Employable Skills For Women Vital For Economy – World Bank

Equipping women   with employable skills is vital to leapfrog the economy and foster for improved livelihoods for all citizens, Carolyn Turk the World Bank country representative for Rwanda has said

Accordingly,  women have been  key in  the production sector  mainly in agriculture as well as in small and  micro businesses  which are seen  as  source of incomes for most  households thus  providing  them with skills  will further strengthen  the sector.

“ promoting skills among adolescent  girls and young women who are the mothers of the future  generation  plays  an important role in the  economic  development  of the  country, develops confidence in them and take control of their lives as well of their children,”  she said during the  graduation of  over 500 adolescent girls and young women trained in Culinary Art, Agri-Business, Food Processing, Art and Crafts.

The  graduates are part  are  the first cohort of the Adolescent Girls Initiative (AGI), a component operating under Work Force Development Authority-WDA supported by a Multi-Donor Trust Fund from the World Bank.

“This program   aims at promoting skills among adolescent girls and young women to generate income to ensure that they can be self-reliant,” Henrietta Umulisa, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Gender and Family Promotion stressed

Liberata Uwera who completed in Food processing from one of the AGI centers in Gicumbi district testified how she earns Rwf60, 000 per month out of selling milk products.

Accordingly, project is a real transformation for many vulnerable adolescent girls and young women who lacked employable skills. The next two cohorts of 1400 students will graduate in December 2014.

Jerome Gasana the Director General  at WDA notes that  promoting skills  among the vulnerable groups will help spearhead  equitable growth  and development which will result into better livelihoods  as they would be able to  produce quality products that would  compete both  on local and international markets.

“We believe that TVET skills is the only way we can  reach our targets  of transforming  our  country to  a middle income economy, once we have our own skills, we expect   our workforce to  increase production, add value to  our products for export,”   he said.

He said that the Authority is planning to extend the training to other districts so that it covers the vulnerable young women and adolescent girls in rural areas who have been facing challenges of earning an income.