Need of Market-based Skills Training to Create Employment Opportunities for Returnee Migrants in Madhesh Province

Abstract

A Rapid Market Appraisal (RMA) was conducted with the aim of exploring market prospects or the specific occupational skills in demand in the local markets of Madhesh Province so as to reintegrate the returnee migrant workers into the Nepalese economic system. In order to collect data for RMA, major key informants that are also the key labor market players of Madhesh Province  like returnee migrant workers (RMWs), employers of major three occupational sectors  (Construction, Agriculture and Tourism), training providers, entrepreneurs, and rural municipal representatives were identified from different seventeen municipalities of seven districts of Madhesh Province.  While interacting with 87 returnee migrant workers (RMWs- 64 as FGD and 23 as KII), it was found that around 70% of the 87 respondents did not have any specific skills learned in their respective destination countries, and the general skills acquired by them in such countries were not applicable in the context of Nepal. Based on the collected data from 204 key informants of labor market, 24 different occupations were identified as highly demanding occupations in three occupational sectors, nine were in the construction sector, eight in the agriculture sector, and six in the tourism sector.  It was also found that the province, having the largest area of cultivated land in Nepal, is very potential for employing a bigger number of youths and returnees in the agriculture sector. However, it was felt necessary to make the agriculture sector truly attractive in terms of technology, financial access like floating subsidized loans and value addition. Regarding the access to the training and employment service providers (T&Es), there is sufficient access of training but maintaining the quality of training is a challenging issue, for which a mechanism has been suggested.