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Rotarians sign up for NMG Youth Skills Fest
The General Manager Commercial at NMG-U, Mr Sam Barata (3rd left), together with the president Rotary Club of Muyenga Tank Hill, Mr Godfrey Kivumbi (3rd right) and other Rotarians at the signing of the partnership on Monday. PHOTO/ STEPHEN OTAGE
What you need to know:
About 2,000 youth are expected to grace the event where they be trained in electronics, media lab, cooking skills, carpentry, and tailoring, among others.
The Nation Media Group Uganda (NMG-U) says the Youth Skills Festival scheduled for August 16 and 17 has started attracting partners seeking to empower youth with skills for employment, decent work, and entrepreneurship.
While receiving a team of Rotarians on Monday, Mr Sam Barata, the general manager commercial at NMG-U, said about 2,000 youth are expected to grace the event where they be trained in electronics, media lab, cooking skills, carpentry, and tailoring at the shared spaces factory at Motiv on Port Bell Road.
“Those will be the five major areas, and there will be some master classes in between, which will give more insights on what is happening, what the options are, and those labs will have one hour and a half each for actual skills. We need people to register for the classes, and this is first-come, first-served,” he said. While signing up a partnership with Rotary District 9214 and the Retract Club District 9214 on Monday, Mr Barata explained that the Youth Skills Fest is aimed at bringing to life the realisation that young people can make a living outside academics using their skills, passion, or talent.
He said many other partners are signing up to make the event bigger and better. He added that to participate in the festival, NMG media outlets--KFM, NTV, Daily Monitor through their social media pages, and supermarkets are sharing a QR code that has options for the sessions participants would like to attend.
Asked what has motivated them to join NMG and the partners to equip youth with skills, Mr Godfrey Kivumbi, the president of Rotary Club of Muyenga Tank Hill, said when they started another project known as Pathfinders, their mission was to equip 500 of their youthful members known as Rotaractors with special skills to tackle projects which would require a lot of money to accomplish.
Mr Kivumbi said they have been able to execute them with a minimal amount of money.
“Rotary has been involved in all kinds of big projects like Polio Plus, which is a worldwide project in which we have eradicated polio from the face of the world. To do things like that, we have to give,” he said.
“We have to commit. So, when Rotaractors leave these institutions, they’ve got to be able to find jobs,” he added.
Justification
Mr Kivumbi explained that they usually engage their older club members to mentor Rotaractors with the needed skills that enable them to fit within the spaces where they can find meaningful jobs in the corporate world.
He said the Rotary clubs that have offered to share their skills and resources include the Rotary Club of Muyenga Tank Hill, in partnership with Rotaract 9214, the Rotary Club of Bwebajja, and the Rotary Club of Kiggo Seven Lakes Golf, which are spearheading the initiative.
Other partners who have already signed up include Victory School of Beauty and Hospitality, and Sai Pali Institute of Technology and Management.
