Short courses helping dropouts

By MICHAEL LAI
THE Ginigoada Foundation has given skills and management training to students and school dropouts to help them find work, says acting country director Rabura Aiga.
“We have been providing short courses and given certificates to participants to look for jobs and many have found permanent jobs,” he said during a graduation event in Port Moresby on Thursday.
“I urge the provincial government and sponsors to support us so that we extend and reach to their communities, providing skills and training.”
Ginigoada Foundation first established by Lady Dame Carol Kiduand a group of individuals in Port Moresby in 2001.
It started to raise funds to help unfortunate young men and women in Moresby-South communities.
Since 2002, Ginigoada Foundation has been giving young men and women short-term skills development training.
It has expanded throughout Port Moresby and Lae.
“We have been providing short courses on literacy skills, financial literacy skills, skills for social issues management and health skills,” Aiga said.
“We also provide welding, marketing, driving, housekeeping, refrigeration and air-conditioning, business communication, heavy diesel fitting, motor mechanics, cooking and baking, front office work, commercial cookery, sewing, computing, customer care and electronics courses.
“We are providing these in Morobe, Central and National Capital District.
Aiga said they worked with 13 different training providers.
On Thursday, Ginigoada ended a workshop for school board members. The message it gave at that event was that children at school needed a good playing ground, decent toilets and stand-alone classroom facilities.
It said those things provided a good environment for early childhood development and bridging education gaps.
There were 37 school board members at that workshop and the week-long event at Bomana, outside Port Moresby, taught management skills training.
Programme coordinator Hoge Baeau urged the partipants to apply management roles and responsibilities to set up facilities that would help children develop and learn.
Baeau said many childhood learning centres in cities and rural communities did not have good facilities.
Of the 37 workshop participants, 27 came from Central province and 10 from NCD. Acting country director Rabura Aiga said that how schools were run was determined by the work of the board of directors and chairman.