In the last three years, 5000 youths have benefitted from a skills development programme run by World Vision Malawi (WVM) and other partners.
Some of the partners are the Technical Entrepreneurial and vocational education and training authority (TEVETA), CCAP Nkhoma Synod Youth Department, Sanwecka and Bowe Youth Vocational Institute.
This comes against a background of recent statistics showing youth unemployment at 27.5 percent for those between 15-24 years and 23 percent for the 15-34 age bracket.
With a lot of youths graduating from colleges and secondary schools, World Vision Malawi’s Director of Operations Charles Chimombo acknowledged unemployment as one of the biggest challenges rocking the country.
He indicated that the children’s charity plans to reach out to 20,000 youths in its quest to complement government’s efforts to overcome the problem.
“One way of trying to empower the youths so that they can stand on their own and earn a living, is to send them on the entreprenurship skills programme and that’s why we worked with TEVETA to be able to do this for these youths.
“You also need to appreciate that World Vision is child centred, child oriented we want to see that every child is able to live a life in all its fullness and the only way we can do that is to empower these youths so that they can stand on their own. For this graduation that we’re doing here for the 478 learners, we have used K500 million for this cohort”
478 youths graduated in tailoring, electric installation, bricklaying, wielding and other vocational skills at William Murray Secondary School in Nkhoma.
Speaking at the event, Minister of Labour Agnes Nyalonje noted that for Malawi to produce goods and services, these youths are crucial in realizing the country’s development agenda. With a population of over 20 million and nine million of those being youths, she highlighted that the MW2063 goal of an inclusively wealthy upper middle income country is also about inclusion.
“We cannot be inclusive if we leave out even one Malawian and let that Malawian not be one without a disability. They must also have opportunities if they manage and many of them can.
“Against the odds of limited resources when it comes to Ministry of Labour, through TEVETA, you find out that we have the largest component of the Malawian population to serve but the resources we have are not enough to make us train large numbers every year. So every year we graduate somewhere within 7000 and 8000; that’s not enough when you have a backlog of 9 million, we need resources”
She cited the short and informal courses delivered in communities through the mobile vans and master class people who train young people from very remote from training institutions offering skills development to the most excluded.
Nyalonge touted the fees for TEVETA courses as affordable and accessible adding that during and after Cyclone Freddy period, courses were taken to affected communities.
Gradia January who graduated from a tailoring course speaks highly of the training noting that most people are into traditional wear promising customer’s value for money.
With so many people partronising her shop, she is reaping the benefits and life has improved for the better.
“When they come to me, they will get reasonable prices and good services in line with fashion design trends and will be satisfied and will come back for more. Life is good for me because before I embarked on this, finding money was a challenge but now that’s a thing of the past as I’m able to dress myself my child and she’s in a good school”
The 25-year old was previously into farming at a small scale but now envisions her business growing as she will be buying farming land.
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