The National Centre for Women Development (NCWD) and the Deaursche Gesschefft Fur Internationale Zusanmmenarbett (GIZ), Germany, have partnered to train and empower 100 women in skills acquisition in men dominated field, aimed at upholding and promoting high intellectual practice in the area of women and gender development.
The empowerment training programme comes under the NCWD Female Economic Empowerment Training (FEET).The participants currently undergoing the training were selected in different states across the country, and divided into five groups depending on their areas of interest which include; tiling and masonry, air-condition and refrigeration, generator repairs, plumbing and piping, and plaster of Paris (POP) jobs which have long been seen as male preserves, and in the past, gender biased.
The Director General, NCWD, Barr Mary Ekpere-Etta, who was speaking during the opening ceremony of the advanced female artisans programme, organised by her Centre and the GIZ Thursday said, the 40-day training programme was based on the recognition that women’s economic empowerment is the first step to freedom.
The DG said by this, the NCWD is contributing to raise a viable and skilled workforce to meet the challenges of unemployment.
The 100 trainees selected from the 240 trained in 2019 would be awarded trade test 2 and 1 certification at the end of the programme, with starter pack to take off their trade.
The representative of the trainees, Valentina Effiom, who has chosen to specialise in POP said, they are learning a whole lot, while urging everyone to give them the opportunity to showcase what they have been able to learn by offering them jobs when they are through.