Bridging the Gender Gap With Vocational Skills in Somalia

Mohamed Yasin grew up surrounded by many women, from his sisters to his cousins – and something constantly plagued his mind – why didn't they have the same access to education that the men in the family did? “The reason that we started Tayo Skills School was to address the gender inequality that we saw around us, girls had hard times accessing education compared to boys…and so we had this idea, what if we started a vocational skills programme to help girls gains skills quickly so that they can start their own businesses or get jobs to support themselves.” This idea blossomed and today Mohamed and his co-founders run Tayo Skills School, a vocational school  in Hargeisa that now boasts of 900 graduates.

Yet, setting up this initiative wasn’t a walk in the park for the co-founders who at the time were in high school. “In our tradition, parents prefer for girl children to stay and learn at home, this is why community members were initially opposed to the idea that we could do something like this.”

With persistent efforts, the community eventually came around, allowing them to try out their idea for six months, with the condition that if the impact of their initiative was apparent, they could continue their operations. That year, their first cohort of 15 girls graduated and 12 found employment, which was a huge accomplishment.

When reflecting on what moved him from having the idea for the school to acting on it, Mohamed says his curiosity led him to ask questions about why girls did not have access to certain opportunities and how he and his co-founders could change that. Today they offer courses in tailoring, sewing, makeup and beauty, plumbing and culinary skills, soon they hope to start offering business and marketing and information technology courses.

When it comes to funding their operations, Mohamed and his co-founders have been supported by different organisations that saw the impact of their work. They have participated in programmes such as ‘Innovate Ventures’ where they received funding and Mohamed also joined One Young World, an initiative supporting young leaders who are driving change within their communities.

©Tayo Skills School

©Tayo Skills School

“We don’t think of making a profit, it’s about making a positive impact on the community and so that is how we see it.” When talking about the future of Tayo Skills School, Mohamed says their goal is to reach more young women and to teach vocational skills that allow them to create businesses and in the process, open up employment for others. 

“Challenging the status quo was a good thing and I believe it has helped a lot of people.” To all those contemplating whether to pursue their dreams or not, Mohamed says, “it is the failure that you learn from and if what you are thinking of doing can change people’s lives, then it is worth the risk.”