Southern Region Anglican Church has partnered with Status Furniture and Rainbow Paints to drill youths with technical expertise in painting.
This follows a day-long training on professional painting held on Tuesday at Holy Cross Anglican Church in Chilomoni, Blantyre which attracted 35 students from various Anglican Churches.
Bishop Alinafe Kalemba of the Anglican Diocese of Southern Malawi said the skills can financially empower youths.
Kalemba added that they can also utilise their skills for the church.
“We want them to fit in the society and be employed in different companies,” he said.
Founder of Status Furnitures, Mike Siliya, said the initiative is part of their corporate social responsibility.
“There is a culture of dependency syndrome and also of hand-outs which is growing amongst the youths, but actually we have come to break that kind of thinking, whereby we have imparted skills for them to be thinking innovatively,” Siliya said.
He pointed out that discussions are currently underway to make the training an annual event to reach more students.
Earlier, the Director of Higher Education in the Ministry of Education, Levis Eneya, acknowledged that vocational training helps to fill gaps within communities due to factors such as poverty or limited educational opportunities.
