Mozambique: Inhaca Health Centre without water, X-ray and ultrasound services
Photo: O País
Thirty-four thousand young people in the city of Maputo will undergo short technical and professional training courses this year, providing them with skills that will improve their chances of employment.
Mozambique, and Maputo City in particular, hosts several initiatives aimed at addressing youth unemployment.
Lampião Manuel is a professional locksmith from Tete who became self-employed when the company he worked for went bankrupt in 1992. Lampião says that, along the way, he has trained many people, including brothers, friends and neighbours. For him, self-employment is the best way to overcome unemployment.
“I have been here in the workshop for a long time. I worked in many places, and I think that others could follow my example. I make my livelihood with a job that I myself created,” he says.
This Tuesday, the academic year at the Employment and Vocational Training Institute (INEFP) in the City of Maputo opened, an event attended by a portion of the 34,000 young people who will be trained by the Centre for Professional Training in Electro-technics in the country’s capital this year.
Sílvio de Sousa has completed a specialist auto mechanics short training course, and has already identified the way forward. He says he is going to open a workshop.
“I want to open a workshop with various specialties. I want to help other young people, as I myself was helped,” he says.
Youth and employment authorities in Maputo are committed to reducing unemployment through vocational courses. Elias Wiliam, Director of Youth in Maputo City, told reporters that the goal was to train young people so that they would be better able to compete in the job market.
“We will also focus our attention generally on the professional training of young people, equipping them with the professional technical knowledge needed for an increasingly competitive job market,” he said.
He was supported by the Director of Labour and Social Security, Jafar Buana.
“Vocational training is not an end in itself. The end is employment, and what makes employment possible is training, which is why, in our national policy, we have two regimes: professional training and self-employment,” Buana explained when he led a delegation of Maputo officials and cooperation partners on a visit to one of the training centres.
United Nations figures indicate that, in 2017, 40% of young Mozambicans were unemployed.
By Amândio Borges
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