Youth urged to utilize available financing programmes put in place by government to improve and develop themselves
The youth have been urged to make use of the available financing programmes put in place by the government, in order to improve and develop themselves through entrepreneurship, the Prime Minister, Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila said recently.
Kuugongelwa-Amadhila highlighted this at the National Youth Service’s Fourth Technical Vocation and Education Training (TVET) graduation ceremony held in Rietfontein on 08 October, which saw a total of 318 trainees get capped.
According to her, the government has established funding and mentoring schemes for the youth aimed at promoting youth entrepreneurship and business opportunities.
“These funding programmes will help increase the potential of SMEs and harness the innovation and entrepreneurship of the youth, thereby strengthening Namibia’s economy,” she added.
Kuugongelwa-Amadhila said that the government will continue to ensure that youth unemployment remains at the centre of the government’s policies and programmes.
“I believe that TVET is a critical provider of skills, knowledge and technology that is needed to drive productivity in a knowledge-based economy, as it equips young people with work-ready skills which are useful in addressing Namibia’s challenges of youth unemployment,” she added.
The Prime Minister meanwhile, called on local employers to provide the graduates with employment opportunities.
“Young people need skills that meet the demands of the private sector, both to find jobs and create their own businesses and TVET should therefore not be seen as an option for those that do not qualify for university admission, but should take a leading role in our post-matric education,” she emphasised.
She added that these graduates offer a wealth of knowledge and skills, as well as youth energy, that makes them great assets to the country that we cannot afford to leave unutilised.
National Youth Service Commissioner, Felix Musukubili, thanked the institutions that provided the trainees with internship opportunities, which is a graduation requirement. “You played an important role by according our trainees with attachment opportunities, without them completing the internship, they could not graduate,” he added.
The Commissioner revealed that the Ministry of Labour, Industry Relations and Job Creation, in particular, has facilitated the placement of about 60 trainees on a National Internship Programme.
“This internship programme has accorded our trainees the necessary work-integrated learning exposure required in the real world of work and a total of 318 trainees graduated in different technical and vocational fields,” he concluded.
