Africa-Press – Mauritius. Some 160 women were awarded certificates for having successfully completed training in jute fabric and handicraft, pastry making, beauty care, make up and mehendi, food preservations and desserts, and leather craft, today, at the National Cooperative College (NCC) in Bois Marchand, Terre Rouge.
The award ceremony was held in presence of the Minister of Industrial Development, SMEs and Cooperatives, Mr Soomilduth Bholah, the Director of the NCC, Mr Sanjeev Coonjobeeharry, and the Director of the Human Resource Development Council (HRDC), Dr Rajcoomar Auckloo, and other personalities.
In his keynote address, Minister Bholah highlighted the key role of the NCC in training individuals to become entrepreneurs. Since its creation in 2018, the college has been very instrumental in providing training and educational programmes so as to give a professional edge to the cooperative sector.
The NCC provides around 20 training courses free of charge which are accessible to everyone, he indicated. He lauded the NGO Fam Uni for having offered a significant contribution to the NCC and the HRDC in dispensing the training courses and empowering vulnerable women.
Reiterating Government’s support to local entrepreneurs, Mr Bholah highlighted the series of schemes set up to assist SMEs. These include not only financial grants but also training programmes in order to improve the knowledge, competencies, skills and managerial capabilities of entrepreneurs, together with mentoring.
The Minister stated that the NCC and the HRDC would pursue their endeavours in training individuals for a better future adding that other institutions such as the Academy of Design and Innovation will also provide their expertise as well as assistance.
He congratulated the awardees and reiterated the assistance of SME Mauritius in developing business plans and starting an enterprise. For his part, Mr Coonjoobehary underlined that annually around 2, 500 women and youth are trained at the NCC for them to become future micro entrepreneurs.
Both the NCC and the HRDC, he added, are working together to support these vulnerable women to come out of poverty and empower them economically. As for Mr Auckloo, he spoke of the National Training and Reskilling Scheme which aims at providing training to unemployed individuals and impart them with knowledge as well as aptitudes to develop their own businesses.
The collaboration between HRDC and NCC has been fruitful, he said, while reiterating the possibility for designing more training programmes. The training courses were facilitated by the NCC, the HRDC and the Non-Governmental Organisation Fam Uni.
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