Literacy, Vocational and Micro-entrepreneurial Skills Training
Kayunga District experiences acute Youth and Women unemployment. Some of the major reasons behind the high youth and women unemployment rate in Kayunga include, among others, the lack of employable skills, access to resources like land and capital among the youth. Besides, existing policies also continue focusing on creating job seekers instead of job creators. Unemployment has social as well as economic consequences for rural young people. Unemployed young people are forced to find alternatives to generate income, including activities in the survival-type informal sector and, in extreme cases, criminal activity. https://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/Kayunga-children-school-sand-mining-River-Nile-Busaana/688334-4698964-11s3cvyz/index.html Rural migrants believe that more jobs and social opportunities are available in urban areas, but once in the cities they find themselves without a job and with limited social networks. Trapped and discouraged by bleak job prospects, some turn to the sex, criminality and drug industries to survive.
Rural Youth and Women in Kayunga have very limited opportunities to gain useful skills which would enable them to have access to the labour market and provide for themselves. Despite the fact that there are no formal restrictions on local persons to engage in trade and self-employment, very few locals are able to do so due to a lack of Tradable Skills Training and Micro-credit Schemes. Consequently many youth and women are often seen begging in trading centres and many girls and young women are even forced to resort to prostitution and survival sex in order to be able to provide for their dependents.
Youth and Women unemployment has had a devastating impact on rural people’s lives in Kayunga affecting not just the unemployed person but also family members and the wider community as there is limited access to sufficient training and practice facilities/equipment which makes it extremely hard for interested learners to attain the best form of training and experience required. Equally perturbing is the fact that vocational education and training is not considered particularly attractive and is seen as the last resort for those unable to afford an academic education.
RIDE- UGANDA recognizes that a productive, competent, and flexible workforce is a prerequisite for furthering local economic development. The demand for skilled workers and technicians is high and will become ever more intense as the private industrial sector becomes the dominant provider of employment. RIDE-UGANDA has implemented several Literacy, Vocational and Micro-entrepreneurial Skills Training Projects that have benefited hundreds of local Youth and Women in Kayunga.