By: Esther Nandutu
Skills Development Officer, Construction
A building is only as strong as the skills behind it. At TRIDI, the Construction Department is helping young people turn practical skills into competence, confidence and pathways to work.
Construction is more than putting up walls or installing fittings. It is a sector built around precision, problem-solving, safety, craftsmanship and the ability to turn technical knowledge into something that works in the real world.
At the Tropical Institute of Development Innovations (TRIDI), the Construction Department contributes to this practical skills development agenda through the Sustainable Inclusive Youth Employment Pathways (SIYEP) programme, supporting young people, particularly young women, to acquire market-relevant technical competencies that can translate into employment, enterprise and sustainable livelihoods especially in male dominated fields.
From the workshop to the real world
The department is coordinated by Nandutu Esther, Skills Development Officer, Construction, whose work spans practical training, curriculum support, training-material development, learner mentorship and practical assessment.
The construction skills supported through the department include bricklaying and building, carpentry and woodwork, plumbing, tiling, painting, electrical installation and metal fabrication.
Rather than treating these as skills that end in the classroom, the department places emphasis on practical application. Learners are supported to understand not only how to perform a task, but also how to apply their skills to real construction and production challenges.
This practical orientation is consistent with TRIDI’s wider approach to TVET, which emphasises hands-on learning, practical demonstrations, industrial exposure and skills competitions as ways of helping learners apply technical knowledge in real-world settings.
Where competence is put to the test
One of the department’s important areas of work is practical assessment and skills competitions.
In September 2026, TRIDI’s coverage of the skills competition at Lugogo Vocational Training Institute highlighted how construction competence can be assessed through actual practical tasks. Esther Nandutu, identified by TRIDI as a Skills Development Specialist, explained that she had designed the manual used for the building and construction competitions, with participants required to demonstrate their abilities through practical construction tasks.
In one of the competition activities, young women were assessed while constructing a barbecue wall structure, turning the skills acquired through training into a practical demonstration of competence.
This approach changes the question from simply “Has someone been trained?” to a more important one: “Can they demonstrate what they have learnt to an expected practical standard?”
That distinction is central to skills development.
Building confidence alongside competence
For young women entering trades that have traditionally been perceived as male-dominated, practical exposure and assessment can also provide an important platform for building confidence.
Through SIYEP, TRIDI is working with TVET institutions to provide young women with market-relevant technical, vocational, entrepreneurial and soft skills, alongside opportunities for practical application, mentorship and skills competitions. The programme also places emphasis on inclusive participation, including opportunities for young women from rural communities and young women with disabilities.
The Construction Department therefore contributes to more than technical instruction. It helps create an environment in which learners can practice, receive guidance, demonstrate competence, identify gaps and improve.
TRIDI’s institutional skills competitions have similarly been designed to help young women build confidence, improve skills efficiency, strengthen product development and prepare for wider employment opportunities, not simply to determine competition winners.
Connecting skills to industry
Technical competence becomes more valuable when it connects to an actual opportunity.
The Construction Department supports on-the-job learning, mentorship and engagement with TVET institutions, contractors and other industry stakeholders. These relationships are important because they help training remain responsive to workplace expectations and emerging market needs.
This reflects a wider priority within SIYEP; strengthening the connection between TVET institutions, instructors, young women, communities, industry, markets and partners so that the journey from training to economic opportunity is not left incomplete.
TRIDI’s recent learning from SIYEP implementation reinforces this point. At Amelo Technical Institute, for example, questions around equipment, personal protective equipment, electricity, markets and self-employment highlighted a fundamental reality: training alone is not enough if learners cannot access the tools, markets and opportunities needed to apply their skills.
Why the Construction Department matters
The construction sector provides opportunities across a wide range of technical occupations and enterprise activities. By strengthening practical competencies, the department contributes to a workforce that can participate in construction-related employment while also creating opportunities for self-employment and enterprise.
For young women, this also presents an opportunity to challenge conventional assumptions about who can participate in technical trades.
The department’s work is therefore part of a bigger TRIDI ambition; to ensure that skills development is market-relevant, practical, inclusive and connected to opportunity.
Building more than structures
Every wall constructed, electrical installation completed, fitting assembled or practical assessment undertaken represents more than a technical exercise. It is an opportunity for a learner to demonstrate competence, build confidence and move closer to productive work.
For TRIDI’s Construction Department, the objective is ultimately not just to teach construction skills.
It is to help build people who can use those skills.
And when practical training is connected to assessment, mentorship, industry exposure and employment pathways, the result is not simply a trained young person, it is a young person better prepared to participate in the economy.
Through the Construction Department, TRIDI is helping turn practical skills into practical opportunities, one competency, one learner and one pathway at a time.
