Approaches

Focus of the project for unemployed youth in semi-urban and rural areas is skills training with production, also called training for enterprise.

The young people are trained by qualified trainers to produce tangible artefacts in form of renovated or new buildings of the VTC and furniture for the hostels, canteen etc. The learning by doing approach produces e.g. desks, tables and doors, window frames, sanitary installations, roofs. The trades being trained in range from carpentry, brick and block laying, metal fabrication and fence making, domestic electrification, plumbing, plastering, to glazing and painting.

The second project aims at food security. It started in 2015, at the time when the country is experiencing a severe drought season. While vocational training centres have maintained their core focus of technical skills training, the support by DVV International has enabled them to use unexploited land for training and production. Thus this project has brought in a new dimension around the issue of food security when working with the youth and the communities around the VTCs. The young people are trained by qualified trainers in farming production that includes acqua culture, horticulture, animal husbandry, poultry and bee keeping. The training models and approaches applied have the potential to embrace a holistic food system that encompasses landscapes, the environment, water sources, security, storage and markets. This approach shifts from piecemeal approaches that focuses on products such as maize and starts to influence production and consumption patterns which show linkages between farming, diets, public health and the environment.