Youth Skills Day 2023

Teaching practical skills gives our children opportunity for:

• decent work
• entrepreneurship
• increased economic opportunity
• a life away from poverty

The skills they learn at school are tailored to the needs of local employers, meaning that they are ready to fill available positions in the local economy. The children are supported into work, and their teachers and the Sisters provide career guidance, helping children to find their passions and talents, utilise their skills and pursue a career which fulfils their potential.

The moment our girls start to learn technical skills they are able and motivated to use them to support themselves and their families. In 2020, our first-year girls had only had a few months of vocational training, learning to sew. Yet at home for three months during the pandemic lockdown, they were able to start using these skills to help their families. The girls would take in small sewing jobs in their home communities to help earn some money for their families to get them through the pandemic. They also continue to do this during their vacations from school.

In this way, their skills made an immediate and real impact on their families, giving them a small bit of extra income to help see them through the worst of the pandemic.

Addressing generational skills gaps

Training in practical skills changes the lives of generations of young people. They go on to raise families with enough income to not only feed and educate their children, but also with skills and knowledge that they pass on to younger generations.