ILSI Marks 25,000th Pre-Departure Orientation Milestone

ILSI's pre-departure orientation programme has now delivered briefings to tens of thousands of prospective migrant workers since the Nepal pilot opened, the organisation announced this week, describing the milestone as evidence that structured preparation before departure can be delivered at meaningful scale.

What the sessions cover

Each orientation session walks workers through their employment contract clause by clause, explains how to recognise common risks such as recruitment fee overcharging and contract substitution, and provides the helpline and legal panel contact details for the worker's specific destination country. Sessions are delivered in partnership with Himalayan Development Cooperative and Kathmandu Valley Skills Trust across Nepal's major districts of origin for overseas employment.

"When we started, we did not know whether we could deliver this consistently outside Kathmandu," said Amina Osei-Bright, ILSI's Director of Programmes. "Reaching this many workers across so many districts tells us the model travels, and that matters because most of the workers we most need to reach are not based in the capital."

Measuring what matters

ILSI said it is now working with its Advisory Council and academic partners to measure whether orientation attendance is associated with fewer helpline cases involving contract-related disputes later in a worker's employment, building on baseline data collected during the pilot's early phase. Early internal review suggests workers who attend a full orientation session are more likely to contact ILSI early when a problem arises, rather than after a dispute has become serious.

The organisation said it would continue expanding orientation capacity across all four pilot corridors, with a particular focus on reaching first-time migrants and women travelling into domestic work and care sector roles.