The categories of young people who need vocational skills interventions are those in both the formal and the informal sectors. Youths are in dire need of basic needs and supplementary benefits. These service points, once availed can hence be used to create opportunities to the target group who are in and out schools.
Through trainings, young people are taught different skills in carpentry, Sewing and Tailoring, Knitting, Computer training, welding and metal fabricating and baking. Other skills like Paper bag making, Brick-laying concrete Practice, Leather Tanning, Hand Craft training, Plumbing, Mechanics and Party Decoration, Environment management, horticultural production, making soap, charcoal briquettes, jelly will be added.
Project Summary
According to the mapping report, government programs were identified with activities related to technical work at regional/district levels in Uganda. Youth/ Women sustainable vocational skills and empowerment interventions can be increased through collaboration of the existing organizations with Government in order to scale up the interventions at community level. The categories of young people who need vocational skills interventions are those in both the formal and the informal sectors. Youths are in dire need of basic needs and supplementary benefits as Ugandans.
These service points once availed can hence be used to create opportunities to the target group who are in and out schools. Through trainings, young people are taught different skills in carpentry, Sewing and Tailoring, Knitting, Computer training, welding and metal fabricating and baking. Other skills like Paper bag making, Brick-laying concrete Practice, Leather Tanning, Hand Craft training, Plumbing, Mechanics and Party Decoration, Environment management, horticultural production, making soap, charcoal briquettes, jelly will be added.
After their training, they are expected to be able to produce good quality products leading to increase in Gross Domestic product and profitability. Secondly, they will be able to effectively work in their village settings able to create jobs among themselves. The creative abilities and livelihood skills of children and young people also remain low because of limited exposure to skills development opportunities.
They also lag behind in information communication technology because less than 10% of their schools in the project catchment have skilling programs and computer laboratories for learning. The project intends to run holiday skilling programs at several Church based schools together with a full-time program at the main site.
Problem Statement
Lack of Vocational training services has the devastating potential to create a severe economic impact. Young people have straggled with life and they need a hand that can support them through vocational training to equip them with constructive Knowledge and reliable Skills. The creative abilities and livelihood skills of young people also remain low because of limited exposure to skills development opportunities and lagging behind in information communication technology. The skills gap has led to high unemployment rates even at national level.
According to the Lost Opportunity Report released in 2013 by Action Aid Uganda, Uganda National NGO Forum and Development Research Training, 62% of Uganda’s youth are unemployed. The focus has now been shifted to skills development in order to promote self-employment because it’s projected that Uganda will not be able to generate enough jobs for those entering the labour market. Unless young people are supported through skills development, they stand a risk of being trapped in viscous cycles of poverty yet In Uganda, youths contribute 50% to the economy of the country.
Mission
To contribute to the improvement of young people’s lives through school and community based sustainable skills.
Objective
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- Overall Objective:
To empower both in and out of school youths with Vocational Skills and keeping them out of current dangers (HIV/AIDS, Early pregnancy etc), Breaking the York of vulnerability and become responsible citizens in Uganda.
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- Project Objectives.
- To fight vulnerability and dependency among the young people in rural community of our project catchments.
- To facilitate livelihood skills development for 5,000 young people by training them using appropriate equipment and materials by the end of 2020.
- To advocate and mainstream vocational training skills in existing church-based schools.
- To reduce the problem of unemployment by 10% of the youths.
- To provide Counselling and Guidance services to youths on psychosocial and economic issues.
- Project Objectives.
Profile of The Project Site
The project sites (zonal coordination centers and schools) were carefully selected, taking into account community and geographical variations, magnitude of the problem and location of the Head office for ease of monitoring and supervision as the Project has succeeded the pilot trial which has paved a clear beam for replicating.
The proposed sites are strategically located and rich with desirable resources such as land and security for the smooth operation of the project. ST. James site in particular has already installed a permanent reliable solar water system and a Health Centre for proper hygiene and other health related services needed by the community and for sensitization of young people on health issues in relation to their age groups. A combination of all these together with many others place us in capacity to run the project excellently.
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- Direct Beneficiaries:
The youth ranging from 12 -35 both male and female. This age bracket covers both school going and non-school goers both in the formal and the informal sectors. This intervention will contribute towards the ministry’s expectation for every beneficiary to complete the program when he/she has experienced holistic development and demonstrated the ability to become economically self-supporting.
