I listen to people around me, especially youths who insist that they only need to go to school excel in academics, graduate and get a good job. The employer is not interested in the graded you had while in school but he will employ you if you have sellable skills that can help his business grow.
7 years ago I made the cloth I have on in the pictures (with the help of a friend). My training in fashion designing didn’t go to waste. I also made the jewelry. I still sew once in a while now too.
Skills are important to have if not for any other thing than to be able to help your family and yourself when it is required. Over the years I have acquired a few technical and vocational skills that makes it easy for me to adapt wherever I find myself. This has helped boost my confidence and to also grow as a person.
Learning a skill will add to you and no new skill is ever a waste.
I started acquiring skills while in the secondary school. I started with writing. My dad would buy us novels to read and he’d ask that we summarize the novel chapter by chapter in a notebook. I was the only that took this serious. I even took the summary to one of my teachers to review. I started writing poems, short stories and put down some good ideas in secondary school. This skill helped me get my first job when I was done with serving my country and had to get a job. I got employed as a writer for an export magazine.
I taught myself to make hair and when I gained admission into the university, I was able to feed myself by making my colleagues hair for a fee. Then I started a home tutoring business after u left off hair making because my ‘friends’ started owing me. In my first year of secondary school my sister got into the first year of primary school and u was her lesson teacher. I had to teach her how to read and write. I was in charge of her homework as well. And I did this for the younger one as well. This was a skill that feed me for over 6 years (4 years of university and 2 years after).
When I started volunteering around 2008 I merged all my skills and worked with a community focused NGO as a lead trainer on entrepreneurship. I have since grown my skills in writing, teaching, crafting, sewing and learning into something that makes me who I am today.
Through writing I got a mentor that helped me to horn my business planning and researching. Everything is important and becomes useful at one point in our life. They say no one is indispensable, this can become false in your case as you continue to evolve and become a better and more skilled version of yourself. Skills will make you stand out and make a way for you where others say there is no way. My writing skills also worked for me volunteering to develop contents for a church blog site. As a result of the craft skills (jewelry making bag making, shoe making, home decor and souvenir crafts) I have acquired over a period of more than 10 years, I now teach craft as a volunteer and also for my own business.
Take the step to be a better version of yourself now.
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