Twenty-one Namibians graduated with practical carpentry skills and brand-new toolkits at the Kavango River Lodge on Friday.
The cohort completed a six-month Social Security Commission Development Fund woodwork and carpentry training programme at the Community Skills Development Centre (Cosdec) Tukurenu, a course combining four months of practical and theoretical instruction with a two-month industry attachment.
Addressing the gathering, the Community Skills Development Foundation (Cosdef) management stressed that inclusive community-level training remains a vital lifeline for out-of-school youth who find themselves out of employment and higher education.
“Our mandate remains today, as we continue to provide inclusive opportunities for the out-of-school youth, to ensure equitable access to our training programmes. We admit trainees with Grade 8 school-leaving reports as well as those with no formal education.”
However, Cosdef raised concern over its mobile outreach training initiative, the Oyetu Project, which has upskilled 531 people across 12 regions. With donor funding from Germany’s Bread for the World ending in March 2027, the foundation appealed for local corporate and state partnerships to keep outreach schemes afloat.
The training was made possible through a N$1.4 million grant awarded to Cosdec Tukurenu by the Social Security Commission Development Fund.
Acting executive officer of the Social Security Commission, Ben Nangombe, says while many know the commission for its standard employee benefits, the development fund exists specifically to seed self-reliance and create jobs.
Nangombe has reminded the graduates that while modern technology continues to reshape global industry, manual crafts remain irreplaceable.
“We are living in the age of artificial intelligence (AI). AI will change the way many people work. But remember this: AI can generate a design. It cannot easily pick up your tools, enter a building site, measure the timber, cut it, fit it, adjust it and turn it into a finished product.”
He urges the 21 graduates to look at entrepreneurship.
“Do not see the toolkit merely as a box of tools. See it as the beginning of a workshop. See it as the beginning of a business. Look around Rundu, your villages and towns.”
The event concluded with an appeal to local businesses in the Kavango East region to offer entry-level work, mentorship and contracts to the newly qualified carpenters.
