ICT Helps Young People in Zambia Increase Their Employment Chances
Teachers at the Youth
Resource
Centres apply the
computer
skills they acquire
to courses
such as car
mechanics
carpentry and
tailoring.
 Disadvantaged young adults are turning to computers to help them enhance their life skills. After initial basic training courses in IICD-supported Youth Resource Centres in Zambia, young people have learned to run a restaurant with a professional computer programme or use Excel to calculate measurements and make engineering drawings in the design of wood products.
A good example of how young people are implementing their newly acquired skills can be found at the Youth Resource Centre in Kalingalinga, a suburb of Lusaka. Here, the youngsters are learning skills such as carpentry, home economics and farming to provide them with better opportunities for the future. Computers are becoming increasingly important for the organisation.
Cooperation with the Ministry of Youth
The use of ICT for life skills training, first adopted by two Youth Resource Centres in Ndola and Chawama, was successfully up-scaled. Today, ten other Youth Resource Centres now benefit from the Chawama and Ndola approach and experience. The Ministry of Youth, Sport and Child Development has therefore asked the Chawama and Ndola Youth Resource Centres to continue to build capacity and advise other Youth Resource Centres on the deployment of ICT at centre level.
For more information about the Chawama Youth Project (CYP), contact Rodgers Mulenga, Secretary General of CYP: youth2004project@yahoo.co.uk
For more information about IICD’s activities in Zambia, contact Olaf Erz, Zambia Country Programme Manager: oerz@iicd.org
In a food production class, young people have learned how to run a restaurant. By using a computer, they can then design and print menus for the restaurant and use the computers to find recipes of international dishes on the world wide web.
In the carpentry and tailoring classes, computers are primarily used to calculate precise sizes and produce designs for products such as tables and chairs. This saves time for the carpenters and cuts out errors from drawing by hand.
Ben Sambambi, Manager of the Kalingalinga Youth Resource Centre says, “All seventeen teachers who work here have first been trained to use a computer, and now, in their lessons, our students are also benefiting from this.”
Throughout Zambia, ten Youth Resource Centres now use information and communication technology (ICT) in a similar way to assist students and teachers with their regular classes. This programme is based on the experiences of the IICD-supported Chawama Youth Centres and the IICD-supported Ndola Youth Resource Centre Projects.
These projects assist young adults in the township of Chawama and the township of Ndola by offering ‘life skills’ courses in subjects such as auto mechanics, tailoring, carpentry, electrical installation and ICT, giving young people a better chance of finding a job.
Staff members from the Chawama Youth Centre will also be present at the eLearning Africa conference in Zambia to answer questions and share their experiences.
Source: IICD
March 25, 2010
 Newsportal: Technical and Vocational Education
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