Encourage your children to embrace vocational education to combat unemployment, Bunyoro parents urged
HOIMA CITY, December 3, 2024 — Parents in the Bunyoro Subregion have been urged to encourage their children to pursue technical and vocational education to address the growing challenge of unemployment.
Baigana Nkunda, the Hoima Assistant Resident City Commissioner in charge of Western Division, emphasised that vocational education equips young people with the skills needed to create their own jobs, enabling them to become self-reliant.
He made these remarks on Friday while officiating at the graduation of 16 youth who had completed a three-month training in tailoring and design in Duhaga Cell, Hoima West Division. The training programme was sponsored by Dr. Joseph Ruyonga, the Member of Parliament for Hoima West Division.
Nkunda noted that President Museveni’s government has set up industrial hubs across the country to provide young people with vocational skills, but some parents remain hesitant to send their children to these centres.
“Vocational education is crucial because it builds the capacity of young people and contributes to economic development within a community. Skills development reduces unemployment, as individuals with vocational qualifications are more likely to create their own jobs rather than competing for scarce employment opportunities,” Nkunda explained.
He commended MP Ruyonga for his efforts in skilling the youth in his constituency, stating that the graduates would be able to use their new skills to create jobs and employ others.
MP Ruyonga, for his part, said he launched the youth skilling programme due to the high levels of youth unemployment in his constituency. He added that equipping the youth with vocational skills would help reduce crime in the area.
Robert Ruhigwa, the Hoima West Division Mayor, stressed the need to focus on changing mindsets to promote vocational education. He noted that negative attitudes within the community are one of the biggest obstacles to the promotion of vocational skills.
“Vocational education is the way forward. When you acquire technical skills, you can create your own job,” he said, urging parents to encourage their children to enrol in vocational education to reap its benefits.
Ruhigwa challenged the graduates to use their new skills to become job creators and to train others, noting that many youths in the area need such skills but lack the opportunity to acquire them.
The graduates expressed their gratitude to MP Ruyonga for providing the vocational training, promising to put the skills they had acquired to good use.
According to Uganda’s Economic Policy Research Centre [EPRC] at Makerere University in Kampala, several factors contribute to youth unemployment in the country, including poor access to quality education and training, a skills gap between job seekers and available positions, a shortage of formal jobs relative to the number of young people entering the labour force, and the dominance of the informal sector.
https://thecooperator.news/600-inomo-sub-county-youth-to-receive-vocational-skills-training/
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