5 reasons you should consider an apprenticeship

Posted on 16 September 2014 by ILO Blog

Michael Axmann, Senior Expert in Skills Development Systems at ILO

“You will get the right skills with an apprenticeship!”

Those were my mother’s words when, at the age of 18, I came home with a two-year contract in my pocket for an apprenticeship at a local bank. I’d decided not to go to college right away, because I wanted to get some work experience and start earning some money. Even though I eventually did get my university degree, I still look back on that decision as one of the best career moves I ever made.

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How I went from child labour to a prestigious academy

Posted on 18 August 2014 by ILO Blog

Emmanuel Amon, 18, was removed from child labour with help from ILO’s Country Programme in Malawi. He recently completed his studies at one of Malawi’s most prestigious schools.

A tobacco plantation isn’t a safe or healthy place to work for a child, but it was the only way my family could survive. My parents are poor farmers and barely able to support a family of eight on MK20,000. This is about US$ 50 per year. I had nothing. My parents are tobacco tenants and we all had to work together as a family. I’ve been working in tobacco since I was five. Attending school was never an option for me.

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The triple whammy for indigenous women in Dhaka

Posted on 6 August 2014 by ILO Blog

Lina Jesmin Lushai – ILO National Project Officer in Bangladesh

I am one of many indigenous women living and working in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh where thousands struggle to make a living in the beauty, garment and domestic work industries. Most are poor, with little education and lack access to basic healthcare and social protection. In fact, indigenous peoples around the world share these injustices.

But my story is different. I’m 32 years old and I’m from the Lushai community in the Chittagong Hill Tracts. In 2010 I left my family and headed for Dhaka on my own to work as an intern for the International Labour Organization.

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