70% of all youth participants in our vocational education program to date have been early school leavers–youth who were forced to drop out of school early due to lack of school fees, early pregnancy, or help needed at home. Leaving school early makes it extremely challenging for these female youth to access formal employment opportunities. Vocational education can offer a pathway to work .
First, Mtindo works with vulnerable youth and we know that to prepare them for employment it goes beyond the technical skills. This is why we include holistic training in life-skills. This additional training component allows us to invest in the youth as a whole to fully equip them with the skills, tools, and confidence to access employment.
Second, unlike most vocational institutions we create direct pathways to employment through our tailoring factory. In most cases, tailoring graduates only have the ability to pursue entrepreneurship. Mtindo is changing this by creating formal employment opportunities in tailoring for our less entrepreneurial graduates.
Lastly, our program also reduces the barrier to entry to entrepreneurship for our youth by financing a sewing machine for every student.
To date Mtindo has trained over 70 women and directly created jobs for 20 women in our factory. Mtindo is looking to scale up our operations by investing in a permanent structure that will enable our operations to grow faster. Currently, our growth is constrained by our current space. This is a project that will take a capital investment of $100,000. The development of this structure will enhance our growth, enabling our team to skill 280 youth and directly create employment for 155 women over the next three years. In ten years, this investment will allow us to reach over 1,000 women per year.
Mtindo is quickly on track to become the largest employer of women in northern Uganda and ultimately Uganda.
Please reach out to our founder Susan Namirimu over email susan@mtindo.org.
