What skills are you giving your child?

Thirteen-year-old Immanuela Musinguzi Byarugaba, a Senior One student at Makerere College School, is one among the few children who has used the platform offered by her mother Charity Byarugaba Mbabazi to venture into the fashion industry by making necklaces, bangles, hair bands and cards. This she started doing in 2014 at just 10 years of age.
“When my mother discovered I was interested in fashion and design at 10, she took me for card making lessons at DIS N DAT at UMA show grounds where I was trained to design birthday, Christmas, wedding, baptism and business cards,” she explains.
Starting with Shs100,000 that was part of the savings, Musinguzi started her jewelry business. Independently, she buys her design materials from Majestic plaza and Gazaland in Kampala even when she can be helped, which has given her business management skills.
“The cards range between Shs5,000 and Shs10,000 whereas a set of jewelry comprising a necklace, ear rings and a bangle cost Shs20,000 and hair bands Shs5,000,” she says priding in the fact that her parents have been supportive throughout this journey of self-discovery.
Musinguzi has kept a viable business running too. For example last year during Christmas time, she made Christmas cards for companies such as Dania. The 30 cards earned her about Shs190, 000 which she saved. She also made company cards for All Round Consult and Peal Junior School.
“I see myself becoming famous and expanding so that I stop working from home. I also want to start using my company name Ella Design House in a new location,” an optimistic Musinguzi says.

Pivotal role
Grace Kwizeera, a career guidance counselor at St Peter’s Primary School, Kajjansi notes that although the school gives career guidance including encouraging children to engage in co-curricular activities and skills offered by the school, parents have a pivotal role to play in helping a child acquire skills.
“Unfortunately, some parents impede their children from practicing some skills perhaps because they think it will either distract them from their academics or they think it is beneath their standard,” she says.
Nonetheless, Rahmah Aminah Namubiru, 12, says the conversation she had with her mother birthed her skill and business of making peanut butter.
“My mother told me that her parents supported her to start a jewelry business as a young girl. I also asked her to teach me something productive. She taught me how to make peanut butter,” Namubiru recounts.
With capital of Shs5,000 which her mother offered, she stared with only a kilogramme of ground nuts. In Primary Five, she already had a side business making peanut butter, ground nuts and daddies which she sold off to her fellow pupils, teachers, and parents. “I also supply to some supermarkets in Nansana such as Kenjoy and Divine supermarkets under the brand name Raha foods,” Namubiru explains.
A small tin of peanut butter goes for Shs3,000 and a big one for Shs5,000.
“I saved Shs90, 000 which helped me with my shopping as I joined secondary school,” she shares.

The young farmer
For Edward Mukisa, 12, a Primary Six pupil at Good Shepherd Primary School in Makindye, his love for animals forced his father Henry Vincent Lubowa to start teaching him goat rearing.
“Every time we went to our farm in Kasenge, the only thing Mukisa wanted to be with were animals. He would move around with the herdsman to go feed the cows, he would carry the kids everywhere, and he always wanted to go to the farm every weekend,” the father narrates.
This was a realisation on his side as a parent to consider skilling the young boy in what he enjoyed doing most. “I started by first giving him a kid to rear and then taking him to various farming expos, which he totally loves. He asks veterinary doctors about how to take care of his kid and what to feed it among others,” Lubowa explains.
Mukisa currently owns two goats and a kid which he takes care of during holidays.
“I am really proud that as parents, there is a lot we can do in firstly, identifying where our children’s passions lie and then encourage, nurture and develop them into skills they can use in the future. I have personally come to believe in a future where skills are very important in the transformation of our economy and if we can start early with our children, then the future ahead will be better,” he notes.
In conclusion, giving an additional skill to your child gives them an edge in a competitive world, but also, opens their minds to some realities, preparing them to face the world as they grow up.

Tips to parents
Sounding the same message, Sarah Kengonzi, a vocational instructor (Cookery and Bakery) at Management Training and Advisory Centre, says in cases where parents cannot develop these skills, there are schools and institutions they can enrol their children in as well as individuals who can teach them.
“Approach a vocational school for example and inquire what skills they are open to giving your child. Some churches, NGOs and schools have these kinds of programmes, so a parent can interest their child in taking any skilling programme of their choice,” she adds.