DAPP Mikolongwe Training Youth in Shoe Making
DAPP Malawi through Mikolongwe Vocational School introduced an informal Shoe Making course in November 2017 to train youth and fill the gap in the shoe making industry in Malawi. According to the Deputy Principal for the School Zechariah Viano, the course is targeting the less privileged youth like orphans who meet the selection criteria. On the other hand, he said in Malawi there was only the Malawi Council for the Handicapped (MACOHA) that trained people with disabilities in shoe making hence the need to train more youth.
“Currently there are 31 students being trained, 16 are at Mikolongwe Vocational School campus while 15 are at DAPP Mzimba TTC. They will be trained for six months but for those with outstanding performances they may be encouraged to further their studies,” he said.
The course is being run with funding from Sympany of Netherlands which also supplied Mikolongwe with the training equipment. Since this is a sponsored program, the young women and men to be trained are identified from districts around the vocational school with assistance from the District Youth Offices.
Apart from being equipped with the skills, the students are also introduced to entrepreneurship courses so that they can ably startup businesses upon completion of the training. Upon completion of the course, the students will be provided with startup tools in order for them to set up small scale businesses.
