Vera Schaffer
Program Manager DR Congo
â–º E-mail
Project Number: 197.1809
The craft school in Wamba-Luadi offers a solid vocational training within the framework of a four-year course in carpentry, in the building trade and since the beginning of 2020 also in forestry, pedagogy and a commercial training. It is a state-approved training institute with its own facilities and accommodation for the learners and teaching staff. Thanks to their education in the training center, young men and women get a good chance in the labor market. After completing their apprenticeship, the graduates of the carpentry training receive a set of hand tools, which is an important start for them in their professional life.
Background information
| In the Democratic Republic of Congo, young adults have few job prospects. On average, 60 percent of young people between the ages of 15 and 24 are unemployed. This makes it difficult for many to support themselves, start a family and contribute to the development of their country. Young people from rural areas are particularly affected, for example in the isolated and hard-to-reach Kwango province in the west of the country. They lack vocational training opportunities. Against this background, the vocational school in Wamba-Luadi is of central importance. The village is located about 600 kilometers from the capital Kinshasa. The school was founded in 1983 with the support of the Evangelical Mission in the Kwango (EMIK) as a craft school and has since been run by the partner church CEK. In the meantime, a handicraft school has become a state-approved vocational school with training opportunities that offer career prospects in the Kwango. |
Project goals
| Thanks to good learning services, the vocational school in Wamba-Luadi can position itself as a leading and independent vocational school in Kwango Province. It contributes to the development of rural society and promotes, among other things, the production of affordable furniture and sustainable construction with locally produced materials. It also works to combat the effects of climate change by achieving reforestation, forest conservation and bushfire suppression. |
Target group
| The craft school offers three-year vocational training to teenagers, young men and women. They come from the province of Kwango and with their training they create the basis for improving their chances on the labor market. The vocational school graduates are also accompanied and supported after their studies in order to find a job. |
Activities
- The craft school offers a solid four-year training in various fields for young adults from the province of Kwango: carpentry, construction (masonry), forestry, pedagogy and a commercial training.
- Motivation of young women for vocational training
- Further training for the teachers
- The school of handicrafts improves its infrastructure and offers the learners good workplaces, hand tools and adapted accommodation
- Promoting the craft school's own income through the sale of furniture, the establishment of a school garden
- Increasing income opportunities for graduates through the handover of toolkits and the establishment of production facilities
- Outreach to protect nature and the environment: reforestation, bushfire suppression, forest conservation, seedling production.
Project progress
| The training courses in pedagogy, commercial training, carpentry and masonry training, and the forestry specialization continue as planned. With 81 students (in 2022, carpentry training continues to be by far the most important training course. 7 young men were enrolled in masonry training, as well as 38 young adults in the other training courses (20 of whom were girls). Infrastructure projects were implemented during the non-training periods. In addition, reforestation measures are being carried out on site and some distance away in order to promote a sustainable timber industry on the one hand, and to specifically combat climate change on the other. As part of the long-standing cooperation with the Philipp-Matthäus-Hahn School in Nürtingen, tool kits are handed out to trained carpenters. The next transport will take place in August 2023. This basic equipment is intended to make it easier for the young professionals to start their working lives. |
DR Congo
- About 84 million inhabitants
- 60 learners are enrolled at the Wamba-Luadi School of Handicrafts
- 60% Youth unemployment
Project budget 2024
CHF 44'850
