At the professional skills training centre in Hyderabad, which is run by a local partner organisation in cooperation with Usthi, there is a new training program. The implementation of the course responds to the demand for health professionals, which has increased since the Covid19 pandemic. In addition to trainings as Health Workers and Medical Lab Technicians, young people now also have the possibility to become Pharmacy Assistants.
Hyderabad in the state of Telangana is one of India’s most populous metropolitan regions, with around 8 million inhabitants. Despite the economic upswing, problems such as poverty, unemployment and lack of education persist. Social factors such as discrimination on the basis of social status prevent single women and young people without a completed education from entering the formal labour market. In the informal labour market, they run the risk of entering into inhumane and harmful employment. Crises such as the Covid19 pandemic often lead to women losing their husbands and thus their source of income. Access to education is therefore crucial to securing financial independence.
In 2008, Usthi and a local partner organisation launched a project that provides professional skills training to youth and young adults who have not completed school. The professional skills training centre in Hyderabad is aimed primarily at young women as a particularly marginalised population group. The courses provided and their content are strongly oriented to and responsive to the labour market. Thus, all participants in the existing professional skills training courses have found employment after graduation. The content of all the courses meets and even exceeds the requirements of the Telangana government, so that graduates are optimally prepared for their everyday working lives.
After initial difficulties in finding tutors, there is now a new medical course in the professional skills training program and thus 17 educational courses available to young people. In the new course, participants are trained as Pharmacy Assistants. They learn the basics of medicine and pharmacy and are trained to manage a pharmacy. Soon, the participants will also be able to gain their first practical experience. The product selection of the general store on the campus in Hyderabad is thus supplemented with medicines and the course participants can apply their acquired knowledge under supervision.
The first participants are already enrolled and Usthi’s local partner is looking forward to further registrations. After completing the course in six months, the participants will have the prospect of employment in local or state hospitals and in neighbourhood pharmacy stores. As Hyderabad is considered the center of pharmaceutical industry in India, Usthi hopes that the new Pharmacy Assistants will find a quick entry into their professional lives.
