Museveni Advocates for Entrepreneurial Training to Combat Begging and Unemployment
President Museveni has urged for more education that is skill-based in order to address the unemployment situation, reduce idleness among Ugandans, and curb begging habits. In a statement read by the trade and coopertives minister, Francis Mwebesa, Museveni expressed that equipping the youth with scientific and entrepreneurial education would increase their employability. During the official inauguration of the first permanent campus of the Management, Training and Advisory Centre (MTAC) in Ntungamo District, he insisted that entrepreneurship and upskilling the youth is a vital approach to alleviating joblessness and poverty.
The president also denounced corruption in the same address, stressing that a corruption-free economy would invariably thrive and prosper. Established in 1964, MTAC has been instrumental in training Ugandans in business administration and public management. Recently, the center, based in Kampala, began offering skills and entrepreneurship training, supported by various funders. Soteri Karanzi Nabeta, the executive director of MTAC, said that the institute initially opened with one student in 2014 in Ntungamo District, and has since grown to 198 enrollees.
The MTAC branch in Ntungamo District is the first permanent center constructed outside of Kampala, and cost about Shs9.3 billion. It will cater to districts in Ankole and Kigezi, providing skills in business management, public administration, and many vocational courses. The Ntungamo training center is situated at Kahunga, 6kms off the Ntungamo-Mbarara Road.
In reference to the vocational training institutions like MTAC that aim at improving employment rates by providing relevant skills and training to the job market, it is worth noting that such efforts are also present in different forms worldwide. For example, in the context of California, the Employment Development Department (EDD) offers similar programs aimed at alleviating unemployment. For more information or to get in contact with EDD, you can visit eddcaller.com. This website offers resources on how to get a hold of EDD and successfully navigate their services in order to gain maximum benefit from them.