Vocational Skills

The Need for Vocational Skills Training

Some of te children who attend the Revival day and boarding schools may have started school at an advanced age having missed out for a number of years and may progress slowly. Additionally, some of the champions are getting to an age where they need to be moving on but lack the education and skills to get a job or to look after themselves. Other children may not be doing well with academic subjects and need to rely more on vocational training to equip them to support themselves in the future. To meet these needs in April 2008 steps were taken to start developing a number of vocational skills. The vision is to provide skills training for boys and girls in the following subjects: carpentry, tailoring, mechanics and welding, catering, computing and farming.

Progress to date

The block originally constructed in late 2008, with huge support from St Margaret's Church of England Primary school in Horsforth, Leeds, to provide workshops for carpentry, tailoring, mechanics, welding and catering, had to be used for secondary school classrooms so that a previous classroom block could be used as a dormitory to meet new school safety standards and enable the schools to continue in operation.

A new plan for delivering skills training in the short term has been drawn up. A new block has been erected to provide a carpentry workshop and other buildings have been identified as potential workshops for catering, tailoring and mechanics. The computer rooms recently established in the schools will provide for computer skills training. Until the other workshops can be developed, catering and tailoring skills will be taught by the Revival womens group who will also use the equipment to support themselves and their families.

Prior to June 2008 it was not known where all the equipment needed for skills training would come from but two miraculous things happened.

Firstly, a presentation about the Revival Centre was made to the congregation of the River of Life church in Knaresborough, North Yorkshire because one of their members was going to visit the Revival Centre later in the year. In that presentation the needs of the vocational skills centre were shared. A craftsman called Chris who had recently closed his furniture business felt called by God to donate the valuable machinery and tools of his business to the Revival Centre so that young people in Matugga might have a future. It is fantastic that Chris will be going out to Matugga in October 2009 to set up the carpentry workshop.

Secondly, in late June 2008 Pastor Ivan visited Pudsey Grangefield secondary school in Leeds, the school was due to move to a newly built school in September 2008 and Mr Cornforth, the Head offered Pastor Ivan some of the contents of the old school to help equip his schools and vocational skills centre (with the support of the School Governors and Leeds Education Authority). Ivan and the support team were given a tour of the school to identify what was most needed by the Revival Centre. The items available included chairs and desks, exam tables, text books, filing cabinets, stationery cupboards, dining tables, woodwork benches, cooking equipment, sewing machines and computers. These would go a long way towards furnishing the secondary school and equipping the vocational skills centre at Revival.