Training young people where they are 

Running a vocational training institute is very expensive. You need a lot of space for classrooms and workshops, machines for students to practise and teachers who require a salary. Can this be done differently?

Satellite approach

The answer is yes! For example, the Uganda Rural Development and Training Institute (URDT) has a different approach. They work with local entrepreneurs like tailors, poultry farmers, hairdressers or mechanics.

These people are recruited within the community, to provide training in their profession to groups of young people. URDT supports these entrepreneurs, for example by providing them with the curriculum they use for the training.

Soft skills and business training is also provided by URDT (at the location of the trainees) using their own trained rural transformation specialists from African Rural University in collaboration with experts from the local government.

Everybody happy!

We visited a few of these entrepreneurs and their trainees during our visit to Uganda in 2025. Everyone was very positive about the approach.

Entrepreneurs see opportunities for collaboration with the newly trained people and simply like to give back to the community. For the trainees, the approach enables them to learn within their own community, making it accessible even for mothers with young children for example.

Another great advantage of this approach is that young people really learn on the job, at the enterprise of the trainer. A training can hardly become more practical than this: they don’t only learn how to braid hair, but also how to communicate with customer how to keep a cashbook and everything else what you need to know as an entrepreneur.

Compared to students in formal TVET schools, these trainees show lower drop-out rates and better transition into decent (self-)employment. After the training, trainees are supported by URDT to take the official government exam, so they can get a formal certificate. This increases their opportunities to find decent (self-) employment even more.

Vision

Another aspect of the URDT approach which really interested me, is their visionary approach. At the beginning of a training program, trainees are preparing their vision for the future.

They start by writing or drawing their desired situation i.e. where they want to be in 5 years. How many chicken/goats/cows will they then possess? How many chairs in the hairdressing saloon? Will they have staff working for them? Will they then train new trainees? Anything is possible! Based on this, a 5-year plan is developed.

They write or draw their current situation in relation to their desired situation. What do they need to get there? This is also drawn or written on the sheet. This creates structure, which enables them to take concrete steps towards realisation of their desired goals.

It is the first step in resource mobilisation where they appreciate that they are not starting from zero. A combination of the vision, current reality and action steps is a complete plan for their enterprise.

The trainees and alumni we met all had their vision readily available on a flipchart sheet. They say it helps them to keep track. If you know what you want to reach, and you know what to do to make that happen, it becomes easier to stick to the plan.

Wilde Ganzen’s Blue Ambition Fund is proud to support URDT to train 1.500 young people via this innovative satellite approach!