Cake Decorating and Hair Analysis: New Skills for Income Generation
Today Thirty six women, mostly single mothers, completed a two-month-long training program in one of two fields of their choice – cake-baking and decorating, or hair analysis. This includes perms, braiding, weaving and dying. The program was conducted with assistance from the Taiwanese Embassy and the Ministry of Education’s ITVET Program. The Minister of Education, Francis Fonseca, and the coordinator of the program, Fay Dyer, spoke about how these initiatives help people earn their living.
Francis Fonseca
Francis Fonseca, Minister of Education
“This type of program, this type of initiative really represents what technical and vocational education and training is all about. It’s about equipping our people with the skills and knowledge they need to create employment for themselves, or to find meaningful employment. This entire initiative, as you all know, is about women empowerment. That is so critically important. We live in a society where we have, unfortunately, we hear the term all the time – so many single mothers, but there is no shame in that. So, many women in our society, in our country are the sole breadwinners or the sole providers for their families. So when they are not able to put food on the table, when they’re not able to make ends meet, they’re not able to earn a living, then we’re also looking at children who are not getting fed.”
Fay Dyer
Fay Dyer, Coordinator, Pre-Vocational Program, ITVET
“We started off with twenty initially and the Taiwanese decided that we could do more, so we attracted and we recruited twenty more so we ended up with forty. But what happened was along the way we lost four. These four individuals were due to COVID, personal reasons and things like that. The beauty about this program is that we attracted women who are mothers, single mothers who are striving on their own. And this program gave them a way to build on their skills. Their business plan was based on what they have the passion for. Some of these young ladies have businesses on a small scale.”
Marion Ali
“I also hear you develop some of them from knowing absolutely nothing.”
Fay Dyer
“Yes, absolutely nothing. Some of them didn’t know how to bake, some didn’t even know how to braid the hair.”
Eight of the women will be enrolled in an advanced course that will provide them with seed money to develop or build upon their existing businesses.
