In partnership with a German organization, BildungsWerk der Baden-Württembergischen Wirtschaft e.V (BiWe) through SOS Children’s Villages in Rwanda started targeted interventions for Youth Empowerment through the Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) Programme.

This is aligned with the Economic Transformation Pillar of Rwanda’s National Strategy for Transformation (NST1) which pledges to create 214,000 decent and productive jobs annually.

A major challenge is the lack of market-responsive skills, especially in vocational training. In order to address that, SOS Children’s Villages in Rwanda through the TVE T-BiWe Partnership Project is implementing the ‘Dual training’ approach to facilitate youth to be ready for the labor market.

The project consists of parallel learning at the school and in-company training (or apprenticeship). These apprenticeships are made possible through Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) that SOS Children’s Villages in Rwanda sign with companies.

It is in that regard, TVET-BiWe Partnership Project organized field visits with different TVET Companies in Rwanda and a one-day meeting to explain their philosophy to strengthen vulnerable youth.

”Vulnerable youth unemployment is a growing concern in our country. This issue needs to be a concern to everyone in our country and needs to be seriously addressed, by engaging both the Public and Private sectors. We thank everyone here who is willing to work closely with the TVET-BiWe Partnership Project to strengthen our youth and Rwanda as well”, the Head of Projects and RBM Mr. Gakuba George explained.

The TVET-BiWe Partnership Project Coordinator Francoise Mutoneshe said that the secret of the project is to conduct a needs assessment of companies before the trainees’ attachment.

“Initial training is offered to the trainees for three months at the school, then from the fourth month, a trainee substitutes one month in the company and one month at school, and then the last three months are all spent in the company”, explained Francoise.

The TVET-BiWe Partnership Project is implemented since November 2017 with the funds of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) through sequa gGmbH and under the management of BildungsWerk der Baden-Württembergischen Wirtschaft e.V (BiWe).