By Grace Mugoya

Over 6000 youth have so far acquired skills from vocational schools funded by the Skills Development Fund (SDF), one of the three components of the Skills Development Project (SDP); an initiative being implemented by the Workforce Development Authority (WDA).

Jointly funded by the Government of Rwanda and World Bank to a tune of USD 34.5 million, the general objective of this project is to create opportunities for youths to acquire various technical and vocational skills necessary to gain employment. The SDF has so far given out over Rwf 2.6 billion as grants to 70 TVET institutions.

This support is provided to the institutions to boost their capacity to be able to deliver short term training that leads to immediate employment. It is also one of the measures taken to fill thelabour market gaps in the shortest Accelerating vocational, technical skills training time possible through rapid skills delivery.

The SDF grants range from USD 10,000 to USD 100, 000 per grant. There are two types of eligible applicants for funding; the first include training providers expected to use the funds to add or expand short-term training. They include public training educational providers, government-aided training educational institutions and private training providers who are non profit oriented.

The second type includes other entities that would act as providers by adding or expanding short-term training offerings for a broad group of prospective trainees in their sector. These are associations, cooperatives, nongovernment organizations and legally and independent enterprises.