Pinehas Nakaziko
Windhoek-A former competitor in the World Skills Namibia national competition, Petrina Ashipala, who represented Namibian youth at the Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) Youth Forum in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), says it has presented them with the opportunity to shape the future they want to see, as they are the key-holders to the future.
Ashipala was among 62 youth from different countries who took part in the forum.
“I was very honoured to have been part of them,” she says. She adds that their aim is to shape the future for the youth and the upcoming future generations by coming up with the first ever youth forum under the theme ‘Youth Declaration on the Future of Skills and TVET’.
“We would like to persuade our governments to improve our educational systems, and ensure that they provide relevant training needed, as we have a high [number] of employees not matching the skills needed for certain kinds of jobs. This is to be done regardless of political, religion and economic strength,” she says.
Ashipala adds that they also aimed to make all occupations to be sustainable, saying: “This is because people only consider economic dimensions and not the environmental and social dimensions.”
The Forum was made up of six think tanks, namely, Think Innovation, Think Happiness and Tolerance, Think Green Economy, Think Global Citizenship, Think Industry 4.0 and Think Entrepreneurship.
“This event was a once in a lifetime opportunity and I and my companion, Riika-Leva Iipinge, were very much honoured to have represented our country and be part of the Global Youth Ambassadors of TVET,” Ashipala says.
The Forum was organised alongside the World Skills International Competition to give high-level platforms to member countries, global sponsors and industry partners to discuss the skills agenda and create collaborative
opportunities.