Enhancing Youth Employment and Self-Employment through Fish Farming and Processing

In Tanzania, particularly in Morogoro, many fish farms operate with low levels of technical knowledge, resulting in low-output subsistence fish farming. Many farms function as a side business, and young people are often engaged in low-paid work. By improving their skills, these youth can become more productive, earn more, and access new pathways into self-employment and decent jobs.

For this reason, the six-month project aimed to create self-employment and decent jobs by equipping youth with fish farming and processing skills. Technical training was complemented by soft skills, internships and job placement, entrepreneurship, and mentoring so youth could create livelihoods through local self-employment and jobs.

The project targeted 50 young people already working in fish farms and 50 unemployed youth interested in fish farming or processing. It therefore combined upskilling for employed youth and reskilling for unemployed youth.

YPO worked with fish farm owners who made farms available as training sites, selected young workers for upskilling, provided internship placements, and employed interns after placement. Training was held at eight centres across eight wards, with six trainers deployed across two implementation phases. Each ward was supported by a dedicated trainer handling no more than 15 trainees.

Immediately after training, YPO technical staff began coaching trainees through their workplaces in fish farms and fried and smoked fish businesses. YPO also provided start-up support for 40 unemployed youth and additional fingerling capital to fish farms to increase production, sales, revenue, and employment outcomes.