Sustainable Development Goals
The Project
The Cooperativa de Credito Union Initatiative Haburas Comunidade through the group, Friends of Vemasse, requested for a Basic English and Computer Teacher for youth, women and men member farmers of the Credit Union. The Credit Union is committed to educating the communities on the importance of sustainable work and the benefits of economic sustainability. The Friends of Vemasse is then created to focus on strategies that will support youth’s skills development.
The Friends of Vemasse aims that:
- Through active engagement, youth, women, and local government employees acquired essential English and computing skills—empowering them to perform better in Vocational school, secure employment and enhance their performance in existing roles.
- The Credit Union, target groups—including youth, women, and employees—local government, and other local employers will foster collaboration and connectedness by participating in English and computing sessions and providing training resources and employment opportunities.
The Location
Timor-Leste is one of Australia’s nearest neighbours and the poorest country in our region but has much to offer in terms of beauty and adventure. Despite nearly 400 years of neglect during the Portuguese colonial period, Japanese invasion and Indonesia’s occupation from 1975 -2001, Timor Leste is now a new vibrant democracy enjoying its independence. Governance systems are being established and rebuilding of infrastructure destroyed by Indonesian backed militias in 1999 – 2000 is happening.
Timor Leste is a young nation where 59 percent of the population is under 25 years of age. Among the many challenges facing the government are how to ensure all children receive an education from primary to high school, and that employment opportunities are available once leaving high school or university.
Vemasse, Timor Leste, is an administrative post of Baucau municipality. It consists of 7 sucos (villages) and 24 aldeias (hamlets) and has a population of approximately 11,000 inhabitants. Vemasse suco lies along the main costal road from the capital Dili to Baucau. [1]
[1] https://mfov.org.au/timor-leste-and-vemasse
The Challenge
Timorese youth are often stigmatised as jobless, unproductive, and potential sources of unrest. But there is another story to be told, one of initiative and creativity. Young Timorese care deeply about their country, and many are already taking steps to build a new future for their communities. Young people’s aspirations are shaped by many factors in their life experience, including gender, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and conditions in the community such as the prevalence of violence. Across all municipalities, Timorese youth emphasized how longstanding national challenges such as inadequate infrastructure, limited access to education and healthcare, and a lack of economic opportunity affected their hopes for the future. [2]
One effective way to address the issue is by upgrading the skills of youth, women, and local employees in areas such as English language and computing. This initiative has the potential to reach over 50 participants per semester, or approximately 100 per year.
The sessions will be tailored to the needs of the target groups to ensure maximum participation. It is anticipated that participants will gain confidence and practical skills enabling them to pursue further education, secure employment, and enhance their effectiveness in current roles.
In addition, it is essential to establish partnerships between communities, governments, and the private sector to provide sustained support and opportunities for the target groups across seven sucus.
[2] https://asiafoundation.org/understanding-and-empowering-timor-lestes-young-people/
About You
Palms participants for this placement will need to demonstrate the following qualifications, skills, and attributes:
- Qualifications or relevant experience in teaching English for youth and young adults.
- Native English speaker university graduate.
- Proficiency in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, other basic computer functions and ability to transfer this skill.
- Proven experience in working with and effectively communicating with youth with limited language skills.
- Skills in developing, implementing, and reviewing youth‑related programs.
- Training expertise across design, delivery, implementation, and assessment.
- Ability to work collaboratively within a team in community contexts
- A commitment to teamwork, coaching, and mentoring others
- Patience, adaptability and flexibility in responding to diverse challenges.
- Cultural sensitivity and openness to engaging within a different cultural context.
- The ability to cope with cultural isolation and different living standards
- Commitment to serve in Vemasse for a minimum of 12 months, working with limited resources and facilities.
- Willingness to engage their Australian community in promoting the work of the host organisation and their role.
How You Will Help
First you must be willing to learn from the local community.
Over the first several weeks you are asked not to change anything or suggest a change to operations. During that period you will take the time to learn language and cultural mores from a local counterpart willing to mentor you. You will also start a register of the strengths of the current personnel and the assets in the community/country that might be used to achieve the goals of the assignment.
You need to commit to clarifying why things are done the way they are rather than presuming from your own cultural lens to outline what is missing. So, you need to ask questions to enable you to learn from your hosts, rather than in ignorance make suggestions about how things can improve. Palms training will prepare you for this approach.
From then onward, you will apply your expertise in the following areas:
- Design, plan, deliver, and evaluate training for mentees—local facilitators of English and Computing sessions.
- Collaborate with local facilitators to develop resources for teaching foundational English and Computing skills.
- Design, implement, and assess programs that build English and Computing skills for youth and women, using teaching methods that are interactive, culturally sensitive, age-appropriate, and inclusive.
- Provide leadership and support to local facilitators in planning, organizing, managing, and evaluating their learning sessions.
- Foster stakeholder engagement by preparing regular progress reports on participant activities and performance, and by collaborating to evaluate the initiative’s overall impact.
- Document project outcomes by collecting evidence and stories of change from trained facilitators and participants.