About K10m disbursed for SME/Out-of-school-youth skills training

July 25, 2018 at 14:29

The Ministry of Higher Education through the TEVETA has signed 178 contracts worth K9.9million for out of-school Youths and SME/Informal sector training in different skill areas. The contracts were signed with 47 training providers across the country. The training contracts will benefit 140, 140 unskilled out of school youth and SME/Informal sector players that need un-skilling to enhance their productivity, efficiency and material utilisation. Funded training institutions include those under 1) Zambia Correctional Services (skills training section); 2) youth resource centres under the Ministry of Youth and Sport; 3) Ministry of General Education’s skills training centres; 4) community-based skills centres; 5) Ministry of Higher Education TEVET institutions; 6) private institutions; and 7) faith-based skills training centres that are registered with TEVETA. Funded training was in: 1) agriculture (poultry management, pig production, fish farming, horticulture/vegetable production, bee keeping and goat production), 2) construction (carpentry and joinery, bricklaying and plastering, plumbing and sheet metal, power electrical), 3) engineering/manufacturing (metal fabrication, automotive mechanics, diesel mechanics, vehicle body maintenance and refinishing, design and fashion, welding) and 4) tourism/hospitality (food production, wildlife safari guiding, safari driving, canoeing, and camp site construction). The funding targets SMEs/Informal sector players, out of school unemployed youth and entrepreneurs needing up or reskilling. The funds for training are proceeds of the Skills Development Fund (SDF). The SDF was established under the Skills Development Levy Act Number 46 of 2016 and administered by the Ministry of Higher Education. The Fund is a long term financing strategy of the technical education, vocational and entrepreneurship training (TEVET) in the country. It promotes collaborations with industry and other stakeholders to improve accountability and transparency. The Fund seeks to lead to the production of relevant and fully skilled graduates through improved infrastructure, recapitalised machinery and equipment, qualified and motivated personnel and enhanced participation of industry in training. The Skills Development Levy is collected from employers at 0.5 percent of their payroll. The Ministry of Finance collects the levy from the private sector and industry. The levy is payable by employers whose annual turnover is above K800, 000 (eight hundred thousand Kwacha) except public service or local government and employers whose annual turnover is below K800, 000 (eight hundred thousand Kwacha) and those exempted under the Income Tax Act and Ministers. The SDF is one of the strategies Government has put in place to increase access to TEVET and improve efficiency/ productivity. Permanent Secretary (PS) in the Ministry of Higher Education Mabvuto Sakala who spoke through Director of Vocational Education and Training Alex Simumba urged funded institutions keep documentation of successful skills training for others to learn from them and replicate strategies that aided into successful training. The PS added that the Ministry of Higher Education welcomed new initiatives that could help improve the way of doing things in skills training and SDF management. The innovations could be in curriculum or infrastructure development, entrepreneurship training or anything that could enhance the skillfulness of the Zambian people. “For example, new ways of imparting green skills for effective waste management methods and building waste aggregation facilities to avert waste management problems and create sustainable waste management systems in the country. If such ideas were pursued, we could not be spending so much on cholera outbreak,” the PS said. “Zambian needs youth with skills for them to apply themselves in developing the country. Skills will change many lives”, added the PS. The importance of skills in national development is exemplified by the Tigers of Asia [Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan] that industrialised utilising skilled persons after placing skills development top on their agenda. “Prudent investment of the SDF can have similar impact on Zambia’s socio-economic development goals,” noted the PS. He further said the Ministry will help institutions registered with TEVETA to improve their profile through acquisition of modern equipment, tools and other aspects in other financing windows the developed for the management of the SDF. The PS cautioned that the money was meant for training and not for wage bills nor debt repayment. “Use the resources for training as per contract specifications. SDF has been resisted by industry for various reasons among them due to doubts whether it will be put to good use in training. If we show industry that the fund is impacting the sector positively, there will be satisfaction and more funds will be provided.” The PS urged institutions to encourage girls to participate in skills training in technical and vocational education and training, especially in funded programmes since they were the ones most affected by poverty, early marriages and pregnancies which push them out of school at different levels. “TEVET provides spaces for them to acquire life skills in any field they wished to make them productive mothers in their communities.” He noted that poverty reduction, value addition, economic diversification and industrialisation goals could be enhanced through having skilled persons that made national aspirations become reality at different scales and socio-economic setups. And Ministry of Youth and Sport Director of David Musonda expressed gratitude to the Ministry of Higher Education for financing youth resources centres located in different parts of the country to the tune of K2.3 million. “When we talk about industrialisation and self-employment creation through entrepreneurial undertakings, skills development is the prime mover. Growing our economy thus requires skilling everyone despite the level at which they exited the school system as long as they are skillable” he said. The TEVET financing plays a critical role in the reform of the TEVET system by separating the provision of training from its financing. It also shifts the focus from quantity to quality. As a financier of training being procured from public training providers, the TEVET Fund is able to introduce standards and accountability to the system for the desired outcomes. The TEVET Fund introduces performance incentives for public TEVET providers. Focus will be on purchasing training that meets market demands at an arm’s length transaction. The SDF through its stakeholder governing body, will establish rules for spending on training services that promote national development objectives, including equitable access. The main objectives of the Skills Development Levy and SDF are to provide financial resource for the TEVET sector to help mitigate the enormous challenges of the sector. The proceeds from the Levy are expected to play an important role in developing a high quality, sustainable, demand-driven, and equitable TEVET system in the country. The SDF provides for opening equal access to training funds on a competitive basis with due reference to national development priorities. The funding strategy sets precedence for disbursement modalities towards continuous improvement in the quality and relevance of training in relation to different sectors and Vision 2030 and Seventh National Development Plan (7NDP) that recognise TEVET’s integral role in attaining those Vision’s goals. The Skills Development Fund is a strategic component in ensuring quality and relevant TEVET that increases employability, productivity and efficiency.