The youth have been encouraged to learn more languages and develop their communication skills to increase their chances of getting employment. This was said during hospitality and services networking workshop organised by Education Development Centre /Akazi Kanoze project in Kigali recently. Akazi Kanoze, a youth livelihood programme by EDC (Education Development Centre Inc.), has been operating in Rwanda since 2009 and is funded by the USAID for a period of 5 years. It operates in Kigali and six districts of the Southern and Western provinces, and targets 15,000 youth aged between 14 to 25 years to equip them with both soft and technical skills. The workshop brought together professionals from the hospitality and services sector and the youth being trained by Akazi Kanoze, with the aim of charting ways of bridging the skills gap within the industry.During the workshop, the trainees were reminded of the importance of good customer relationships.Sam Barigye, Coordinator of Hospitality Training and Projects at Workforce Development Authority, urged the trainees to be innovative and to embrace entrepreneurship. According to Steve Kamanzi, Deputy Chief of Party at Akazi Kanoze Project, the main challenge in implementing the project is connecting the trained youth with employers since most of the students leave after the training and it becomes difficult to track them. Industry professionals advised students to be creative, curious and passionate about what they do and have good product knowledge because the skills will help them deliver good services to their clients.Over the past three years of operation, the programme has trained 7,000 youth. At least 3,000 have benefited from economic empowerment opportunities in various industries like agri-business, construction, accounting, catering and hospitality, plus self-employment.This is the first workshop of its kind to be organised by the Akazi Kanoze project.