Desuung Skilling Programme

The Desuung Skilling Programme (DSP) is a vocational training initiative of the Royal Government of Bhutan, run through the Desuung — the "Guardians of Peace" volunteer corps established in 2011 under a royal command. DSP was formally launched in 2021 as part of Bhutan's post-COVID-19 economic recovery strategy and has since become one of the principal instruments through which the government is attempting to address youth unemployment and the accelerating outflow of working-age Bhutanese to Australia and other overseas destinations.^[1]

The programme provides free residential training across a wide catalogue of trades — including construction skills, hospitality, automotive repair, tailoring, culinary arts, early childhood care, digital literacy, and agricultural techniques — with the stated goal of equipping trainees with marketable skills while keeping them employed and rooted in Bhutan. Trainees, known as Desuups after graduating the underlying Desuung integrated training, typically commit to a fixed training block followed by structured placement support.^[1]

By October 2022, the Royal Office of Media and the Desuung Office reported that more than 5,500 Desuups had been trained across 257 courses at training institutions across Bhutan.^[2] Subsequent cohorts have continued through 2023, 2024 and 2025, with additional funding commitments announced in the Thirteenth Five-Year Plan (2024–2029), which identifies youth retention and skills development as national priorities.^[3]

Origins and mandate

The programme traces its origin to a royal initiative by King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, who directed that Bhutan's response to the economic shock of the COVID-19 pandemic should include a large-scale, state-funded skilling push for unemployed youth and returning overseas workers. The Desuung corps, already a visible national service organisation associated with disaster response and community volunteering, was chosen as the delivery vehicle because of its existing infrastructure, its ability to run residential camps at scale, and its reach across all twenty dzongkhags.^[2]

DSP has been described by government officials as a complement to formal technical and vocational education and training (TVET), not a replacement for it. Where TVET institutions offer longer diploma courses for school-leavers, DSP offers shorter, more intensive blocks aimed at adults already out of education, including civil servants on leave without pay and returnees who left their jobs before emigrating.

Courses and delivery

The catalogue of DSP courses has expanded considerably since the 2021 launch. Published reports and Desuung communications list training in:

• Construction trades — masonry, carpentry, plumbing, electrical installation, tiling, painting
• Hospitality and tourism — housekeeping, front office, food and beverage service, commercial cookery
• Automotive and mechanical — light vehicle repair, heavy equipment operation
• Agriculture and food processing — mushroom cultivation, dairy, honey, organic farming
• Creative and digital — tailoring and garment making, graphic design, basic digital skills
• Care work — early childhood care, elderly care, first aid

Delivery is residential in most cases, with trainees housed at camps and training centres run by Desuung or partner institutions. Trainers are drawn from the private sector, the Royal Bhutan Army, technical colleges, and international development partners.^[1]

Role in the government response to emigration

DSP is frequently cited by Royal Government officials as part of Bhutan's response to the post-2020 brain drain and the Bhutan–Australia migration wave. Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay and senior officials have pointed to DSP, alongside the Desuung National Reintegration Programme ("REVIVE") and the Thirteenth Five-Year Plan's youth employment targets, when asked how the government intends to slow the outflow.^[4]

Independent analysts and domestic commentators have noted that while DSP is well regarded within Bhutan as a training programme in its own right, its scale is modest relative to the outflow it is expected to counter. By the Royal Civil Service Commission's own figures, close to 1,860 civil servants resigned in 2024 alone, and tens of thousands of young Bhutanese have departed on Australian student visas since 2022.^[5] Critics, including Tenzing Lamsang of The Bhutanese, have argued that skilling without accompanying wage reform, housing affordability measures, and private-sector job creation is unlikely to meaningfully reverse the trend.^[6]

Supporters of the programme counter that DSP's purpose is not only economic but also civic — that by keeping young Bhutanese in structured national service and residential training during an unstable period, it strengthens attachment to the country and provides a more honest picture of domestic opportunities than the sometimes inflated expectations generated by overseas education agents.^[1]

See also

• Desuung (Guardians of Peace)
• The Bhutan–Australia Migration Wave (2022–2025)
• Bhutanese Labor Migration and Brain Drain
• Youth Unemployment in Bhutan
• Thirteenth Five-Year Plan of Bhutan (2024–2029)
• Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck

References

1. About the De-suung Skilling Programme — Desuung
2. DSP graduates over 5,500 Desuups in over 257 courses — Kuensel
3. Thirteenth Five Year Plan 2024–2029 — Parliament of Bhutan
4. Bhutan, after prioritising happiness, now faces an existential crisis — CBS News 60 Minutes
5. Civil service attrition drops by 12 percent but brain drain continues — Kuensel
6. Significant dip in Australia Rush in 2024-2025 — The Bhutanese