A government-backed training programme is turning practical instruction in trades such as carpentry and welding into a launchpad for youth entrepreneurship, with graduates already mapping out plans to open businesses in their home communities. The initiative received a direct show of political support this week when President Dr Mohamed Irfaan Ali visited the Kuru Kuru Training Centre to observe trainees at work and speak with participants about their progress.

The visit underscored the administration's continued backing for vocational education as a route into employment and self-employment for young people, particularly those from areas with limited access to formal job markets.

The Kuru Kuru Training Centre sits along the Soesdyke-Linden Highway and draws its intake from a wide catchment area. Trainees at the centre currently include young people from Region One and Region Four, reflecting the programme's reach beyond Georgetown and into more remote parts of the country. The current cohort is concentrated in two vocational streams: carpentry and welding, both of which demand sustained physical work and close attention to technical detail.

Inside the carpentry workshop, students are not simply practising joints and finishes on offcuts. They are producing furniture intended for use in schools, alongside sports equipment including cricket gear. The welding department runs a parallel production line, with trainees fabricating football goalposts destined for use in local communities. Instructors at the centre point to these outputs as evidence that the training is applied rather than theoretical, with students working towards finished products rather than isolated exercises.

Among the trainees is a young woman from Port Kaituma, a remote mining town in Region One, who has used her time at Kuru Kuru to plan a return home with more than a certificate. She intends to bring her newly acquired carpentry skills back to her community and establish a private furniture-making business, serving a market that currently has little local supply of manufactured wooden goods.

Speaking about her experience, she encouraged other young people from rural and coastal areas to consider enrolling in the programme. She described the training as an opportunity not only to acquire a trade but to build a livelihood that keeps skills and income within their own communities rather than requiring young workers to migrate towards the coast or the capital in search of employment. Her account reflects a pattern instructors say they are seeing more broadly among this cohort, where trainees frame their studies in terms of what they plan to build once they return home.

The programme does not end with the current round of practical training. Graduates who complete their courses at Kuru Kuru are set to progress to Level 2 qualifications, extending their technical competence and broadening the scope of work they will be able to undertake. This progression is supported through a partnership with the School of the Nations in Georgetown, which will provide a pathway for graduates to continue their studies at a more advanced level.

Officials involved with the scheme describe it as a stepping stone rather than a terminal qualification, with the Level 2 pathway designed to keep graduates moving towards fuller technical proficiency and, eventually, greater independence in the labour market. For trainees such as the Port Kaituma student, that trajectory points directly towards small business ownership, with the practical skills gained at Kuru Kuru forming the basis of an enterprise she plans to run herself.

The combination of hands-on production, a defined progression route and the presidential visit signals a programme that its backers hope will be judged by measurable outcomes: goods on shop floors, businesses opened in rural towns, and graduates who go on to further qualifications rather than dropping out of the workforce altogether.

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