Final year university students to work in districts – Mozambique

Login

Register

http://www.clubofmozambique.com/

Final year university students to work in districts – Mozambique

8:19 CAT | 06 Jan 2017

AEFUM Facebook (File photo)

The Mozambican Association of Final Year University Students (AEFUM) intends to send about 650 students from various courses to participate in this year’s edition of the Programme “Holidays Developing the District” (PFDD).

This is the 12th edition of the programme, and it will run from 16 January to 17 February. The purpose is for the finalists to make an academic contribution to identifying and taking advantage of the opportunities that the districts offer.

The AEFUM General Coordinator, Osvaldo Mauaie, told a Maputo press conference on Thursday that the programme, which has involved over 5,000 students in its 11 previous editions, is of great importance in that it opens windows of opportunity both for the students and for the country.

Of the 5,000 previous participants, “over 1,500 have been integrated directly by obtaining jobs in the districts”, said Mauaie. “Others, who managed to identify business opportunities, developed their ideas and returned as entrepreneurs.

So far, he added, 957 students across the country have signed up to this year’s edition of the programme. After a definitive selection is made, the students will attend training seminars, before heading off to work for a month in the districts.

The seminars will be held in Maputo City and in the ten other provincial capitals. The Maputo seminar will be chaired by the Minister of Science and Technology, Jorge Nhambiu.

The purpose of the seminars, said Mauaie, is to give the students a general overview of the reality they will face in the districts, in terms of challenges and opportunities.

The logistics of moving the finalists to and from the districts is a responsibility shared by the programme’s partners, such as the national airline, LAM (which will issue air tickets at a preferential price) and the Ministry of Land, Environment and Rural Development.

AEFUM also intends to set up a Technical Assistance Office which will ensure that, once students have identified an opportunity in a particular district, their ideas will be translated into specific plans.

In July, AEFUM will hold a national fair of projects, where the students will display their initiatives in the hope of attracting support from businesses. AEFUM hopes to establish partnerships so that the finalists’ ideas are shaped into projects that will assist the future of the students and also of the country.

Source: AIM