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Kitgum, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Kitgum Municipal Council has secured 30 scholarship slots for underprivileged youths. The selected beneficiaries will undergo rigorous training on skills development at the Acholi Industrial Hub in Gulu.
The Acholi Industrial Hub is one of the 22 zonal hubs established countrywide through the Presidential Initiative on Skills Development to empower disadvantaged youths aged between 18 and 28, who have been unable to get an opportunity to attain formal education and join the money economy.
The Kitgum Municipal Mayor Richard Ojara Okwera says that the municipal council has agreed that the 30 slots be equally shared between the three divisions of Pandwong, Central and Pager with each administrative unit taking 10 slots.
According to Ojara, the youths will be trained in bricklaying and concrete practice (BCP), bakery and confectionery, tailoring and knitting, carpentry, shoe making, welding, hairdressing and value-addition among others.
Ojara asked those who will be in charge of selecting beneficiaries from their respective administrative entities to exhibit transparency, be gender-sensitive and avoid politicizing the process.
The Municipal Education Officer Harriet Atim Okot says the beneficiaries will not pay any fees. According to Okot, the selected beneficiaries will undergo training for six months before graduating with certificates in the different disciplines offered by the Directorate of Industrial Training (DIT).
Richard Okello, a parent, has hailed the government for giving a chance for uneducated youth to get skills that will enable them to fight poverty, reduce unemployment rates and redundancy in their places of origin.
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