Winnie finished her course at St. Joseph’s Technical Institute this week!
I met a very proud girl, carrying her leaving certificate, when I stopped by St. Joseph’s today.
Winnie has been studying carpentry and joinery, and now she and her classmates are ready to leave school for good.
She looks forward to start working and hopes she will find a job in a furniture shop.
However, her future is still very uncertain. There are very few jobs out there- and very many young people looking for work. With a median age of 15, Uganda has the world's youngest population, and the share of unemployed youth among the total unemployed is 83 percent, also the highest in the world (according to the new Africa Development Indicators launched by The World Bank in 2008). Finding a job is not going to be easy.
She has decided to stay in town instead of going back to her village because although her prospects of finding work related to her studies are low in and around the Kampala area, they are even worse in the villages.
I hope Winnie and her fellow classmates succeed in finding jobs- Winnie herself is quite optimistic saying that even if she doesn't find something in the line of carpentry, there will always be some small jobs around for those who are able and willing to work, and with her certificate, she is better off than many others.
Winnie and Grace, one of the teachers at St. Joseph's
