Women urged to venture into vocational training

Women in the country have been asked to venture into vocational training with the aim of acquiring skills that will help them become self-employed to earn a living.

The call was made by Skills and Technical Education Programme (STEP) Team Leader Arthur Shears during presentation of prizes to winners of “Ngwazi Zazikazi” story writing competition in Salima district.

STEP is an initiative that is being implemented by UNESCO with funding from European Union (EU).

Speaking in an interview with Malawi24, Shears said STEP came up with the competition to drill people in Malawi especially women to do vocational training such as bricklaying, automobile mechanics, carpentry among others to be self-employed rather than waiting for someone to employ them.

Shears noted that there are many university graduates who do not have skills and that many graduates are just staying jobless.

“We want to encourage young women to think about vocational trainings as an option rather than waiting to be employed.

“They should be thinking of trainings such as construction since there are too many University graduates who don’t have necessary skills for employment. So we want young people particularly girls to be thinking of vocational trainings as their career option,” Shears told Malawi24.

Speaking at the same function, Joseph Chikopa from Trainings Education and Vocational Education and Trainings Authority (TEVETA) urged young women in the country to be entrepreneurs as almost all people who are doing great worldwide are entrepreneurs .

Chikopa asked the girls to stop chasing for jobs but once they have acquired skills from vocational training centres like districts technical colleges and community technical colleges they should be using them to improve their lives.

One of the winners of the competition Bridget Shumba told Malawi24 that the competition was great since it gave them an opportunity to explore women who are doing great things in the country.

Shumba told Malawi24 that the competition made them dig deep about “Ngwazi Zazikazi” (great women) who got into male dominated fields such as engineering and are doing great.

Skills and Technical Education Programme (STEP) is working with Malawi government primarily with Ministry of Labour, Sports , Youth and Manpower Development in provision of skills to young people in the country so that they can get employed and use the skills to self-employ themselves.

The programme is also working hand in hand with TEVETA in provision of the skills through the technical colleges such as Salima, Lilongwe and Nasawa.