September 2015—When 21-year-old Mokhtar Muhibi of Kabul began work as an unskilled plumber in 2010, the married father of two was scraping by on about $200 a month. He needed to improve his skills to support his family, which includes a younger brother still in school as well as his unemployed mother and father.

Muhibi’s life took a turn for the better when he learned how to read construction blueprints to map out pipelines thanks to a vocational training program funded by USAID. The short-term, competency-based training was conducted by the Afghan Mobile Reconstruction Association in April 2015.

“The beauty of the training was that I could immediately apply the acquired skills in our daily services,” said Muhibi. “I will never forget the first day when I applied my new skills.”

A customer came to Muhibi’s workplace at Oray Plumbing Co. to hire a qualified plumber to repair a bathroom leak in his home. “When I got there, the customer was worrying about the destruction of his bathroom floor and tiles to find the leakage point,” said Muhibi. “I asked the customer if he has his house plumbing plans and drawings. He asked ‘Are you an engineer or a plumber?’ I confidently replied, ‘I am a professional plumber.’”

After reviewing the customer’s floor plans, Muhibi easily pointed out the bathroom’s leak and repaired it very quickly. “The customer appreciated my professionalism and work ethic and paid me twice the wage agreed,” said Muhibi. “It was really a different day, not that I received more wages, but I had a sense of inner happiness that I was lucky to receive the training. And I could see from the expression of my client how satisfied and happy he was.”

USAID, through its Afghanistan Workforce Development Program, supports technical and vocational training providers to boost the skills of Afghans like Muhibi. The program also helps participants find jobs, and has led to promotions and other benefits for those already employed.

In Muhibi’s case, not only did his employer raise his monthly salary by 50 percent, he also now gets a percentage of the larger contracts he sells as part of a commission. 

USAID’s Afghanistan Workforce Development Program, which runs from April 2012 to April 2016, addresses the challenges of high unemployment caused by the limited number of Afghans who possess technical and business-management skills at the mid-career/semi-professional level. To address market demand for these skills, the program has trained about 22,000 Afghans, and has placed and promoted—with salary increases—over 13,000 skilled workers. Of those trained, placed and promoted, 36 percent are women.

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