Youth empowerment programme commended

“We in the government fully support this programme which plays a major role in reducing unemployment as well as job creation in the country,” he said.

The programme is being implemented by the International Youth Foundation (IYF) in partnership with the Mastercard Foundation in collaboration with the Tanzania Entrepreneurship and Competitiveness Centre (TECC) and Vocational Education Training Authority (VETA).

The PS said during the official gathering of the programme partners and stakeholders that Tanzania will continue to cooperate with IYF to ensure that the programme bears fruits in the wake of being a major contributor towards youth empowerment to enable them to fully participate in building the economy of the country. He said the programme plays a bigger role in the avenues of reducing unemployment to the youth.

The gathering was a platform towards sharing information, exchanging ideas and experiences to the young people who had undergone training towards the struggle against global unemployment.

IYF Chief Executive Officer, Mr William Reese said that Tanzania is currently being named as a country of model in its concerted efforts of preparing youth in the aspects of technology, life skills and entrepreneurship to counter unemployment in this modern world.

He said in this programme, the stakeholders are closely observing how they can introduce curricula in secondary schools and higher learning institutions and how to detect the job market during this era of science and technology.

“This is the type of training that prepares the youth so that he or she can acquire a diverse skill set in accordance with the market needs and it is important to transform this kind of education to our technical colleges and higher learning institutions to enable young people to be employed or employ themselves,” he said.

He added, all stakeholders together with the youth will have ample opportunities to exchange ideas and experiences to bring a positive change towards employment creation and entrepreneurship. In his part, Mr Koffi Assouan, the Mastercard Foundation Programme Manager said they had focused towards the expansion of the availability of training in entrepreneurship and life skills so as to enable the youth disentangle from the shackles of unemployment.

“Public and private sectors should work closely to ensure the youth get skills that can enable them to get employment,' he said. Ms Amina Msuya, one of the beneficiaries of the Via:Jiandalie Ajira programme, said the life skills training she learned at VETA enabled her to manage her challenges and she appealed to those with power to support youth training.

Source: DAILY NEWS

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