In an effort aimed at curbing the high unemployment rate in the country, the Rose Namayanja Foundation (RNF) has partnered with the Directorate of Industrial Training to enable the assessment of skilled Ugandans to enable them to get recognized professional certificates.
While speaking to the media yesterday, moments after the inaugural Nakaseke District DIT assessment exercise at God’s Hope Vocational Center, the RNF Team Leader, Mr. Denis Lindo, said that the partnership is focusing on assessing people in terms of skills, knowledge, vocations, and talent to award them with internationally recognized certificates.
“This effort is there to emphasize and support every person to become assessed in what they know best, such that when they get that kind of certification, their chances are increased of getting employed within and outside East Africa,” Mr. Lindo said.
Lindo further stressed that it was particularly important for the many Ugandans who have informally acquired employable skills to formalize their qualifications, which would, in turn, help them build enterprises that would employ many other Ugandans, increasing the country’s tax base and economy in the long run.
On his part, Mr. Abigaba Richard, the DIT coordinator, said that the program strives to continually improve the professional standards of craftsmen and women in the country.
“We have moved down to the communities to identify and award those skilled Ugandans who are lacking certificates in their trade. This is one of the many interventions through which our country will develop its skilled manpower, as has been observed in developed countries, “Mr. Abigaba said.
He called upon community leaders and the public at large to embrace the programs as a way toward securing the future of the country.
The inaugural exercise involved an assessment of Ugandans in over twenty-one (21) disciplines, including tailoring, carpentry, mechanics, and hairdressing, among others.
The Directorate of Industrial Training is a government entity mandated to, among others, develop policies and implement strategies for the skills training, upgrading, and testing of workers in industries and apprentices in workplaces, as well as those people training in the world of work.
