I hope you found a couple of the past articles interesting on Ideas of Vocational Training for Youth and the International Situation (See June 2012 Archive), because I believe if you keep on reading this blog you hopefully will read more on this needful subject. The last week or two I have received a variety of articles down this nature. It is a time of research and critical thinking to see how it would be possible to make such a project fly. This is not a idea that is solely original to me by any means. Before I left to teach school with my wife in Belize, these thoughts started to really stir in my head. When I got there I found the deacon brother there had likewise been wrestling with the same issue. As time passed and I heard about some of the unrest with Nigeria and Haiti youth---it would come back. After my last trip to Haiti, I heard alot more about the situation there. Finally I share it here to share and discuss. If it is God's will--it will happen in it's time. The facts are that something needs to happen. The mission is open to ideas and why not develop them to give them more options to work with. Too me one of the keys is to look at the situation of our national brethren's shoes of these different countries. Alot of what I write is what I gather from conversations with them.
I e-mailed a certain brother and he sent me this in response to Vocational Training article. I greatly appreciated it's view points.
1. I like the idea to make the program two years long. In Nigeria, some of the young people are required to give two years of national service, usually working for the government teaching or something. Perhaps this program could fulfill that requirement. Also, a two-year program would be of sufficient length to provide substantial teaching and growth among the young people. On the other hand, how many of our young people at home are willing to commit themselves to a church program for two years? Some are, but certainly not the majority.
2. Such a program would provide a definite spiritual benefit. Our youth members in Nigeria are struggling. Many young people are leaving home and congregational settings in pursuit of profitable careers and are struggling spiritually as a result.
3. In Nigeria, we wouldn’t want to focus too much on agriculture. Many of the young people have no agricultural background, and trades are more likely to be successful. At the same time, I would certainly support having a garden or field plot. Such skills are useful for anyone to learn. I’m just saying that we shouldn’t focus overly much on agriculture.
4. Running a salvage yard is an excellent idea. It would also work really well for the young people to run community projects such as garbage clean-up, recycling, etc.
5. I think it would be quite easy to come up with a product to manufacture and sell. Many products are currently being imported to Nigeria due to lack of local industry, so I think the opportunities are wide open.
6. I absolutely agree with Booker T. Washington’s principles. His story is inspiring.
From the “Industry Based Vocational Training” article”
1. I agree with the need to start small. As we can see from the dollar figures given in the article, a project like this can be quite expensive. Recruitment for both instructors and students will be difficult. Perhaps an initial class of ten students and two teachers would be ideal. It might be best to start with one Nigerian and one North American instructor.
2. I also agree that we should eventually use graduates of the program as instructors/helpers. This, in my opinion, is a crucial step for the project to become self-sustaining.
3. It’s interesting that they required a 1:5 teacher to student ratio in the Philippines. That seems high to me, but I suppose it’s probably necessary.
4. I agree with the thought that the students’ time should be highly structured. This is something that could probably improve in the American units, but it is especially important in other countries due to the lack of a general Christian culture.
The challenges I see:
1. A project like this would require a major commitment from the local staff and brethren. I’m afraid this is likely to be the first and hardest challenge. This is not due to a lack of concern or spiritual vision from the local staff. The local staff are already extremely busy and overburdened, and a project like this would be a huge time commitment.
2. The second major challenge I see would be difficulty in recruiting young members. In North America, there is a social expectation that young men and women should spend time in a unit. This is missing in developing countries. Also, it will be difficult for young people to commit two years of their lives to a project such as this.
3. It would be unrealistic to expect such a centre to be self-sustaining during the first couple years of operation. The unit would require funding for initial capital costs and ongoing operational costs for at least the first several years. Such funding would have to come mostly from North America.
4. One concern we have had in working with the Nigerian brethren in a business capacity is a lack of “spiritual capital”. I’ll send you a copy of an article that does a good job defining this problem. In brief, spiritual capital is defined as a business culture that is permeated with Christian practices and values, such as integrity, accountability, responsibility, honesty, humility, trust and a good work ethic. Even in North America’s current ungodly environment, we are still benefiting from a long heritage of Christian virtues in our culture. This has played a major part in our current economic success. Many of these virtues are largely missing in the cultures of developing countries, and this also affects our people. My current teaching program in Nigeria has been focusing on these aspects
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