About 500 youths have secured jobs through direct employment and self-employment, thanks to the Ajira kwa Vijana project executed by the Employment and Skills for Development in Africa (E4D) and other partners under the coordination of the Prime Minister’s Office.
The project, based on strengthening the institutional and technical capacities of Tanzanian Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) institutions, was implemented in three major regions namely, Dar es Salaam, Tanga and Dodoma.
Speaking in Dar es Salaam on Wednesday, the facilitator of the project, Festus Ouko said during the implementation of the 18-month project, about 1,200 youths were trained at Kipawa VETA college as well as the National College of Tourism (NCT).
After imparting skills to the said group, Ouko added, the youth were equipped with starter kits, ready to enter the labor market.
He mentioned the training offered to youth as, telephone fixing training, engineering, electrical and mechanical while those attending NCT were trained on hospitality and food processing.
“Among our strategies, we set ourselves to discuss with employers, we presented the youth to and helped them get employed, and to others we provided them with an internship fee. There are some youths who are in difficult situations such that they can’t even afford the fee, so we helped them as well,” he stated.
Carten Andrson, the Executive Director of Forum for International Cooperation (FIC), organizers of the project said he was pleased with the outcome of the project.
“This young people get the education they can use. Not just here but all over the world we see many countries; young people take University studies afterward they are taxi drivers or something like that.
“Here they have a very good chance to get a job. I am proud of this project, just newly educated, can get a job, that is awesome,” the Director said.
The Project is implemented in Tanzania by GIZ and is jointly financed by BMZ, the European Union (EU), the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD), and the Korean International Cooperation Agency (KOICA).
