Dar es Salaam, 14 January 2015 - About 50 young men and women from Dar es Salaam participated in a hands-on training on energy efficiency, renewable energy technologies and green entrepreneurship held last month.
The training organized by UN-Habitat in collaboration with the International Labour Organization was held at the Vocational Educational Training Authority in Dar es Salaam.

Objectives and Long-term Goals of the Training

The main objective of the training was to build the technical capacities of young people in energy efficiency technologies and empower them to become active proponents of renewable energy approaches. The long-term goal is to enable young people to develop viable green business plans and start profitable green businesses that improve their livelihoods while reducing the negative impacts of unsustainable resource consumption.

The training was divided into two components with UN-Habitat providing the technical skills component on Energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies and ILO providing the soft skills training in green entrepreneurship and business development. The UN-Habitat modules included training of the youth in energy efficiency including energy audits for residential buildings, green buildings and passive building designs. With its strong focus on practical training, at the end participants were able to design renewable energy products.
At the end of the green entrepreneurship training, the trained youth were able to develop individual as well as nine group business plans in renewable energy technologies. The nine group plans will go through a competitive process and the winners awarded some start up grants by ILO.

How Young Citizens can earn an Income and Protect the Environment

Speaking at the close of the ceremony, Prof. Oyebanji Oyenyinka of UN-Habitat, said that the number of unemployed youth in cities was growing rapidly, calling for an immediate action by all actors to ensure that this young citizens are employed. He called on the youth to utilize the acquired skills by identifying gaps in the market and setting up of enterprises in renewable energy technologies that will not only help them earn an income, but also protect the environment.

“With this hands-on training, all of you have now learnt is that some of these products we import can be made with locally available resources. What all of you need is the Decision, Desire to solve problems and Determination confront challenges” Prof. Banji concluded.

Also in attendance at the closing were Prof Elisante Gabriel, the Deputy Permanent Secretary for Ministry of Information, Youth, Culture and Sports, ILO Chief Technical Advisor Jelous Chivore, and VETA Regional Representative.

Prof. Elisante, thanked UN-Habitat and ILO for organizing the training and urged the youth to exploit the opportunities available in their localities and not only rely on government support for employment. “The youth need to change their mindsets and be innovative, and produce items that are in in demand in the market. This will help them to transform challenges facing them into business opportunities,” he said.

On his part, Mr. Jealous Chirove, said the technologies learnt and energy products made by the youth can be transformed into big businesses, creating employment for young people. The International Labour Organisation (ILO) will allocate USD 25,000 to five groups of youth entrepreneurs from Ilala, Temeke and Kinondoni to be used as start up capital. Read more about Youth.