BLANTYRE (MaraviPost)—Malawi President Peter Mutharika is this Friday expected to launch the Community Colleges Programme and officially open Ngala Community Technical College in northern district of Karonga.
The ceremony will take place at Ngala Community Technical College campus in the area of Traditional Authority (T/A) Mwirang’ombe in the district.
This will also mark the opening of 11 of the planned 28 technical colleges across Malawi to provide technical skills and encourage entrepreneurship.
While on Saturday, March 21, 2015, Mutharika will preside over the ground breaking ceremony for the Livingstonia-Njakwa Road in Rumphi district.
And on Sunday, the Malawi leader will preside over World Water Day Commemorations at the Grand Palace Hotel in the City of Mzuzu and thereafter visit Mzimba Market which was gutted by fire.
According to the Minister of Labour and Manpower Development Henry Mussa, the opened colleges in the North are in Karonga, Mzimba and Nkhata Bay, Nkhotakota, Dowa, Mchinji and Dedza in the central region while in the Southern region , they are in Blantyre, Chiradzulu, Phalombe and Thyolo.
Mussa claimed that the colleges will initially provide training in five generic trades of bricklaying, carpentry and joinery, metal fabrication and welding, plumbing and textile and design.
Malawi only had seven national technical colleges, namely Soche, Lilongwe, Mzuzu, Salima, Nasawa, Don Bosco and Namitete and all have a capacity of 2 000 students against an estimated 50 000 school leavers every year, according to Mussa.
The Minister further said the trades training will be offered at a token fee of K3 000 out of which K2 500 will be administration fee and K500 as examination fee.
“Since the labour market is limited, most of the graduates will end in self-employment, which will lead to the emergence of small and medium enterprises (SMEs). This is important for a growing economy like Malawi,” he said.
Mussa said the technical colleges’ intervention will complement the subsidized building materials Programme, saying since the housing projects, which will be done mainly in rural areas will need skills of the trained artisans.
He explained that the Malawi Development Bank (MDB) to be opened soon will have a window for providing startup capital loans for the SMEs.
Mutharika promised during the campaign period prior to the May 20, 2014 polls that his administration will strive to reduce youth unemployment by establishing community colleges to train the youth in entrepreneurship.
