The Minister for Presidency, Hon. Babirye Milly Babalanda has commended YMCA College of Business Studies for skilling the youth through vocational education and training.
“I commend you for supporting the Government of Uganda by providing Vocational Education and Training to the Young people to acquire Skills and Knowledge that will lead them to become job creators and not Job Seekers. There is no doubt; this is a great contribution to our country’s development,” she said.
The Minister made the remarks today while officiating at the 20th graduation ceremony of the YMCA College of Business Studies, Jinja branch where 486 youth graduated in different vocational disciplines. Out of these, 414 are females and 72 are males.
Hon. Babalanda also thanked the governing council, management and staff of YMCA for having a vision to educate the youth in an all-round education of the spirit and the body. She said this vision of very many decades has been instrumental in producing highly responsible leaders and pacesetters of the YMCA who have gone on to provide very good value to communities.
“I commend the efforts put in by the College to ensure our students sit for UBTEB Examinations and for the affiliation of the Early Childhood Development (ECD) Programme to Kyambogo University. Working within the policy guidelines of the Government is a good gesture. I am also reliably informed that the Jinja YMCA College of Business Studies is working within the guidelines of the Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) Operation & Management Department at the Ministry of Education and Sports. This is in line with the reforms highlighted in the TVET Policy 2019 and the NDP 3,” she stressed.
The Minister pointed out that the government is aware that Vocational Education and Training is what can give real answers to the Economic Questions facing Ugandan young people.
“Education that leaves our young people with no option other than to seek jobs is of limited value in the current era. We therefore thank the YMCA stakeholders for the continued support to empower many of our young people to acquire vocational skills,” Hon. Babalanda noted.
“You are producing workers and not white-collar managers in offices as some of the other institutions do in our country. We thank you also for imparting Soft Skills to the Trainees such as Communication, Time Management, Customer Care and Emotional Intelligence which are critical to the working environment.”
The Minister further lauded the government for bringing the women and girl child at the forefront.
“I am here to celebrate the victory of the NRM in bringing to the forefront the women and the girl child to acquire skills and be productive. Indeed, I am delighted about the number of females who are graduating today in the different skill areas. During the bygone days, we were always told that the role of the woman is in the kitchen. Unfortunately, the parents who took heed to this wrong advice, did not educate their girl children who ended up in early marriages and miserable lives,” Hon. Babalanda stated.
“The few girls that went to college are now referred to as successful women and can be identified wherever they are. I commend the NRM government under the leadership of General Yoweri Kaguta Museveni who saw this problem so early and addressed it in the ten-point program of the NRM.”
On the other hand, Hon. Babalanda congratulated the graduates for achieving the milestone.
“The course you have done here has very many branches of higher education that you must pursue. If you are able, and I would imagine the majority of you are, because you are mostly young people, I would advise you to open yourself to ambition and to study to acquire the highest qualifications in your chosen areas,” she said.
“Those of you who are constrained to go for further training due to scarcity of resources and other issues in your lives, I would encourage you to put into practice what you have learnt by starting businesses or enterprises where you can sell these skills.”
Hon. Babalanda also informed the graduates that poverty can be pushed back when they have something to sell in return for an income. She explained that there is no other formula to go about this.
“If you have nothing to sell you can be sure to have no income. You can sell a product but as well; a skill. You are graduating here with a skill. This is what you can sell. And this can be done in two ways: the first is by seeking out employment and showing them how your skill can add value to their business. Second, is by creating your own employment. In this last point, you can benefit by obtaining start-up capital from the government programs of Emyooga and PDM where you qualify to apply for funds,” the Minister emphasised.
“I need to advise that everything you need to do to get out of poverty is here in Uganda. It is just a quest of tilting your mind to see these opportunities. The attitude of thinking that Uganda has no opportunities and that you can only seek for them from Arabian countries or elsewhere is very unfortunate. The success stories from those countries are very few. We have read about very sad stories of young people who lost it all in those countries. They lost the little they had gathered here and they as well lost everything, sometimes including their lives while in the so-called lands of opportunities.”
Hon. Babalanda further urged the graduates to listen carefully to the advice given by President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni in areas of value addition and commercial agriculture. She said if they combine and put to action all these skill areas they have acquired, they can venture into productive enterprises that are homegrown.
“I therefore invite you to love everything about your country. You cannot say you are Ugandan when you hate everything about Uganda. As you leave college today, if you are not patriotic you are going to turn upside down every order you will find in society. You will destroy order in your very homes, your businesses, at work places, in boardrooms, in churches and mosques and in lecture rooms etc. Without your spirit of patriotism, there will be delays, confusion, cheating or even collapse in running each of the above entities,” she added.
The Minister also urged the graduates to be keen at preserving themselves against the deadly HIV/AIDS and other such diseases.
“The educated people should be the first to know the dangers of AIDS. Yet I know of some of you who are leading reckless lives that expose you to contracting HIV and rendering your lives and your future destroyed. Please be our AIDS ambassadors wherever you will be by spearheading the campaign against the disease through your interactions with the public and colleagues.”
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