Vocational Training
Over 75% of local Tanzanian children have no chance of education after finishing primary school at age 14. The Village Education Project charity was encouraged by villagers to help provide some skills training and built a small vocational training school which was opened in 1999 in Mshiri village and now offers training in: carpentry, masonry, tailoring & crafts. Each of the courses includes some business skills training and all students are given maths and English lessons. The main three courses run from 1 to 3 years and students sit the Vocational Education Training Authority (VETA) national examinations. At the end of 2006, 95% of the School's pupils passed both theory and practical papers. Read more on Mshiri vocational training school.
The carpentry and masonry students have made furniture for the school, built classrooms to extend the training school, and have built the school's new kitchen hut and lavatory block. In tailoring and crafts the students produce goods for sale to the tourist market in Marangu. Marangu is close to Kilimanjaro National Park, and the "Marangu Route" is one of the most popular routes to climb the mountain. There is much more to be done in this whole area. We need volunteers and we need funds. We need more training for the school’s teachers and new ideas for business opportunities. The school is not yet financially self supporting as the level of fees from local students cannot be high enough to run the school so we must continue to provide assistance. We see a tremendous future for this practical initiative.
Carpentry student decorates his spoon
Demonstration of brick-making
New shop and Chagga house (right) during construction
Read more on the Vocational Training School here.