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- Indirect Beneficiaries:
The project will also benefit women/widows, parents/ care givers of the beneficiaries, project staff and community members in the project areas and their neighbors through access and utilization of resources.
Project Team
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- Project Over Seer.
- Coordinator
- Project Focal Person.
- Field Officers/ Counselors (2)
- Skilling Instructors (3)
- Administrative assistant.
- Accountant
Monitoring and Evaluation
This will be a continuous process throughout the project life. Monitoring activities will be conducted to ensure harmonious coordination of the project, its operation and proper implementation. This will bring out important information upon which decisions are sought and made.
Field workers will also visit and hold meetings with the leaders (Church Heads and their committees, Teachers and care givers among others) to assess the impact of the project activities and share their experiences and challenges accordingly. Monitoring activities will be conducted on monthly basis.
Evaluation will help the project to assess the extent to which implementation is meeting the set objectives. It helps the project team to review the implementation strategies in order to improve on the project performance and better resource utilization.
Impact Indicator
The proposal is designed to improve youth’s way of life and create early awareness in our project areas. Our strategies for young people will enable them access sustainable skills, empowerment and investment ability. Much focus will be put on those with in and out of schools as this brings closer all the young people categories into our sustainable skills web.
Increased number of young people participating in different vocational training activities and improving on their capacity building through mainstreaming sustainable skills in various programs.
Beneficiary members adapting to savings culture and investment ability demonstrated by cumulative savings and shares.
Implementation Plan
The Parish Council (PC) with representatives from Churches, Schools and communities within the project operation area will follow the procedures of procurement to identify companies that will supply various items. They will solicit quotations from various companies and seek technical guidance in order to ensure that they get quality items at a reasonable cost.
Project staff will hold meetings, together with PC members and formulate guidelines for the use of the new skills development project.
The Project staff will keep track of the records regarding the use of the items in the skills development project in order to follow up on the users and evaluate whether they are being impacted.
Kigumba C.D.C will continue employing community friendly approaches to reach remote areas through static and mobile training workshops and sensitization programs. Each of the components of the project will be tackled technically by designing interventions that effectively and appropriately address vocational skill gaps and relevant activities that can contribute to community development.
Project Activity Management
The following activities will be implemented under this project: –
Community mobilizations and identification of required youths: Over 15,000 people will be reached and the service will be managed jointly with community leaders, development workers and organizations and project staff. It will still focus on assessing the nature of the community and the status of beneficiaries’ more especially young people. Mobilization will also be in preparation for identifying and forming special Interest groups (SIG s) and youth vocational clubs in rural areas of operation. The clubs are thought to strengthen the sustainability of the project. All activities related to this project will be centrally managed at Parish level under the patronage of the project overseer/ Parish Priest. All service providers will work according to the contracts that will be approved by the steering committee. The Project Coordinator will be responsible for day today administration and coordination of project activities and will be reporting to the over seer and the steering Committee.
The Steering Committee will approve all funds which will be used to purchase the skills development centre materials to be added to those that we already have on site. The Project accountant will ensure that proper accounting records are kept and will also be responsible for producing monthly financial updates. The Project Coordinator will produce monthly and quarterly progressive reports, and final completion reports which will be submitted to the donors and the diocese with the approval of the Over Seer and the Steering Committee.
The Project Work plan.
The project will be implemented in local areas of the project interests; beneficiaries of the project will be Approximately as follows: –
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- 5000 young people will be trained in various sustainable skills
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- 40 Church leaders and 10 teachers will be trained as community-based support structures and they will also work as community resource owned persons.
- 40 youths will also be trained as community-based volunteers. This team will work as middle men between service providers and community youths.
The training of community resource owned persons and volunteers will aid project replication and transfer of knowledge through the existing Church Structures and thus the number of beneficiaries will scale higher in long run.
Project Sustainability
Lack of reliable functional support structures especially after the donation period, leads to collapse of several projects. However, for now, sustainability is assured because project ownership will be felt by trained personnel and replication will be done in existing Church and school administration teams who will be involved in every stage of project implementation.
Regular follow ups and monitoring during and after the funding period will be done by ST. James Parish staff led by the Parish Vicar since Church programs and visits to grass root Churches is our operation mode that spans generations to generations.