Youth Unemployment:

Aziz: Welding His Way to Work

Photo: Jason Sangster for Mercy Corps

Jalalabad, Kyrgyzstan — It's not unusual to see sparks flying at the Usta Construction Company, a collection of fading brick buildings on the outskirts of town. But today the sparks are being launched by a couple of teenagers, clad in heavy canvas smocks, shooting red-hot flames in the shade of an open-air warehouse.

Eighteen-year-old Aziz Madazinov and 16-year-old Emil Sanjaruluu are honing their welding skills under the watchful eye of one of the company's experienced ironworkers. They're two of the three apprentices learning how to make everything from steel building frames to window bars to decorative iron gates as part of a Mercy Corps project that connects master craftspeople with young people — mainly recent high-school graduates — in southern Kyrgyzstan.

"I can't get a job with just my welding certificate," says Aziz, removing his soot-covered gloves during a break. "I need an apprenticeship, and they're very difficult to find."

Photo: Jason Sangster for Mercy Corps

In fact, few jobs are easy to find in the small villages around Jalalabad, part of Central Asia's densely populated Ferghana Valley. The sluggish economy forces many working-age men to seek work in Russia, a less-than-ideal situation for families and for Kyrgyzstan's economic future. To help young people find jobs closer to home, Mercy Corps is linking up 600 youth to master seamstresses, milk processors, bakers, mechanics, arborists and other professionals throughout the region.

Welding is a surefire way to make a good living, says Usta's owner, who currently employs 60 welders, carpenters and mechanics in his shop. An experienced welder can earn more than a college-educated worker, says Muhamatbek Kambarov to the nods of two of his welders.

"A lot of skilled people go to Russia," Kambarov says. "There's a lack of qualified welders here."

Aziz is trying to fill that need. His lanky frame shrinks under the weight of the heavy, oversized coat that all welders wear to protect themselves from the sparks and the heat of their work. He's been apprenticing here every day for nearly three weeks, and on this day, he and Emil are trying to attach rows of rebar to a door-sized steel frame designed to protect a long exterior window. Previously, they'd assembled a tall, boxy column of rebar destined to become a building post. After another month or so, they'll learn the ins and outs of decorative ironwork at another shop in town.

Photo: Jason Sangster for Mercy Corps

Mercy Corps makes the master-apprenticeship program worth the company's while by paying for all the necessary equipment, advertising for apprentices and taking care of all the paperwork associated with their employment. And the practical knowledge the welders get from their work here is supplemented by a series of lectures on the various technical aspects of welding.

It's the kind of experience that's hard to come by — even for teens like Aziz, who attended a special welding school after graduating from high school. "But in that technical school, we didn't do things like this," he says, gesturing to the window frame he'd been working on all morning. "We didn't have all this equipment."

After his three-month apprenticeship ends, Kambarov says, Aziz and his colleagues will be able to market themselves as junior welders. "Even if they don't get hired here, they will get hired by someone else."

That kind of job security is a big reason why Aziz wanted to follow in his father's footsteps and become a welder. "There are always things to be fixed, so there's always a lot of work for good welders."

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