Nineteen Ambae evacuees on Santo have gained new construction skills after completing a training delivered by Pektel Rural Training Centre (RTC).
The Certificate II Building Construction course was delivered as part of the Ambae Evacuee Support Strategy supported by the Vanuatu Skills Partnership.
It aims to help the displaced families from Ambae gain new skills to rebuild their homes and gain employment.
The training empowers the participants to contribute to future recovery efforts in the event of natural disasters.
One of the trainees was a female and a person with disability.
The training consisted of a combination of theory and practical sessions aimed at making the trainees work-ready.
The participants constructed a new classroom at Lonnoc Vocational Training Centre as part of their training.
The building is accessible to people with disability, incorporating design features such as ramps, wide doorways and skylight.
They have received their statements of attainment from the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Vanuatu Qualification Authority (VQA).
Husband Oliva Shelton and wife Clementine August as participants of the training want to build a permanent church in Santo for their congregation who evacuated from Ambae.
The construction skills training program could not have been delivered without the support of the Australian government-funded Disability Inclusive Development (DID) Fund.
DID Fund is supporting a number of training providers in remote locations as Pektel RTC and Lonnoc Vocational Training Centre to improve access to disability-inclusive skills training.
Vanuatu Skills Partnership is supporting training providers to implement disability inclusion action plans which include improving accessibility of campuses, flexibility of course delivery and inclusive training approaches, with the assistance of DID Fund.
Pektel RTC has gained a reputation for the quality of its capacity to deliver skills training for people with and without disabilities in remote areas.
Vanuatu Skills Centre said Pektel RTC and Lonnoc VTC are demonstrating that no matter how small a training provider or how remote is its location, flexible and accessible training is possible.