| |
Background
With the fast development of our economy, China is undergoing a process of surplus workers moving from rural area to cities and towns. Now more than 100 million workers have joined in the movement, who did not only make great contributions to China's industrialization and urban development, but are also seeking for new living styles and better living conditions. However, as migrant workers, they are confronted with unstable job and low income and have to move among cities. Therefore together with their parents, 'migrant children' have to face many problems, among which difficulty in education is the most urgent.
Dandelion School is a non-profit middle school specially established for migrant children. It was founded in 2005 with the help of charity organizations and people. Even since its opening, the school have admitted more than 600 migrant children and had its first graduations in the summer of 2007. Some graduated have been admitted by senior middle school while the others, who are lack of professional skills, are confronted with 'no school or jobs'. Therefore, it is also very important to offer vocational trainings to these children. Since Dandelion School is the only middle school in Beijing serving migrant children, the problem becomes ever more important to us.
That's why the project 'From School to Work' came into being.
Goals
Our goals are: to help the migrant children to be healthy people with both life and vocational skills and to set up a powerful and sustainable system supported by the society.
Objectives
Two objectives:
① complete the life and vocational training for 300 migrant children within two years and realize the recruitment for trained children after some period of internship, or make the further training opportunities more reachable.
② Better inform the government, training departments, employers and the society of the meaning and goal of the project, thus establish a good and efficient working network with them.
Project Methods
To realize the goals, we need：
①necessary baseline evaluation at the very beginning;
②setup a consultant team to participate in the project;
③pre-training before the employment;
④contact with donators and volunteers;
⑤ monitor and evaluate the project.
Project Progress
The project was launched on September 1, 2007 and admitted 46 students, 36 of whom entered the Dandelion Class in Haidian Electronics Vocational and the rest of whom were trained in Dandelion school. The vocational training class in Dandelion offer both academic and life skills classes, including English, computer science, Chinese Studies, practical writing, career designing, wealth management, communication, basic knowledge on laws, physical health, mental health, social practice and P.E. ,and will end in Jan 2008.
Partners
Mercy Corps is an international non-profit organization who dedicated to reconstructing the life confidence for disadvantaged people. One of its tasks is to offer life skill and vocational trainings to disadvantaged people, from which it hopes to draw some useful experience and set up a sustainable executive mechanism in China.
World Education offers teachers with new life skill trainings and advanced training methodology, thus to improve the students' education on life skills.
China Women Development Foundation is an independent national non-profit organization established with the approval by People's Bank of China and registered in Ministry of Civil Affairs. It has launched the project of 'All for Migrant Mothers ', promoted the vocational training to migrant children and established 'Dandelion Career Education Foundation 'to raise funds for the Dandelion School.
Mr Bai Mansheng, a professor in School of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development, Renmin University, is much concerned about the education for migrant children and has worked with Dandelion for quite a long time by offering information and data to the school's technical training based on his research.
Division of Rural Training & Employment in Department of Training & Employment of the Ministry of Labor and Social Security guilds the employment of our migrant children by offers information in the labor market.
Beijing Haidian Foreign Language and Electronics Vocational School also offers vocational training for our migrant children.
|
|
