Graduate Follow Up Program

Graduate Follow Up Program

SCHOOL

Amelo Technical Institute is a government aided school that was started in 2015 in Adjumani District, north west of Uganda. The Institute targets children from poor socio-economic background, refugees from the neighboring host communities and other interested youth equipping them with the relevant vocational skills to enable them create/find employment.

COMMUNITY

Spanning (200 square miles) Adjumani District serves the educational needs in this northern part of Uganda and the neighboring country South Sudan. Located within the border of Uganda and South Sudan, it therefore, enjoys a huge economic base and serves as a host community to thousands of refugees from South Sudan making it culturally diverse.

ADMISSION

The Amelo Technical Institute carries out two categories of admission i.e. the formal and non-formal. The formal admission attracts students who hold Uganda Certificate of Education (U.C.E) and majority of whom are sponsored by the Government of Uganda. The non-formal admission attracts children who don’t hold any academic qualification mostly primary/secondary school drop-outs, refugees’ kids and other vulnerable groups within the community. Majority of these non-formal students are sponsored by Non-Governmental Organizations.

CURRICULUM

We offer courses that are driven by the demands of the economy. The courses are customized to harmonize with what the employers are eagerly looking for, this ensures that our students stay on-demand in the midst of the changing work-related demands by employers.

The following craft courses are offered leading to award of Uganda Business and Technical Examination Board (UBTEB) certificate and also certificate from Directory of Industrial Training (DIT).

• Welding
• Fashion and garments
• Agricultural mechanization
• Building
• Computer application
• Hair dressing
• Catering and hotel management

WHY VOCATIONAL TRAINING?

Vocational Education and Training (VET) has got immense benefits when it comes to enhancing potential, talent and or passion thus spiraling your career prospects.

The term ‘vocational’ actually means ‘work-related’. So if you are doing a vocational course, it means you are learning skills that will help you to get, and do a job.

Below are some of the other benefits of technical education: –

• Enrolling in technical courses can further help you develop professional skills, improve your current skills or re-train you for new employment. VET courses gives you the hands-on skills and expertise you require in many aspects of life preparing you to fit in the ever-changing global workplace.
• There is good attitude towards work, graduates physically engage themselves from start to finish of a project.
• Technical education courses tend to be more affordable than the conventional education programs. This gives you more financial freedom and considerably less debt compared to other academic pursuits.
• Less time to complete. Here, you stand a better chance to join the workforce in a much shorter time than graduates of other academic programs. And this is good news to you because you will have a head-start earning income and making the much needed savings in life.

CHALLENGES FACED BY GRADUATES

Despite the various interventions by government to ensure that technical school graduates are well equipped with the requisite skills for the job market, it has not attracted the youth in the region to move into technical and vocational training because of these reasons but not limited to: –

• Majority of children in this region including refugee children from the war ravaged Southern Sudan cannot afford even the low cost of technical education.
• there is low uptake of final year students by the different companies during industrial attachment thereby limiting most technical graduates from getting employment in their respective fields of training
• The linkage between the technical schools and the job market is not strong enough. The technical schools have not been able to access opportunities for industrial attachment/ training for both students and training instructors. As a result, the practical skill training is not closely related with the demand in the job market. This could be avoided if these industrial companies could provide space for these students to actualize the skills learnt in schools in the real practical world.
• Most graduates do not possess own basic tools/ equipment to usher them into creating own jobs after school simply because most of these tools are quite expensive for example for one to start a welding business, he or she would need to part with thousands of dollars.
• Large class sizes do not match with the inadequate supply and provision of training resources. These inadequacies have a negative impact on the required skills for the job market.

 

 

OUR PLEA

Interestingly, a tool-acquisition scheme under the production unit system can be set up. By means of this scheme, the graduate would use the income realized from the income generating activity they undertake to acquire basic tools for themselves. This arrangement over a period of time could assist students acquire basic tools to help them take off smoothly in the job market especially in the areas of self-employment individually or cooperatively on a micro or small scale basis. However as a school, we lack the financial muscle to set up this kind of project.

We also call for support for development partners like European Union, World Bank and other education well-wishers to come in and play mitigating roles through

• Promotion of technical education
• Establishment of linkages with the labor market through strengthened cooperation between industries and vocational education and/ or vocational institutions/students and by offering of the supporting tools.
• Improvement of the teachers/ training instructors’ professional development.
• Supporting technical training for vulnerable groups for example girl child, disabled persons, widows, refugees so that they may improve on their livelihood.
• Introduction and funding of entrepreneurial and innovative schemes to support the teaching of market relevant courses in technical schools.