KONAR PROVINCE, Afghanistan (July 4, 2008) – The Konar Construction Center graduated its first class during a recent ceremony in Shaikal Shate District, near Asadabad, Afghanistan. 

The graduates were awarded certificates as a skilled craftsman in their chosen field of study: masonry, carpentry, plumbing, or electrical.  Also upon graduating, the students became members of the local apprenticeship council and builders association, where they can progress from apprentice to journeyman.

The KCC’s three-month-long courses are free to accepted applicants.

Following the ceremony, KCC sponsored a job fair that was attended by representatives from 45 construction companies.  All the graduates were hired on the spot and rewarded for their hard work with long term employment.

“I am very happy that right after graduation I got a professional job,” said Mujeeburahman, who completed the electrical course.  “I will work in a construction company which will pay me a good salary.”

KCC is a comprehensive vocational education center, an information market place linking local builders to construction projects, and a local construction labor market for Konar province.  KCC matches skilled workers with construction companies’ needs and serves as a retail center for construction-related businesses.  It is also the focal point for Konar’s construction-related services.  It combines skills training, management training, materials testing and an ongoing apprenticeship program all in one facility, said Navy Lt. Neil A. Myers, Konar Provincial Reconstruction Team’s Information Operations officer.

Gov. Hajji Sayed Wahidi, Konar, was the main speaker during the ceremony and addressed the graduates, dignitaries, and over 200 guests, including people from the construction industry, potential investors, and local and international media. 

The governor praised the successful partnership between the Konar PRT, U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the district governors, and the elders of Shaikal Shatel District for working together in bringing the vocational school to Konar province.  He also emphasized that the KCC would serve as a model training facility not only for Konar, but for all Afghanistan. 

“First the KCC will give us security,” said Wahidi.  “Second, the people will not have to leave Konar province or Afghanistan to work in Pakistan because the KCC will give people the opportunity to make money working [here].”

The KCC is considered a real and tangible asset for the province with key stakeholders in government, the private sector, military and the international community, said Myers, who hails from Pensacola, Fla.

The Konar PRT is a joint military civil support organization comprised of Soldiers, Sailors, and Airmen, which funded the construction of the building and the materials-testing laboratory.

USAID supports the Afghanistan government in all sectors, and is funding the KCC vocational program with instructors, materials, equipment, and first year’s operating expenses, all totaling an estimated $1,344,000, said Myers.  

The Konar government and the local community donated the land for the KCC.

The KCC is a job-creating counterinsurgency tool in a stubbornly-volatile insurgent region.  The center targets uneducated, unskilled laborers with little chance of gainful employment, according to Myers.

Navy Cmdr. Daniel W. Dwyer, Konar PRT commander, also spoke to the graduates about the honor in providing for one’s family through skilled labor.  He added the KCC is an important and cost effective way to support reconstruction and the peace process in the province. 
 
“You represent the best hope for rebuilding this country,” said Dwyer.  “Yesterday, skilled labor came from Pakistan.  Today it comes from Konar.”

“The sentiment expressed by the graduating students was that they were very happy to have a skill to help their families,” said Fazal Hakim Safi, USAID, Project Management Specialist.  “They said they learned a lot, even enough to run their own business.”

There’s a lot of talk in the streets about the KCC, and many of the young men in Konar want admission to the school, said Safi.  Thirty years of war deprived the Afghan people of an education, but this is a golden opportunity for them to learn a skill for their future.

The KCC addresses three primary needs in the province: peace, economic opportunity, and reconstruction.  The KCC plans to be self-sustainable through fee-based advanced classes, the material testing facility, and private business ventures on site.

“Now, the children of Konar have something to look forward to after school,” said Dwyer.  “Now, there’s hope.”