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| Trainees in the YEC-A filmmaking class set up a scene. |
The academy, YEC-A, is a project of CYFI's Vocational Training team. The fellows designed YEC-A as a way to combat youth unemployment in Nigeria; the academy selected over 50 YEC-A trainees, all of whom are under- or unemployed young Nigerians, and teaches them marketable skills, such as shoemaking and photography. Over the academy’s two-month duration, trainees have the option to learn shoemaking, photography and ICT. When the training phase of the academy is complete, trainees will be paired with local businesses, where they will be able to build on their freshly acquired skills.
The CYFI Board observed shoemaking and photography/filmmaking lessons. In the shoemaking workshop, trainees were busy putting the finishing touches on sandals, slippers and dress shoes that they had learned to make the week before. In the program’s opening three weeks, trainees said had already learned to make several varieties of shoes. Some trainees were showing creative flair, making sandals out of Nigerian ankara fabric and designing sandals with a fun leather embellishments. Some trainees, who could not afford to buy leather to make their shoes, practiced their shoemaking skills using denim from old pairs of jeans, making shoes that looked distinctive. Creativity also abounded in the photography and filmmaking course, where trainees were reviewing photographs they had taken the day before and learning about film direction.
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| A trainee hard at work making shoes he created and designed. |
The academy’s subsequent weeks will include trainings in ICT and entrepreneurship. The four CYFI
vocational training fellows – Tunde Aboderin, Obinna Echendu, Olawale Sunday Olaniran, and Ebenezer
Akinrinade – lead the trainings in conjunction with professional shoemakers and filmmakers that they
had contacted. Trainings are held at the facilities of the Ibadan Northwest Local Government Area at
Onireke Dugbe, which has generously agreed to provide space for YEC-A.