MALAWI: CADECOM Supplies Equipment to Technical Colleges
The hand over function took place at the Catholic Secretariat in Lilongwe and three colleges namely Namitembo trade and Agriculture School, Namitete and Andiamo technical colleges received the tools after being verified by officials from Lilongwe technical college for durability and good quality.
Speaking during the event, the Project Coordinator, Miss Cresensia Kansale said the equipment were given to the colleges because the project introduced new courses that were not being taught in the colleges due to lack of teaching and learning tools.
“Hope for Youth project has introduced new courses like Plumbing in the colleges participating in this project, this is why we thought of providing necessary equipment for the colleges to be able to teach the courses well. The challenge that led to the introduction of the courses is that most youths in the surrounding areas of the colleges feels the courses offered are not suitable for them, so the new courses are introduced to attract more youths,” said Miss Kansale.
Hope for Youth is mainly to increase the capacity of the colleges in running of technical courses considering that in the past, there has been concentration on formal construction sector which only attracted a few of the young people to enroll. To solve this problem, the project is providing informal trainings on technical education in order to reach out to more youths.
“We have also introduced mobile technical centres around the colleges, for example Chikolombe and Adolorata centre at Mitengo and Phalura, Ulongwe and Kamgabu centres at Andiamo technical college. This is also done with the intention of reaching out to women as well as those living with disabilities by dealing with the problem of walking long distances,” said Kansale.
She added that the commission through Hope for Youth project realizes the rapid growth of Malawi’s population and courses like plumbing are so necessary to meet the demand for water supply in the communities surrounding the colleges and the country at large.
Representing beneficially colleges, Learning Career and Employability of staff for Mitengo College, Symon William thanked the project team for fulfilling their promises to the colleges. He said the tools given will help the colleges in starting teaching courses like plumbing which they were not able to teach due to lack of equipment.
Hope for youths, Empowerment of Women and Vulnerable Groups through Vocational and Entrepreneurship Skills Education in Malawi is being implemented by Scottish Catholic International Aid Fund (SCIAF) in partnership with ECM-CADECOM with funding from European Union to strengthen and increase access to both formal and informal Technical, Entrepreneurial and Vocational Education and Training (TEVET) facilities and systems.
