GIFF JOHNSON
Twenty-five Marshallese young people are mid-way through a life-changing training program — following a path that hundreds more have followed in recent past years.
The Waan Aelon in Majel (Canoes of the Marshall Islands) program operates a six-month life- and vocational-skills training program that is unlike any other in the Marshall Islands.
For one, recruitment for the training program specifically targets youth who dropped out of formal education at the elementary and middle school level.
“If kids are challenged at the high school level, they’ve got the Life Skills Academy,” said WAM Director Alson Kelen. “What about elementary-level dropouts? Most of our trainees are.”
Another important reason the WAM training stands out is the program integrates life skills, vocational skills and English and science learning.
- Life skills involve everything from learning how to work on a clock, set up a bank account, get a social security card, and generate a resume to learning English through sessions that are a pathway to CMI’s Adult Basic Education program and engaging in counseling with WAM’s certified counseling staff to address and resolve any issues that could hinder a person from engaging in future job or educational opportunities.
- Vocational skills focus on general construction skills such as carpentry and electrical, and learning math, carpentry and fiber glassing skills for building canoes, catamarans and proas that are the signature product of WAM. Once a week, trainees get the opportunity to learn to sail the fleet of canoes at WAM.
- English learning is provided through classes provided by volunteers from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints that are aimed at helping prepare trainees for entering the College of the Marshall Islands high school equivalency program. PREL staff have helped the program trainees with Science, Technology, Engineering and Math, known as “STEM.”
“We have 25 participants, six of whom are girls — the highest number of girls we’ve ever had,” said Kelen. An additional feature of the group is that about half were recruited from the Ajeltake to Laura area of Majuro, with the balance from the downtown area.
The trainees are getting real-world construction experience under the guidance of WAM’s carpentry supervisors: They are helping to build the two-story WAM offices and workshop building that is replacing the building that burned down two years ago.
This is the second group of youth trainees in a program funded by the World Bank through the RMI National Training Council. WAM has been conducting three- and six-month training sessions for over a decade. Prior to the NTC support for these latest six-month trainings, the RMI National Energy Office supported a series of trainings related to sustainable sea transportation.
“The last trainee group, many went onto CMI’s Adult Basic Education program after graduation from WAM,” Kelen said. So for the current group, anticipating this as a possibility, the WAM training team has incorporated some of the ABE requirements into its core training program to give trainees a step up if they decide to go ABE.
Kelen said the WAM trainings adapt to “changing times and needs” to keep them relevant to the young people looking to get their lives back on track.