By Damali Mukhaye
The government plans to make vocational studies at all levels of education across the country mandatory, Mr John Chrysostom Muyingo, the Minister for Higher Education, has said.Mr Muyingo said he was working on a document that will compel all educational institutions to ground learners in at least one skill so as to make them employable even when they drop out of school.“I am doing everything possible to ensure that vocational training becomes mandatory. All education programmes should have an element of vocational training. All youths should utilise the available skilling opportunities to acquire relevant skills,” he said.The minister was speaking at the release of Uganda Vocational Qualification (UVQ) results at the Directorate of Industrial Training (DIT) in Kampala last week. More than 57,000 students who sat for the 2020 UVQ full occupational and modular assessments passed the exams. Mr Patrick Byakatonda, the director of DIT, welcomed government’s move and urged Ugandans to take advantage of the opportunity to register with enterprises and vocational institutions to acquire demand-driven skills to prepare them to fill the gaps in the job market.
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Mr Muyingo said once implemented, all learners, including those in primary schools will be skilled.Mr Byakatonda said 65,126 candidates registered for the 2020 UVQ exams from 912 centres in 110 occupations. Female candidates (38,526) outnumbered their male counterparts(26,600 males). Out of these, 9,826 candidates were registered for full occupational assessment (Level 1, ll, lll and lV) and 55,264 candidates registered for the modular assessment.A total of 57,709 (9,517 occupational and 48,192 modular) passed the exams while 1,359 (1,125 modular and 134 occupational) were unsuccessful. Elsewhere, 6,196 (149 occupational and 5,947 modular) missed the exams for unknown reasons.According to Mr Byakatonda, the manufacturing sector registered the highest number of candidates at 23,588. This represented 46 percent of registered candidates while construction registered the least number of students. Those who passed are slated to receive International Organisation for standardisation (ISO) certificates in various disciplines such as farming, manufacturing, tourism and hospitality and construction. Mr Byakatonda said those with ISO certificate would have their competence recognised globally.Mr Muyingo said the government is set to establish centres to train and equip youth as well as women in carpentry and fabrication, among others.[email protected]
