By Tereza Jeremiah Chuei
At least five hundred and ninety-eight (598) youth have graduated with vocational skills in various areas including; plumbing, carpentry, hair dressing, hair condition, and car driving among other services.
The over 500 youth that graduated on Monday acquired their vocational and technical skills at the Multi-Services Center (MTC) in Juba.
The training was funded by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) with support from the Kingdom of Netherlands in Coordination with the South Sudan’s Ministry of Labour.
The three months’ vocational training is aimed at equipping young people with skills for self-reliance under the theme: “Youth Employment and Youth Empowerment through Private Sector and Value Chain Development”.
Speaking during the graduation ceremony, the national minister of Labour James Hoth Mai appreciated the partners for offering the youth training opportunities and urged the development partners to continue funding the programmes.
“72% population of South Sudanese are youth and with this, a lot of them are staying doing nothing, so anybody comes and mobilizes them, but with this training, am sure this youth and the previous one will not like war, they will not leave what they are doing now,” he stressed the impact of the training on the youth.
“I know many of them, like hair dressing salon are getting money more than ministers themselves, my salary is only 10,000 SSP, and some body in salon will charge me fifteen thousand, so I will pay 10,000 SSP and go and borrow another five thousand to make sure that I clear the bill, so thank you our partners for helping our youth with this training” he lauded.
The graduates of the courses are 75 youths mostly male with only one female acquired skills in plumbing; 66 got skills in electrical where 64 are males and 2 females. Additionally, 14 males and 22 females graduated with skills in Bakery section; there were 66 females and 2 males who did hair dressing; while on carpentry only 22 took the course these among others courses done.