Building Tomorrow: Carpentry Skills at Munyama Training Centre

For generations, fishing has been the economic backbone of communities along Lake Bangweulu. But fish stocks are declining. Climate patterns are shifting. The lake that once reliably fed and employed entire villages is becoming an unreliable provider — and young people who expected to follow their parents into fishing are finding that the path has narrowed.

Inside-Out Community Ventures established the Munyama Carpentry Skills Training Centre in 2025 in direct response to this reality. In partnership with Munyama Primary School, we created what is believed to be the first formal vocational skills programme in the area.

The Programme

The training runs in two cohorts per year, each lasting twelve weeks. Participants — selected from upper-primary school pupils and out-of-school youth in the community — work alongside a qualified carpentry instructor three afternoons per week. The curriculum covers:

• Timber selection and safe use of hand tools
• Measurement, marking, and basic joinery techniques
• Construction of furniture: stools, tables, shelving units, and window frames
• Surface finishing, sanding, and varnishing
• Basic business skills — costing a job, setting a fair price, managing materials

By the end of twelve weeks, every graduate has built at least one complete piece of furniture from raw timber — something tangible they can sell, use, or show to a potential employer.

First Cohort Results

The inaugural cohort of 2025 included eighteen participants aged between thirteen and twenty-two. At the end-of-programme showcase held in February, graduates presented their work to community leaders, parents, and local school administration. Items produced included twelve stools, four small tables, two window frames, and a storage shelf unit that was donated to the school library.

Three graduates have since secured paid carpentry work — two repairing furniture for village households, and one assisting a local construction project in Samfya. It is a small start, but it represents real income replacing dependence on a declining fishery.

Expanding the Workshop

Our immediate priority is to expand the workshop space and acquire additional tools so we can run larger cohorts without compromising the quality of instruction. We are also exploring partnerships with urban furniture workshops in Lusaka and Kitwe who might offer apprenticeship placements to our graduates — creating a pathway from village training centre to sustained urban employment.

If you are a business, a trade association, or an individual who can support the expansion of vocational training in Zambia's rural north, we would love to hear from you. Please get in touch via our Contact page.

A Word from the Instructor

"These young people are hungry to learn. They come on time, they stay late, they ask questions. All they needed was someone to give them a chance. Carpentry is not glamorous, but it is honest work — and it feeds a family. That matters."
— Carpentry Instructor, Munyama Training Centre