When you visit the TVET (BildungsWerk der Baden-Württembergischen Wirtschaft e.V (BiWe) Partnership Project 2021 intake, you find more girls in class doing the same activities of welding and plumbing as boys. They urge them to learn and be able to improve their TVET skills to cope with the labour market in Rwanda. Esther Uwase is one of the girls pursuing her studies in Welding.
Like many young people, Esther Uwase, 24, did not get a chance to find a job after completing high school. Esther went to secondary school and she did Mathematics, Economics and Geography (MEG) however, she did not find anything to do for almost three years.
In August 2021, she joined the welding trade in dual training under the sponsorship of the TVET-BiWe Partnership Project in order to fulfill her dream of being an entrepreneur in welding.
“I sat down and asked myself how can I improve my knowledge in welding and therefore it can benefit my family and the community at large. Then, I started with little capital and I managed to buy the same materials.
One day, a team from our sector level visited me and they connected me with the TVET-BiWe Partnership Project. I have closed my small business of welding to follow up my studies.”
She is targeting to reopen her small business after the completion of her studies in welding. She dreams to be an entrepreneur in a welding business in order to build her income sustainability.
She thanked the TVET-BiWe Partnership Project for its support of vulnerable youth. She said, “I am thankful for the support that Biwe has given to us, without them I could not have achieved my dreams of being an entrepreneur in welding in the future”, Esther said.
As a young girl, Jeanne Uwanyirigira, 23 years, never gave up on herself or her education despite growing up in an abject poverty family. She was always determined to pursue her education by studying hard and succeeding in life. Unfortunately, she did not manage to get a job after school completion.
Uwanyirigira hopes that she will do her best after completing the welding course funded by the TVET-BiWe Partnership Project. Jeanne is now a skilled welder and is confident to compete in the labor market after training completion.
Unemployment crisis
Rwanda has a uniquely young population with 26.6% of youth aged 16 to 30 years. In 2018, the youth unemployment rate was at 18.7% and 29.5% of young people live in households that are below the poverty line. The rate of extreme poverty among youth (16-30) is 11.3% compared to 16% at the national level for all ages.
The TVET-BiWe Partnership Project is a youth empowerment project that started in November 2017, targeting to support 240 youth in various vocational trades including welding, plumbing, tailoring, etc, which contributes to the Economic Transformation Pillar of Rwanda’s National Strategy for Transformation (NST1), which pledges to create 214,000 decent and productive, jobs annually.
The TVET-BiWe Partnership Project is supported by 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).