Thousands Benefit from Skill Training Bursaries

As President Hichilema prepares to mark three years in office this month students on the Copperbelt have thanked government for coming up with an initiative to introduce bursaries for skills development.

As detailed in a report by ZNBC’s Hector Simfukwe, thousands of young people are now pursuing their dreams under the Constituency Development Fund (CDF), the majority of whom had no hope of developing their skills due to lack of money.

One student Thelma Ngandu stated, “This education is going to help in my life…. I finished my grade 12 in 2014 but I didn’t have money to sponsor myself so its really a great privilege. This government is really helping me to have this opportunity to study this course.”

Since taking office the New Dawn government has increased the CDF from K1.6 million to K30.8 million per constituency, with 20% allocated to youth and women empowerment and 20% to secondary school and skills development bursaries.

The initiative has also been a boost skills training institutions, many of which have increased their enrolment rates including Kitwe Vocation Training Center (KVTC), where management say they are grateful to government for introducing CDF bursaries.

Commenting on the development KVTC deputy acting principal Osward Kabwela stated “We used to have low numbers when they had to pay for themselves. Now we have more numbers from CDF,” saying the funds had helped them to address some of the challenges they were facing.

The full ZNBC report is available at: https://www.facebook.com/share/v/EJnAtfNBtE9ZT462/?mibextid=UalRPS