students
studied
beyond
8th
grade,
however,
we
believed
this
was
not
adequate
*me
to
move
the
needle.
9.
10. Try to love and
live the questions now.
Perhaps then you will
gradually, without even
noticing it, live your
way into the answers.
- RM Rilke -
