By Innocent Kachingwe

Blantyre, June 3, Mana: Sanwecka Tech Companions is set to resume its trainings this week in the three major cities of Blantyre, Lilongwe and Mzuzu in a bid to equip the youth with vocational and practical skills.

Sanwecka Tech Companions offers different courses which include phone repairing, Information and Communication Technology and computer use, computer repairing, dish installation, video production and graphic designing.

According to the company registration of participants is now in progress.

In an interview with Malawi News Agency (Mana) on Monday in Lilongwe, Sanwecka Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Rasheed Kasito said the registration process was going on well as 70 people have already registered in Blantyre and phone repairing being the most registered course.

“Of course, the figure might go up since there are others that just reserved their places and they will finalise their registration when they come to Blantyre because they stay in far places,” he said.

Kasito added that apart from Blantyre, Lilongwe and Mzuzu, Sanwecka operates in other districts through remote trainings with an aim of reaching the people in those remote areas.

He said new packages have been introduced whereby they are offering three months long trainings and after the trainings they would provide business incubation for another one year on top of start-up tools, where students will be under Sanwecka's supervision on how they could establish and start their businesses.

“On top of that the trainees will have access to funding whereby they can get the loan at FDH Bank using the Technical Entrepreneurial and Vocational Education and Training Authority (TEVETA) partnership that we have in place,” the CEO added.

Kasito said the trainings contribute to youth empowerment as they start business and create job opportunities for others; hence, generating income to support themselves and their families.

“To ensure that this is achieved we make sure that we provide entrepreneurship workshops on how they can earn income; secondly, we drill them in marketing on how they can connect with their customers to build long term relationships,” he said.

One of the Sanwecka training beneficiaries, Matthews Shaba commended Sanwecka for the initiative, saying they have really provided him with practical skills.

He encouraged those that have nothing to do to register with Sanwecka.

“I was trained by Sanwecka for six weeks and this has been the best thing I have done as I am already making earning an income through my business of phone repairing,” Shaba said.