Hundreds of students have graduated after acquiring skills from Zonal Industrial Hubs.
According to information shared on the State House Uganda Twitter page, graduations have so far been held in Sebei Zonal Industrial Hub, Bugisu Zonal Industrial Hub, and Lango Zonal Industrial Hub.
215 graduated from Bugisu and 218 from Lango, according to the tweet, which didn't reveal numbers from Sebei.
Jane Barekye, the Statehouse Comptroller, who officiated the handover of Level I Certificates from the Directorate of Industrial Training (DIT), said: "Thank you for accepting to be trained. The skills you have acquired will help you comfortably join the money economy.”
The training, which took five months, focused on skills like baking, block making, stone cutting, shoemaking, tailoring and knitting, coffee and maize processing, welding, and hairdressing.
Gilbert Olanya, the MP for Kilak South, said: "As a country, we need to go for education that introduces the youths to jobs directly. Therefore, what we have now,(Zonal industrial hub initiative), is going to change Uganda tremendously".
She added: "I came here purposely to appreciate this wonderful program for skilling our youths. If Government started this program earlier on, I think by now we would have been far. This is the best program so far. Skilling the youths is the way to go".
The training is entirely sponsored by the government.
The government has set up 21 hubs across the country to revolutionize youth empowerment while promoting social transformation of Ugandan society from a predominantly peasant and low-income economy to a competitive middle-income economy