Posted on 27 October, 2021 8:6
Climate change disruptions cause floods, droughts, and other calamities. Mitigating and adaptation to these climatic disruptions require environmental friendly human action and skills to develop eco-friendly goods and services. The development of relevant eco-friendly skills requires collaborative efforts across sectors to develop learning systems that develop pertinent skills to meet the climate change mitigation and adaption actions.
Although changes in climate present the world with devastating effects, it also provides an opportunity for developing green skills to mitigate effects of climate change across sectors of the economy. In the technical education, vocational and entrepreneurship training (TEVET) sector relevant climate responsive curricula have been developed. Some old curricula have reviewed to align them to green skills requirements like sustainable construction, solar energy installation and maintenance, waste management (aggregation, processing and recycling) and bio-digester energy solutions among others. TEVET is among the key sectors in developing hands-on skills that foster green economic practices for mitigating and adapting to climate change disruptions.
Partnerships with cooperating partners to develop green skills have been established in the TEVET sector. One of the collaborations in 2021 is on the development of renewable energy to improve energy efficiency in the country. Three curricula were developed under the collaborative efforts in (i) solar photovoltaic operations and maintenance, (ii) biogas digester construction, and (iii) renewable energy and efficiency technologies. The curricula were financed by the European Union (EU) under the “vocational training value chain in renewable energy/energy efficiency technologies”. The development of relevant skills in renewable energy is pivotal in effectively combating of climate change, enhancing quality of air people breathe, improving the competitiveness of businesses and reducing energy costs for consumers.
Zambia’s Vision 2030 on the energy sector prioritises universal access to clean, reliable and affordable energy. The target for the energy sector is reach 40% of clean cooking by 2030. Currently 93% of rural households use firewood and 73% of urban households use charcoal for cooking. This contributes to current deforestation rates of 200, 000 hectares per annum which impact negatively on climate change. Therefore, to mitigate negative impact on climate change, scaling up the usage of renewable energy such as biogas technology requires enhancement. However, training carried-out by various stakeholders in the bioenergy sector has been at small scale and has been done without formal certification.
The use of solar photovoltaic (PV) technology is another widespread mode of power generation in the country. However, efforts to meet the growing demand for solar photovoltaic power energy did not match the skills training in solar PV technology. Training carried-out has been largely focused on installation of photovoltaic systems by private companies, thus creating skills gaps in photovoltaic system operations and maintenance. Training by private companies lacked standard, resulting in general unprofessionalism in those who practice. Therefore, developed curricula bridge skills gaps in bioenergy and solar PV technology, mitigate the potential threats of climate change, enhance universal access to clean, reliable and affordable energy. The mainly focus is on mini-grids and rural renewable energy provision and energy efficiency in a sustainable, scalable and replicatable manner.
Bioenergy is among the energy mixes Zambia is adopting. The biogas ecosystem is comprised of animal waste inputs and bio-digester technology to produce biogas for cooking, lighting, heating and refrigeration. Some examples of materials used to produce biogas are agricultural waste, manure, sewage sludge from municipal water treatment plants or food waste. Both urban and rural citizens have resource required to produce the biogas to meet their energy needs. Bio-digester technology supports off-grid smallholder dairy farmers who need to chill their milk before delivering to the milk collection centres, use bio-slurry as organic fertiliser for improved crop and fodder production, lighting and cooking energy. Having access to affordable, reliable and sustainable energy is among main drivers of improved conditions of living, establishment of enterprises and creation of employment opportunities.
Other curricula have been developed under the Zambia Green Jobs Programme (ZGJP) toward green jobs in construction, energy and rainy water harvesting. The programme supports the creation of green jobs among micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in construction and contribution to inclusive green job creation. Rain water harvesting has many benefits to the environment and to the economy through prevention of water wastage, safeguarding and sustaining existing water table, increasing water viability and ultimately addressing the impact of climate change. But in Zambia, there were skills gaps in harvesting water despite water table depletion. Thus, there was need to develop apt skills that met this gap.
The Building Works Supervision Programme aims at developing sustainable construction competences in line sustainable buildings, climate change, sustainable development and resource efficiency. The programme resonates with the National Sustainable Consumption and Production Programme and Sustainable Housing Guideline, which identifies sustainable buildings and construction as a priority area to promote a resource efficient approach.
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development espouses that sustainable economic growth was only achievable when the world of work transitions effectively towards green and sustainable practices by developing green skills required by economic sectors. Global estimates show that the transition to green economies will potentially create 24 million jobs by 2030, while 1.2 billion current jobs will also be affected in terms of the skills needed. This signifies the need to align workforce skillsets to green economic requirements at different levels of qualifications.
TEVETA Zambia 2024. (MOTS statutory agency)
