Most successful business owners and entrepreneurs in Cameroon started by developing vocational skills or training in high demand in society. Vocational skills typically refer to skills and occupations you gain toward becoming knowledgeable in a specific trade or profession. Acquiring one or two vocational skills or courses is a vital first step to entrepreneurship.
Today, over 5 million young people in Cameroon are jobless, meaning a young person is three times more likely to be unemployed than an adult.
Aside from paving your way to entrepreneurship, acquiring one or two vocational skills in Cameroon will make you more employable among the millions of Cameroonian workers and currently unemployed graduates.
Vocational Training and Skills To Acquire In Cameroon
This post concerns the top vocational skills and training worth acquiring in Cameroon.
Hair Styling
Hair stylists are essential to the health and beauty industry, as they are responsible for cutting and styling clients’ hair. They are highly skilled in handling hair and have extensive knowledge of the appropriate products for different hair types. In Cameroon today, hair-stylist are very much in demand everywhere you go.
Hair Stylists need specific skills to become successful at cutting and styling hair. These skills may be learned while attending vocational school and on the job. As a hair stylist, you constantly know and will always want to keep up with the newest trends to succeed. If you dream of starting a beauty salon someday, you must be skillful and knowledgeable about hair and hairstyles.
Makeup Artistry
Makeup artistry is a type of vocational skill that brings out the cosmetic “best” in people making them more beautiful and attractive to the eyes. The beauty industry has labeled makeup artistry a goldmine for self-made women Forbes.
In Cameroon, looking good is good business. There is a boom of makeup artists right now. Many of which are mostly young female fashion enthusiasts. The need for a makeup artist may be seasonal and occasional (majorly on weekends), but it’s a booming profession for skillful artists.
Providing services to wedding ceremonies and beauty salons will allow you to quickly create a clientele. Whether you attend formal classes, watch YouTube videos, or partake in on-the-job training, acquire unique skills that further expand your knowledge so that your makeup artist business will make money.
Fashion Designing
Style and design go hand in hand. If you are a good designer, you can effortlessly piece fabrics and garments together to create a stunning end product. Fashion design is a glamorous career – from dressing top models and celebrities to showcasing at fashion shows nationwide to making and selling ready-to-wear clothing for young and adults.
If you are creating and designing your own clothes, learning to draw is crucial for bringing your ideas to life by drawing them on paper. Good fashion designers don’t just need to be able to get their ideas to life but also have a good eye for detail. Although much pressure comes with being a fashion designer, it can also be a good and lucrative career choice.
Event Planning
Hundreds of thousands of Cameroonians attend one event to another every weekend, from weddings to child dedications, housewarmings, or burials. Event planning is a type of vocational skill that involves a lot of management and supervision.
Being an event planner is both rewarding and rated one of the most stressful in the world. A good event planner needs to know a bit of everything, from catering to baking to managing resources and personnel.
The long-term success of an event planning business will be based on the experience that the planner brings to his or her clients. So when it comes to securing a successful path through the events industry, you’re going to need a diverse set of baseline event planning skills and a great network of various event professionals, such as caterers, photographers, DJs, bands, lighting, A/V, décor, video, and beyond.
Electrical Repairs
Suppose you have found yourself repairing small electrical appliances in your apartment for your friends, family, and neighbors. In that case, it is high time you acquire more in-depth electrical repair skills and start your own electrical repair business.
One thing with household electrical appliances is that anyone can own one, regardless of how much they earn. While some people do not mind replacing their faulty appliances with new ones, most would prefer to repair their appliances to save money.
Even though this is not a business that requires formal training before one can start, having experience from either vocational training or an apprentice program will help you have the edge over your competitors.
Arts and Crafts
Art and craft are works where practical and decorative objects are made entirely by hand or using only simple tools. Arts and crafts describe various activities involving making things with one’s hands. Arts and crafts are usually a hobby. Some crafts (art skills) have been practiced for centuries; others are recent inventions.
Common arts and crafts activities required among Cameroonians are Painting, Drawing, Weaving, Beading, Sewing, and Shoe making. Acquiring any arts and crafts skills will set you up for an incredible business journey, as you can quickly find beautiful art products and sell them to people who like them.
Home Cleaning
Starting a home cleaning business is one of the least expensive ways to become a business owner. This is a lucrative business in the urban parts of the country as there will always be homes that need cleaning, and it’s a job people are eager to hand off.
The skills required to become a professional home cleaner are simple and basic skills that we all picked up in our homes when we were growing up. The only thing to do to distinguish yourself is to be as professional as possible and get the right cleaning equipment to make your life easier.
See Also: Subjects required to become a Customs Officer in Cameroon.
Conclusion
In conclusion, vocational education can play a vital role in the stability and security of Cameroonian economy. The more vocationally skilled entrepreneurs, the more money to be made and kept within the economy.
It takes less time than a three-year university to obtain a job with vocational skills, and it can be learned in a few months to two years at any vocational training institute around you.
