01 · Limited access
Market-relevant skills close to home
School students, young people, women and people with disabilities had limited access to practical, market-relevant skills training close to home.
Livelihoods
Bringing livelihood opportunities closer to people
Practical skills, apprenticeships and pathways to employment, entrepreneurship and self-reliance.
The reality we faced
For many people, practical skills training was always somewhere else.
Before AMEF established the Sifa Skilling Hub (SSH), access to practical vocational training and livelihood opportunities was limited within the community.
For many young people, women, people with disabilities and school students, opportunities to gain practical skills and explore pathways into employment or entrepreneurship were limited, while unemployment, poverty and limited economic opportunities made it difficult to build secure livelihoods.
The barriers
Opportunity should be closer to home.
02 · Cost & distance
Fewer financial and transport barriers
Travelling to training centres outside the community created additional financial, transport and time barriers.
03 · Unemployment & poverty
Routes to secure livelihoods
Limited access to skills, employment and income-generating opportunities made it harder for individuals and families to build secure livelihoods.
04 · Limited opportunities
Turning potential into sustainable income
Many people had the potential to work, start businesses and become self-reliant, but lacked the skills and opportunities to turn that potential into sustainable income.
Sifa Skilling Hub
AMEF is bringing livelihood opportunities closer to people.
Through the Sifa Skilling Hub, AMEF provides practical vocational training for school students, young people, women and people with disabilities.
The Hub focuses on skills that can create pathways into employment, self-employment and entrepreneurship, including tailoring and fashion, hairdressing and beauty, carpentry, welding and metal fabrication, computer and multimedia skills, brass band and music, soap making and other market-relevant skills.
Through apprenticeships, trainees gain practical experience with skilled professionals and businesses, applying their skills in real work environments.
The pathway
Skills that connect to opportunity.
AMEF is building a pathway that connects skills with assessment, certification, employment, entrepreneurship and further vocational education.
01 · Skills for every pathway
Practical learning for students, youth, women and people with disabilities.
For school students, practical skills can provide an early opportunity to discover their interests, develop useful competencies and understand different pathways beyond traditional academic education. For young people and women, the training can support employment, self-employment and enterprise development.
For people with disabilities, AMEF seeks to create inclusive opportunities to develop skills and participate in economic activities.
02 · Assessment and certification
Recognising practical competencies.
AMEF is working towards collaboration with UVTAB so that trainees can have their practical competencies assessed and progress towards recognised vocational certification. This can help trainees demonstrate their skills, pursue employment or self-employment, establish or strengthen enterprises and continue into further vocational education.
03 · A vocational institute
Higher levels of vocational education closer to home.
Our long-term goal is to transform Sifa Skilling Hub into a vocational institute offering certificate and diploma programmes. Trainees will be able to start with practical skills, gain apprenticeship experience, progress through assessment and certification, and continue to higher levels of vocational education closer to home.
04 · Growing livelihoods
Turning skills and ideas into income.
Through our livelihoods work, AMEF is also exploring opportunities in agriculture, agribusiness, enterprise development and small businesses, helping people turn skills and ideas into income-generating opportunities.
Our goal
Skills, pathways and opportunity closer to the people.
We believe opportunities should not always be somewhere else. We are bringing skills, apprenticeships, pathways and livelihood opportunities closer to the people who need them.