Friday, March 29News That Matters

Buganda calls for more structured skilling of unemployed youth.

The Buganda Kingdom has said it is willing to collaborate with government and development partners to come up with a more refined approach towards skilling of millions of unemployed youth.
Deborah Zawedde, the head of the Education Board in the kingdom said there is urgent need for specific and demand driven skills.
She made this observation while presiding over a pass out of 43 trainees in solar installation works who completed a six weeks skilling exercise conducted jointly with Don Bosco Technical Institute in Bombo, Luweero district and supported by the Sendea Academy.
According to the kingdom with millions of unemployed youth largely resident within the central region, there is need for a much more structured skilling initiative countrywide.
“If we continue to promote skilling of youth without critical analysis of the market requirement of certain skills and services, then we shall not be solving the problem of lifting these young people out of redundancy. Unemployment is now a national crisis,” Zawedde, emphasised.
According Loy Kyozaire, CEO Sendea Academy, more than 400 youth and adults have been trained in solar installation, whose modules include: earthing, wiring, installation of solar panels and lights among others.
“We have a target of training at-least 1,000 youth every year in solar installation. This will improve the supply of skills so much demanded by the surge in solar acquisition that require installation. Beyond the skills that they acquire to serve the communities better, we also train them on managing their finances among others,” Kyozaire, says.
She called for more partnerships with influential establishments such as the Buganda Kingdom, through which well structured training programmes can be designed and implemented with clear outcomes that impact communities with more access to effective renewable energy solutions.
Father Joseph Khat, the Principal, Don Bosco Technical Institute Bombo, said the ongoing partnership with Sendea Academy, will contribute towards diversity in the institution’s training efforts.
“With the current programme in solar installation training, we also have more students getting skilled in this important area. We are proud of this technical relationship which will enable us continue to build capacity in line with market demand,” Fr. Khat said.
The Uganda Energy Credit Capitalisation Company (UECCC) one of the partners in the training said they recognise the need for training of more youngsters in solar installation as a measure in improving the quality assurance within the solar sub sector.
“We drive policy in the renewable energy space along investment and access to small users of solar systems among others. With more and better competencies around this value chain, the better for the sustainability effort.” Cyrus Odongkara, an official from UECCC, said
Douglas Baguma, the chairman of Uganda Solar Association said that with less than 30% of Uganda’s households currently connected to the national electricity grid, opportunities for investment, trade and services in renewable solar solutions are numerous.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *