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Case Study
Students credit curriculum with opening up new opportunities
Agribusiness Training Gives Students a Head Start
Photo:Land O'Lakes for USAID Timor-Leste
Gregorio Colo from Oecusse District
learns practical skills through USAID's
new agribusiness curriculum.
Seventy percent of
the program’s
graduates have
either found jobs or
are continuing their
education
Almost all of Timor-Leste's rural population depends on
agriculture. For the country’s large youth population, the sector
represents great opportunity. Although agricultural technical
schools are not a new industry in Timor-Leste, developing the
specific business training within these schools for budding
entrepreneurs is a new and exciting facet.
To meet the need and ensure a program that proved inspiring,
USAID brought in Land O'Lakes to design, develop, and
implement the one-year vocational training curriculum. This
innovative program has trained and graduated nearly 300
students since its inception in 2008.
“After a student graduated from the agriculture schools before,
they didn’t have enough skills to implement their knowledge in
the field. That’s why the agribusiness program is very useful.
[Students] have one more year to get specialized skills and
practical training,” says Ipolito da Costa, the national director for
technical education and training at the Ministry of Agriculture.
Seventy percent of the program’s graduates have either found
jobs or are continuing their education. While many have chosen
to pursue their own business, others work at local nongovernmental
organizations, or for the government. All are
giving back to their communities in greater capacities than
could have been possible before entering the program.
Mario Soares created his own job after he graduated from the
program in 2010. The 23-year-old co-founded a company called
Hagulos, a farm production group that grows and sells
vegetables in western Timor-Leste.
“With my business, we earn money every day. We don’t wait
until the end of the month for a salary, and I don’t have to do
only what the boss tells me to,” says Soares. The skills he has
learned through the agribusiness program have been vital to his
success as an entrepreneur.
As USAID's project comes to an end, the Ministry of Agriculture
is taking charge of the curriculum and its components at all
three of its technical schools. The continuation of the project by
the government is a testament to its success and sustainability.
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