14 November 2022
The Namibia Training Authority’s mandate includes the promotion of technical and vocational career paths amongst young Namibians to challenge the negative societal perceptions of such options as low-status professions that offer little prospects for career advancement and growth.
In giving effect to this component of its mandate, the NTA has, since 2017, been implementing a television and social media campaign, under which technical and vocational graduates are profiled as ambassadors and champions. With the youth as it main target audience, this campaign is known as ‘Live Your Passion’.
The campaign brings the true and inspiring stories of ordinary Namibian women and men who are finding fulfilment in technical and vocational career paths.
These stories will be presented through a series of broadcasts on the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation and YouTube as well as newspaper articles to be published in the New Era newspaper, sharing the amazing and diverse technical work being done by extraordinary Namibians in the hopes they can inspire many others to pursue a career from a registered vocational centre.
NTA acting CEO, Muvatera Ndjoze-Siririka, said that Namibia continues to place a high value on professional jobs while stereotypes and stigma continue to unfairly isolate technical and vocational options and children continue to be influenced that such careers are low-status, low-paying and dirty jobs.
“In demystifying the dominant societal perceptions around careers, the NTA advocates for our country’s youth to take up technical and vocational career paths and to reject the negative perceptions of them as low-status selections, which hold limited prospects for career growth,” he said.
Ndjoze-Siririka said the overarching objective of the Live Your Passion campaign is to enhance the status and attractiveness of Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) career options among the youth.
The campaign supports trainee employability and leverages TVET institutions while promoting life-long learning and entrepreneurship.
Launching the Live Your Passion careers advocacy campaign season three, Itah Kandjii-Murangi, minister of higher education, handed over textbooks and DVD copies of all the candidates’ stories to the deputy education minister Faustina Caley to greatly benefit the Namibian child in his or her career options.
She said technical and vocational careers pay more than academic professions, thus the technical stream is the best for Namibia and its people.
The minister noted that workers in the technical and vocational fields love what they do and find fulfilment in their jobs.
“They are successful and make a difference in their lives and those of others. They live their passion, and if you live your passion, you are creative, probably don’t get tired easily and always want to be better at what you do.”
Kandjii-Murangi said a responsive and industry-relevant TVET sector can play a pivotal role in addressing and redressing youth employment challenges.
She added that the past two seasons of the Live Your Passion campaign have been impactful, with 45 distinct career profile sets being produced.
These remain accessible on the NTA’s YouTube channel and website, which has exceeded over 74 000 followers on Facebook and 1.2 million views on YouTube.
*Report by New Era Newspaper