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11th TVET and Employment Round Table was held by Department of Labor and Social Affairs of Herat Province in Women Empowerment and Social Association (WESA) Conference Room in Herat province. This roundtable meeting was held under the title of “Starting and Improving Business and Introducing Entrepreneurship Training Packages”.
Mr. Abdul Qayyum Afghan, Head of Herat Department of Labor and Social Affairs (DoLSA), Mr. Abdul Satar Zarifi, Head of Labor unit of DoLSA, representatives of Herat Chamber of Commerce, National craftsmen Union, Women Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Herat Council of Experts, Herat Chamber of Industries and Mines, Herat Agriculture Institute, Technical Education Department, Kahkeshane Sharq institute of Higher Education, Parand Company, Roshan Company, and representatives of organizations: Global Partners (GP), PTRO, Mercy Corps, Municipal Solidarity Program, CRDSA , DACAAR, WESSDO, Help, OSAA and World Food Program (WFP) participated in this roundtable meeting.
At the beginning, Mr. Afghan, Head of Herat Department of Labor and Social Affairs, welcomed the presence of all participants and introduced the program. He also talked about entrepreneurship and starting and improving of businesses training program that was held in Kabul. He mentioned that two participants were sent by Department of Labor and Social Affairs to Kabul to attend in the above- mentioned training for 49 days.

The Entrepreneurship Training Program was organized by Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs with support and cooperation of International Labor Organization (ILO) under the name of “SIYB workshops” for training of Entrepreneurship trainers. So 11th TVET and Employment Round Table meeting in Herat was organized to share the lessons learnt from this 49-day training on entrepreneurship with the participants.

In this roundtable meeting, Mr. Toryalai Afzali with Ms. Firoozeh Vahedi who had completed entrepreneurship training program in Kabul, presented a presentation about “Starting and Improving Your Business, SIYB” to participants of roundtable meeting.

At the beginning, Mr. Afzali, a potential SIYB trainer, began to talk about entrepreneurship and described entrepreneurship, entrepreneur and the goals and role of entrepreneurship. Then Ms. Firoozeh Vahidi introduced the training packages of the program. She introduced the Entrepreneurship Program as a solution to the unemployment of graduates and the youth through needed training to find or create job opportunities in free-market economy. She also noted that Afghanistan government and Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs are working to boost entrepreneurship program in the country.

After the presentation, Mr. Afghan appreciated the good topics offered in the presentation and said “Department of Labor and Social Affairs will support the SIYB program and cooperate with organizations working in this field.”

In the following, a free discussion started and participants raised some questions about the starting and improving of businesses. The participants raised issues and questions about the process and ways of benefiting from SIYB program, the cost and time required to offer these training packages to TVET graduates and professionals, solution to the lack of capital to start businesses etc. Presenters, DoLSA officials and moderators answered the questions and provided information to the participants.

At the end of roundtable meeting, Mr. Abdul Sattar Zarifi, the head of Labor unit of DoLSA, concluded the topics of the meeting and said “organizations and institutions can hold these training programs to their projects’ beneficiaries with the support and cooperation of Department of Labor and Social Affairs and the two trainers in order to make progress in the businesses and entrepreneurship fields.”

The ceremony was ended with a prayer