Gen. Katumba urges graduates to embrace practical job skills

The state minister for works, Gen. Edward Katumba Wamala, has asked Ugandan graduates to stop putting their emphasis on learning and speaking good English yet they lack a single vocational skill on them.

Katumba said more Ugandan graduates are jobless because the employers have resorted to employing foreigners complaining that Ugandans just present good academic papers without practical skills.

He was on Friday officiating at the graduation ceremony of 180 girls who were school dropouts helped by St Maria Goretti Girls' Vocational Training Centre to learn a number of skills.

The facility manned by the Good Samaritan Sisters headed by Sister Mathias Mulumba trains students in secretarial studies, decoration and function management, beauty and cosmetology, nursery teaching, tailoring, catering and Information and Communication Technology (ICT).

Katumba said that he recently asked one of the owners of a Chinese road construction company why they were not employing Ugandans yet the government requires them to employ more of the local personnel.

"He told me they at first adhered to employing more Ugandans even with jobs that needed high skills. However, they later realised that Ugandan graduates were only so good at speaking fluent English yet they were very poor when it comes to applying skills required on the jobs," he said.

Gen. Katumba awarding one of the best students during the graduation ceremony. Photo by Henry Nsubuga

The minister said that what is real now is the fact that even degree holders from universities are also craving for vocational training centres.

"I too passed through Bukalasa Agricultural College which imparted me with skills which have made me what I am today. Unlike a graduate at university with a bachelor's degree, you may be with a certificate or diploma in vocational studies but stand a high chance of getting a job or employ yourself by creating one," he said.

However, Katumba asked the graduands to be ready to become dirty if they want to become rich saying there is no money in smartness.

He said he was impressed that at least all of the girls had testified that they had been either employed or others had already started their own businesses and employing not only themselves but also others.

The graduation was started by mass led by Rev. Fr Aloysius Ssali who asked the girls to avoid living a reckless life.

He asked them to always strive to be of value and relevance to the community by creating an impact in the society they live in.

Rev. Sister Mathias Mulumba, the pioneer of the education facility, said that she started with only four girls whose lives had been stuck due to failure to complete education but their lives changed after getting the vocational skills.

Mulumba said the institute has so far had over 700 students pass out with skills in the past 11 graduation ceremonies which enabled them work and change their future.

"Our biggest challenge is the men including the bodaboda riders who come hunting for these girls even after being recruited here. Unfortunately, those men deceive the girls and fall in love with them but after making them pregnant they abandon them which puts their lives at stake," she noted.

Mulumba asked for help from the government saying they get more girls who want to be recruited yet they have limited facilities which can only enable them handle a restricted number.

She added that because the girls come from very poor families mostly from single mothers, who cannot afford to buy enough learning materials which are needed on a daily basis.