The India-Africa Vocational Training and Incubation Centre officially opened on January 16, 2015 in Rwanda will support young in growing their own businesses and creating jobs for themselves and their peers.
The centre has been funded by the Government of India and was built in partnership with Rwanda’s Workforce Development Authority (WDA).
The launch ceremony was attended by India’s Minister for Small and Medium Enterprises, Kalraj Mshra and his Rwandan counterpart, Albert Nsengiyumva, State Minister in the Ministry of Education in charge of Technical and Vocational Education and Training.
Speaking at the launch, Minister Nsengiyumva spoke of the government’s plan to replicate the centre in different parts of the country.
“We will establish vocational training and incubation centres across Rwanda to help achieve the government’s target of creating 200,000 off-farm jobs per year.”
Minister Mshra stressed the importance of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in economic development.
He said that over the last 50 years in India, SMEs have contributed about 80 per cent of gross domestic product and employed around 80 million Indians.
Rwanda supports SMEs as they play a big role in the country’s economic development, especially as an engine of job creation.
The incubation centre currently has 150 trainees in eleven technologies. The centre has 16 teachers who train students in baking, tomato ketchup and fruit juice making, edible oil extraction, packaging, soy milk extraction, automatic wire nail manufacturing, paper napkin manufacturing.
Others include toilet roll making, knitting, stitching and embroidery, cell phone preparing, potato chips manufacturing, popcorn making, ice cream cone making, air conditioners and refrigeration, fashion designing, mini offset printing and crockery.
The government re-energised TVETs to provide a strategic response to the skills development challenges facing the country across all sectors of the economy.
The number of students enrolled in TVET schools has increased with time, going from 51,773 in 2010 to 83,909 in 2013, thus increasing the prevalence of technical skills available in the job market.
Currently, Rwanda has 307 TVET schools with each district having at least 4 schools. The national target is to have 60 percent of students graduating from nine-year basic education (9YBE) enrolled into Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) system by 2017.
The global youth unemployment rate increased to 12.4% in 2012 and has continued to grow to 12.6 percent in 2013.
With nearly 74 million young people unemployed worldwide, youth-guarantees programs may help keep youth connected to the labor market by boosting skills and giving them support to find jobs.
Rwanda’s plan to reach medium-term development over the next five years, states that youth employment is one of the four thematic areas on which EDPRS2 will focus — the others being economic transformation, rural development, and accountable governance.
