The team leader of the Evangelical Fellowship of Sierra Leone (EFSL) Skills for Employment Project (SEP), Gadiru Bassie, has explained the dynamics involved in the funding of the project.
He said they received Le 1.1 billion from the Skills Development Fund (SDF) to implement a one-year training project to empower young people in various technical and vocational skills.
He said the SDF project supported by World Bank under the supervision of the Technical and Vocational Training (TVET), Ministry of Technical and Higher Education (MOTHE) and the Government of Sierra Leone, will be implemented nationwide.
“We are a beneficiary of this project. I want to correct that EFSL did not receive $22 million to implement our Skills for Employment project from SDF as implied in a publication in this medium dated 4th February 2021 with the title: EFSL Launches Skills for Employment Project,” he said.
He explained that the $22 million is the total sum of the entire five-year SDF World Bank funded project.
“We got Le 1.1 billion as implementing partners and there are other institutions which will also benefit from the project,” he added.
The REAPS training will involve Solar Installation, Maintenance, Dressmaking, Catering and Hotel Management, Agro-business, Metal Work and Construction, he disclosed.
Team Leader Bassie furthered that they believe REAPS, which is their institution, will implement the training of 288 youth (173 females and 115 males), to achieve the project’s intended objective, adding that the actual student training will last for six months while the entire implementing project period will last for a year.
Other competency based training will be done, including internship and attachment of students and teachers
who will go on industrial attachments to enhance their capacity.
EFSL exists to unite churches and communities, equip them for evangelism, discipleship, advocacy, and poverty reduction in Sierra Leone.
DT/5/2/2021
By david.thoronka@awokonewspaper.sl