Online Reporter
Mthabisi Tshuma recently in Bulilima
VILLAGERS from Bulilima district under Ward 17 (Ntunungwe) are currently receiving life skills training in courtesy of Tonganyika Trust.
The programme was brought to the areas by Bulilima legislator Cde Dingumuzi Phuti who is also the Deputy Minister of ICT and Courier Services as means to create a society that has the potential to change their lives.
The vocational skills training programme which started last Sunday is being held at Mlomwe Primary School and Ntunungwe Secondary school where 300 villagers mostly youths are being taught with the initiative set to end on Saturday.
A graduation ceremony is expected to be held on Sunday where Tourism and Hospitality Industry Deputy Minister Tongai Mnangagwa who is also the founder of the Tonganyika Trust organisation will officiate.
The villagers are being trained courses that range from hotel and catering, beauty therapy, welding, mortuary assistance, detergent making and caregiving among others.
Tonganyika Trust chief training officer Mr Norwel Gonese said the programme is meant to ensure that villagers are able to fend for themselves.
“This is a National Enterpreneurship Development Programme that we are rolling out in Bulilima district which becomes the first beneficiaries in the Matabeleland South province. Our aim is to ensure the villagers acquire skills that can see them set up their own businesses.
“The programme has been well received and supported by the locals and we anticipate to move to other wards around the district,” said Mr Gonese.
Cde Phuti said the initiative shows that Bulilima is simply walking on the steps of the President Emmerson Mnangagwa on the need to vocationalise education.
“To vocationalise our education means that there shall be skills development in every sector and we don’t want to leave the rural folks behind. As such, whether they have qualifications or they have good marks in terms of their ordinary levels and the general certificate of education advanced level, it does not
matter.
“They just don’t have to be.
left behind. So, we brought this team to come and train them so that they give them life skills. They are affording them an opportunity to participate in the village industrialisation process,
where they should be able to monetise their skills to earn a living,” said Cde Phuti.
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