In this digital era, skilling young people in digital literacy has become important. Having such skills will address the unemployment issue and encourage the youth to start their own business. In Thimphu, 25 out-of-school youth are attending multimedia skill training so that they can become self-employed and also create work opportunities for others.
20–year-old Leela Bahadur Gurung from Samtse is one of the participants. Last year, he completed class twelve and then helped his mother at her restaurant in Haa. Due to financial constraints, he couldn’t continue his studies.
“I couldn’t continue my further studies because my sister and I, we were raised by a single mother. And it’s so struggling for her and even if I had gone for further studies, my mother would struggle a lot with her finances. So even if I could not do my further studies I thought that this opportunity I would give to my sister,” said Leela Bahadur Gurung.
He added that he was interested in learning animation but couldn’t get a platform.
“Multimedia is significant in our lives today because if we connect and communicate with just more than one medium, we get to learn new things. On top of that, multimedia is a combination of just more than one content. It includes images, visuals, animations and so on. When it comes to multimedia, the most significant role that it plays is that it connects people around the globe,” said Leela Bahadur Gurung.
The participants are taught script writing, photography, videography, animation and visual editing.
“ibest institute is one of the most trusted and reliable institutes in our country which helps all the youths by providing different training. I have always dreamed of becoming animator. I grew up watching animations and all, and I find this course very suitable for myself and this course is a very great way to enhance our career path,” said Sonam Yangchey, a participant.
“I attend this training because I want to learn a new skill and develop myself. Secondly, I’m interested in animation and photography. And thirdly, being in the twenty-first century, I feel like we should have a skill of multimedia and our country is stepping into technology. I feel like it will benefit me to stand up in the technology world and it will also benefit me to create new ideas for our country,” said Sonam Rinchen, another participant.
“They will be employed by institutions who are in need of social media marketing because without social media marketing, these days it’ll be difficult to capture an audience unlike before. We are more into social media marketing so, therefore, they’ll be able to animate in 2D and then they will become the videographer, editor and all skills related to cinematography,” said Phurpa Dorji from ibest Institute.
The Department of Youth and Sports and ibest Institute provided the training with support from UNICEF. After three months of training, the participants will be assessed in March next year.
Tshering Deki
Edited by Tshering Zam
