Youth Resource Academy (YRA), on Thursday, 27th April 2023, organized a talent exhibition at YAD headquarters in Kenema. The primary objective of the show was to allow final-year students of the academy to demonstrate to the public the skills they had acquired in various faculties in the last two years. Students were given specific tasks to accomplish without being aided by any teacher. Those in the dressmaking school were tasked to take measurements of a woman who posed as a potential bride and sew for her a bridal dress; students in the cosmetology school did the make-upping and readily dressed the bride; while students in the hospitality school catered for 300 wedding guest. Since the occasion coincided with the country’s independence anniversary, the students also dressed a guest who was crowned as “Mama Salon” and prepared her an anniversary cake, while the screen designing and printing students produced all the T-shirts used during the exhibition.
The exhibition took place in the YAD’s Peace and Unity Hall and was witnessed by the board, staff and management of YAD, academic board and staff of YRA, families and friends of the students.
Speaking at the opening ceremony, the Principal, Mr Agnes Sam, welcomed the audience and thanked them for coming. She further revealed that the objective of the exhibition was to showcase to the public how she had prepared the students to take a competitive edge over other candidates they shall be facing in the Sierra Leonean business environment. “Admitting your sons/daughters, nieces/nephews, husbands/wives into YRA for two good years was a great confidence you placed in me to prepare them well to become self-reliant and future dependent. Therefore, I have brought them today in front of you to demonstrate what I have taught them so that you would know that I didn’t disappoint you”, Mrs Sam proudly stated.
Addressing the audience on behalf of YAD, Mrs Isata Ngombulango, the Finance Manager who doubles as the dedicated Executive Secretary of YRA’academic board, explained that YRA is the Technical, Vocational Education and Training (TVET) offshoot of YAD and that it was compelling for the management of YAD to witness the fantastic skills those students had acquired under her guidance over the years. “As you are all aware”, she went further “, YAD and its philanthropic partners are financing YRA on monthly bases, providing the enabling training environment, paying teachers’ salaries and all utility costs, which enables the institute to deliver a cutting-edged cost-free training to underprivileged youth throughout the year. It is, therefore, important for YAD as an institution to ensure that our resources are not being wasted”, she concluded.
It must be noted that YRA was granted permission by the Ministry of Technical and Higher Education in 2019 to operate as a TVET institute in line with the 2004 Education Act and the two strategic pillars of TVET policy adopted by the government: Enhancing Access to TVET Programmes and Developing Skills for Jobs.
YRA offers training in Secretarial Studies/Office Management, Cosmetology/Beauty Therapy, Designing and Printing Technology, Food/Nutrition Management and Tailoring/Dressmaking.
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