This week 69 students graduated from the Bor vocational centre created by the South Korean contingent serving the United Nations Mission in South Sudan.

The 12-week-long training facilitated by the South Korean engineering company has given the graduates, the sixth batch since the establishment of the vocational centre, skills in areas as diverse as agriculture, carpentry, construction, bakery, welding and electrical engineering.

The students expressed optimism about their future prospects in the labour market, with several of them revealing plans to start their own businesses.

One of the graduates of the construction training, Deng Maketh Deng, said he has acquired enough robust know-how to set up his own brick-laying business.

“I am going to start my own company. I will be selling and laying bricks in Bor town, and later on I will be selling all over South Sudan,” he said.

Nyibol Daruka came to witness the graduation ceremony. She was celebrating her daughter and applauded the continuous support of the peacekeeping mission and its commitment to durable peace in South Sudan. She encouraged the graduates to be nimble and proactive and to make the most of their skills to realize their potentials.

“I am so happy that she has made it. I encourage the graduates to start saving capital to set up their own businesses to help themselves,” she said.

The commander of the South Korean contingent, Colonel Ahn Sang, described the graduates as “reborn splendid professionals” prepared to be “valuable cornerstones” in the reconstruction of the world youngest nation.

“I strongly believe that their graduation will be not only the turning point of their lives, but also the foundation for rebuilding South Sudan,”, Ahn Sang said.

The vocational training centre is a peace-building institution in the sense that it encourages and improves inter-communal cooperation. Its students come from both the local community in Bor and from the peacekeeping mission’s protection site for displaced people. The training centre is the only one in the area offering a variety of courses to local people free of charge.