Addis Ababa- As childcare services are in high demand in Ethiopia’s capital of Addis Ababa, 120 female migrant returnees and potential migrants graduated from a childcare training programme funded by the EU-IOM Joint Initiative and Eshururu Training Centre on September 28, 2022. 

Accredited by the Educational and Training Quality Control Authority of Ethiopia, the training included both theoretical and hands on apprenticeship. It also covered core concepts needed for childcare professionals including first aid, parent and child psychology and development as well as auxiliary training in entrepreneurship, bank savings, life skills, communications, community policing and career development.

Although many irregular migrants work in childcare during their time abroad, their experience alone is not enough to compete in the Ethiopian formal job market. This training and certification from the government qualifies the group for employment opportunities. As part of the support they receive, the trainees will now be assisted with job placement in the market

One of the graduates is Bruktawit Fekadu. She had spent four years abroad as an irregular migrant working in cleaning and childcare. Like many irregular migrants, her need to migrate was for better employment opportunity. “I went to make money and support my family,” Bruktawit said. She spent three years abroad with little success and her work was undignified. “I was mistreated by my employers. I went through instances of psychological abuse.” After returning from the UAE, she went again to work in Lebanon, where she faced similar challenges and returned in a year. She had been planning to try her luck again in a different country before finding the training programme. “The training and the certification will help me find work easier,” Bruktawit said.

The training was offered at Addis Ababa’s Eshururu Training Centre (ETC), a private firm that has run similar courses since 2013. ETC also covered the cost for training 20 of the participants. ETC has trained 4,100 nannies in the past 9 years and has secured employment for close to 90 percent of its trainees.

The trainees also received additional life skills and entrepreneurship training from First Consult, a private economic development consulting firm. Furthermore, five of the trainees with psychosocial needs received continues counseling support from Lebeza Psychiatry Consultation company. Finally, as part of the job placement, the trainees were enrolled onto GoodayOn, an online platform that connects gig workers to employers.

Collaboration with private sector actors such as ETC, First Consult, Lebeza Pyschiatry Consultation, and GoodayOn is expected to improve the EU-IOM Joint Initiative’s work in reintegrating vulnerable returnees.

“We can leverage the private sector knowledge, platform and experience in the market to ensure returnees and communities we serve can create sustainable sources of wealth for themselves,” said Sara Basha, programme coordinator of the EU-IOM Joint Initiative in Ethiopia.

About the EU-IOM Joint Initiative  

Launched in December 2016 with the support of the European Union Emergency Trust Fund for Africa (EUTF), the programme brings together 26 African countries of the Sahel and Lake Chad region, the Horn of Africa, and North Africa, along with the European Union and the International Organization for Migration, around the goal of ensuring that migration is safer, more informed and better governed for both migrants and their communities. 

For More information, please contact Helina Mengistu, email: hmengistu@iom.int or Adam Sahilu, email: asahilu@iom.int