Transforming young people's lives through vocational skills training

There is absolutely no doubt that unemployment is a major problem in Malawi.

Without Tertiary Education, it is nearly impossible to find a full time job. This leaves many orphaned youth and those coming from extreme poverty stuck in a continued poverty cycle. Most of these young people have only gone as far as form 4 and can proceed no further due to obvious economic challenges. This means they can hardly find employment and remain idle.

In November 2019, we launched a project called "Inclusion in Vocational Education and Training (VET) in the jobs for youth action: Bridging the gap between VET and employment for street children and disadvantaged youth in Mzuzu city" with funding from Enabel, the Belgium Development Agency. In this project, we identify vulnerable youth in Mzuzu city who had long dropped out of secondary school due to fees. The youth are enrolled in a 6 months vocational skills training in either plumbing, carpentry and joinery and electrical installation at Ekwendeni Lay Training Center. Through the project, God Cares has been able to transform more than 80 youths' lives.

Hastings is one of the students trained under this project and he had the following to say:

"I wasn't expecting my life to turn around like this. I am a secondary school drop-out and I never imagined that things could workout like this. I have been trained in electrical installation and I am using this skill to earn a living. I currently work independently with a friend. I am able to help my my mum now and that makes me happy. I hope that my friend and I continue to gain exposure so that our business can grow."

In an almost similar statement, John explains how he was not doing anything before the project came around and how the training has helped him so far:

."So I was enrolled as a carpentry and joinery student. I dropped out of secondary school in form 2 because there was no money for school fees. I wasn't doing anything at all and it felt helpless. But this training has really helped me because I am now on a full time employment, earning a monthly salary and learning everyday. I am able to carter for my daily basic needs." he joyfully expressed

God Cares is committed to ensuring that young people are given opportunities develop, grow and become financially independent. Under this project, we hope to graduate 120 marginalized youth from the three vocational courses: carpentry and joinery, plumbing and electrical installation. The training runs for 6 months:3 months of course work and 3 months of practical work.

After graduation, our youths are ready to work and therefore we appreciate partnerships with organizations and companies requiring these skills.

"We cannot always build the future for our youth, but we can build our youth for the future." Franklin D. Roosevelt