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Stanley Black & Decker Global Impact Challenge – Empowering Marginalized Youth Through Skills

Stanley Black & Decker Global Impact Challenge – Empowering marginalized youth through skills

WorldSkills (WSI) is a recipient of the inaugural Impact Challenge grant from Stanley Black & Decker to support skills development in Africa in partnership with DBTech Africa.

Skills development in Africa is one of the strategic priorities of WorldSkills. The goal is to empower and inspire African youth to pursue personal and economic fulfilment through skills.

WorldSkills Global Premium Partner, Stanley Black & Decker, is supporting WorldSkills Capacity Building Programmes in Africa, as part of their first Empower Makers Global Impact Challenge, a grant programme to fund skills training in the construction and manufacturing sectors.

This initiative, developed in collaboration with the African Union and Don Bosco Tech Africa, will initially focus on developing trainers in Uganda, providing them with access to WorldSkills global training standards. The aim is to support training which is responsive to the labour market, bring the quality of training closer to global standards, and eventually, close the skills gap.

According to Diane Cantello, Stanley Black & Decker Vice President of Social Impact, Stanley Black & Decker will support WorldSkills as they work to skill and reskill the next generation of trade professionals.

The purpose of the intervention is to support ‘Those Who Make the World,’ and being able to fund educational programmes and non-profits that are revitalizing trade careers directly connects well with WSI mission. Thanks to 2022 “Makers Grant Recipients”, that will see WSI and Don Bosco institutions working together to narrow the trade skills gap.”

“By combining support from the African Union, Stanley Black & Decker, and Don Bosco Tech Africa, this pilot project will focus on up to 30 trainers from 3 Technical and Vocational Education and Training centres (Bombo, Kamuli and Palabek TVET centres) teaching six skill areas, construction, carpentry, electrical installations, motor vehicle mechanic, plumbing, and welding.

With the hosting of the second WorldSkills Africa regional competition in Namibia in March 2022 and the ongoing Capacity Building Programmes, WSI is raising the attractiveness of VET and increasing access to quality skills training and employment for youth, especially those with vulnerable backgrounds.

Don Bosco Tech Africa has 110 TVET Centres in 34 African countries, specifically designed to support marginalized youth.

Br. John met the selected trainers and heads of the 3 Don Bosco TVET institutions with an aim of helping them to understand the significance of the intervention for the Don Bosco work in empowering the youth with employable skills and better quality of life.

Through mentoring programs, the WorldSkills expert will train the instructors from the Don Bosco institutions in Uganda using both virtual and face to face approaches. The first interaction will be with the instructors from the Building department that will start end of May and the other skill areas will follow in mid-June.

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