LINDA SOKO TEMBO writes
@SunZambian
ABOUT 87,102 learners have during the last three years been trained in various entrepreneurial skills under the Technical Education, Vocational and Entrepreneurship Training (TEVET) countrywide.
Technical Education, Vocational and Entrepreneurship Training Authority (TEVETA) manager for Education Information and Communications, Clive Siachiyako, said the number of learners trained during the last three years was far much smaller than the number of pupils that graduated from secondary school.
In an interview with the Sun in Lusaka recently, Mr Siachiyako bemoaned the lack of the TEVET sector to provide adequate training opportunities to enable the young people acquire skills and increase their economic value.
Mr Siachiyako said it was for this reason that Government in 2017 introduced the Skills Development Fund (SDF) aimed at enhancing the provision of quality and equitable access to skills by the youth in Zambia.
He said the fund, called TEVET fund under TEVETA, was last year allocated K23, 184million which was used to provide the youth with skills training in construction, agriculture and engineering.
“As an Authority, we targeted these sectors because, agriculture, construction, engineering are some of the major economic activities,” he said.
Mr Siachiyako, “We thought if people are trained in those areas, it opens them up for more opportunities in terms of what they can do.”
Mr Siachiyako explained that the trainings were usually conducted after the colleges that offered the TEVET programmes carried out a training analysis to identify the skills which would empower the youth in particular provinces.
He said once the colleges finished the skills analysis, they submitted the proposition to TEVETA with a budget line and an indication of how many youths they could train before being financed.
Mr Siachiyako said the institution last year signed training contracts with 178 colleges in the ten provinces of Zambia but they were still not enough and government has marked some institutions to be included in Muchinga Province.
“Government is asking, how do we increase access to TEVET because TEVET is one of the pillars which can help Zambia to achieve the Seventh National Development Plan and Vision 2030,” Mr Siachiyako said.
“And also for the country to be compensative in terms of investments when investors come not only do they look for raw materials but also right skilled individuals,” he said.
Mr Siachiyako said this was done so that Zambians would remain competitive in the SADC region and that it was important that the country had many people with different hands on skills so that when the investors employ the local people and retain their investments.
