By Philip Tengzu
Wa, Dec. 19, GNA – A total of 12 female apprentices who successfully went through two years of skills development training with the Wesoamo Foundation, have graduated with certificates in National and Vocational Training Institute (NVTI) Proficiency.
The 12 young women and girls were part of 42 all-female apprentices who were admitted into the Foundation in 2020 when the foundation was established to undergo two years of vocational training at no cost to them.
Addressing scores of people at Napogbakolee, a suburb of Wa at the weekend during the maiden passing out ceremony, Mrs Scholastica Soyeh, the Proprietor of the Foundation, said the apprentices were derived from deprived communities in the Wa West District.
She explained that the establishment of the foundation was birthed out of her passion to empower young women and girls with employable skills in the areas of dressmaking, soap making, and weaving among others.
Mrs Soyeh explained that the apprentices were also trained in basic entrepreneurial skills; while the Campaign for Female Education (CAMFED) provided them with start-up capital to acquire sewing machines and other materials to commence work.
She explained that the first 42 apprentices including those who graduated were offered free training and accommodation due to their vulnerabilities and inability to meet the financial requirements for the training.
“I decided to train them for free because some of the girls I saw in the communities (Wa West), could not afford to pay the fees to be trained but they needed these skills to earn a living,” she said.
Mrs Soyeh reiterated the need for women not to rely on their husbands or men for financial support but to acquire some skills that could enable them support their families saying, “Young girls should not sit down and think they will get married and men will take care of them.”
She expressed concern about the indifferent attitude of some parents towards supporting their children to go through the training.
“Some parents don’t also take interest in supporting their children to go through the training. Some come without food items, and some parents will not also visit their children to see how they are faring,” the Proprietor lamented.
She commended some key individuals and organisations for their diverse support to her to provide skills training to young women.
Pognaa Fati Korey, the Wa Municipal Coordinating Director, encouraged the young women who graduated to put the skills they had acquired into practice and with all the seriousness it deserved to enable them reap the needed benefit from those skills.
She said the government was prioritizing vocational and technical training to help bridge the unemployment gap as the job market was shrinking rendering many youth jobless.
“So, what we need to be doing now is to train people in vocational and technical skills so that they can also employ more people after completing their training,” she said and urged parents to support their children to acquire vocational skills.
Some of the graduating apprentices were full of joy and thanked the proprietor and all individuals and organisations that supported them to go through the training.
GNA