Scholarship Winner Gets Trained to Help Bring Electricity to his Community

Studer Trust has given more than 50 scholarships to students of all ages, stages and disciplines of education. This year for the first time, Studer Trust worked with another non-profit organization, the Center for Vocation Training (CVT) to offer vocation training to three awardees. CVT uses a model of vocational education inspired by the Swiss. Whilst they train in multiple disciplines, from Business Administration to Hospitality, Studer Trust awarded all scholarships to their Electrician programme, given need to bring and service power supplies in many of the rural villages in which we work. We’d like to introduce and share the experience of one of these recipients, Zaw Lwin Oo from Kyauk Tan Monastic School.

Kyauk Tan School, in the Magway region of Myanmar, is one of Studer Trust’s most highly rated schools, with a principal that very actively participates with Studer Trust. Zaw Lwin Oo is an active and creative teacher. He is from a big family, with five siblings and nine household members, and he loves to teach, grow plants and practice photography.

In many of our communities, electricity is a relatively new phenomena, with no stable power source and only a few homes having a small solar panel or generator. This being the case, there are also few qualified electricians in these communities, which leads to hazards when it comes to installation and maintenance. This is the case for Kyauk Tan village. The village is trying to set up a power supply this year with the support of both the state and the community. However, there still currently is no professionally trained electrician.

So when the abbot of Kyauk Tan Monastic School approached Zaw Lwin Oo, he was both nervous about the opportunity and honoured to be selected. More than anything, he saw the important role it would help him play in improving his village. Zaw Lwin Oo set off to Yangon to participate in the eight-week training.

The CVT program includes Core Electrician training, but also covers English, Communication, Administration and Social Skills. As an Art graduate, he struggled at first with the Core Electrician modules, as they included concepts like Physics and Mathematics that he had not learned in his previous studies. Thankfully, where his Art education did help him was to excel at electrical drawings and installations. And he studies after class to gain a better understanding of the subjects and vocabulary with which he is less familiar.

Of Studer Trust, he said “without this support, I would not be able to think about and attend this Electrician training. Now I have the basic knowledge to install wiring service at my home and in my village.” Zaw Lwin Oo is looking forward to the installation of an electrical wiring system at his home and school as soon as the community secures the power supply to their village.