Over 1,400 youth benefit from TVET

More than 1,400 youth in Southern Province, on Thursday, completed a one-year Technical and Vocational Education and Training programme.The youth were trained in various disciplines including ICT, restaurant and hotel management, auto mechanics, carpentry, masonry, plumbing, driving and fashion design, among others.The Minister of Education, Dr.Vincent Biruta, who presided over the function, urged the youth to compete in the labour market to create their own jobs. “Young people should be innovative, develop knowledge and skills in order to generate income and contribute to the country’s development,” Biruta advised.He urged the private sector to follow suit and train more young people in key trade areas to provide solutions to the challenges of unemployment to enable the youth create their own jobs.The youth had been training from 26 public centres supported by Workforce Development Authority (WDA) and 44 private centres.The Director of the Integrated Polytechnic Regional Centre in the Southern Province, Gideon Rudahunga, urged them to engage in various activities on the labour market, other than agriculture and animal husbandry.“There are many jobs that require skilled workforce. You have the skills now. You just have to apply them in the workforce so that you can play a role in the fight against poverty,” Rudahunga reiterated.According to Antoon Delie, the Head of Belgian Technical Cooperation, Belgium has allocated Euro 5 million to IPRC Kavumu, Southern Province.He stated that education, human skills and capacity development has been one of the priority sectors in the continued cooperation between the governments of Belgium and Rwanda.“The Belgian cooperation has been supporting IPRC – South in the field of technical and vocational education and training for the last five years. Through our international development agencies (BTC and VVOB), Kavumu Vocational Training Centre has been provided with equipment and trainers trained in better ways of delivering hands-on skills in priority trades,” Delie observed.

National

Over 1,400 youth benefit from TVET