By Pickson Chipeso.

Lilongwe, November 4, Mana: DVV International Organization says that adult education through vocational training is helping people in many ways for them to be more self-sufficient.

In an interview with Malawi News Agency (Mana), Communication Officer Dyson Nthawanji, mentioned that the participants are benefiting through vocational training because they are getting much needed skills.

He added that people are dedicating themselves, starting from entire communities to chiefs who are in the fore front in supporting the project because they are the ones who provide the infrastructure for learning centres. He also said that after graduating they can be independent and buy tailoring machines for business purposes.

“In implementing the project, we don't choose the infrastructure ourselves; it is the communities, particularly the chiefs, who volunteer to provide it. They also include members of the committee that oversees the activities of these classes. This commitment and dedication from the community have been key to the progress in all the projects that integrate adult education and other interventions through Community Learning Centres.

“For your own information, soon after tailoring training they are also given entrepreneurship skills in order to conduct tailoring as a viable business, so that they should make profits and be able to market the products which they make,” he said.

Furthermore, he said that these vocational training skills are in line with the Malawi 2063 because this program is targeting communities and they want to see that our country will be better than before.

“So, by acquiring vocational skills, it will help those people who were just idle in the communities to start engaging in income activities. If they engage in income activities, they will be able to raise money to support their family and community, as a result, many communities will be developed and this will be a great contribution from community initiatives to the Malawi 2063, which is a development blueprint for the country,” Nthawanji explained.

In his remarks, education expert Dr. Limbani Nsapato said adult education is critical because it is part of human capital development and it ensures that relevant skills are imparted on people especially communities in rural areas.

He added that, remote area communities have a lot of challenges such as poverty, diseases and other issues that need to be addressed by interventions like literacy programs. DVV international is supporting adult literacy and vocational training as one way of promoting quality education, human capital development and contribute to the Malawi 2063.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

“As you know that in Malawi 2063, human capital development is imparting the skills for development, so the training that have been done under the adult literacy and education programs as well as vocational training help to  give the capacity of the communities’ skills in a way of enhancing the capital development in the Malawi 2063,” said Nsapato.

DVV international has Community Learning Centres in Dowa and Ntchisi and tailoring training in Zomba Central Prison.