Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce skills ministry sign Memorandum of Understanding to align training with industry needs

Michael Tome, Business Reporter

THE Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce (ZNCC) and the Ministry of Skills Audit and Development have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to align the country’s skills development system with industry requirements and support economic transformation.

The partnership will strengthen collaboration between Government, business, academia and skills development institutions by improving labour market intelligence and identifying sector-specific skills gaps.

Dubbed the triple helix, Government, industry and academia, the combination has been identified as the critical ingredient for creating an ecosystem that enables the creation of a vibrant local industry, which is central to local economic growth.

The MoU provides a framework for Government and business to share labour market information, identify sectoral skills gaps, influence curriculum development and strengthen public-private dialogue on skills development.

It will initially focus on manufacturing, with a sector skills survey expected to identify current and future skills requirements, gaps and mismatches, competency levels and employers’ assessment of graduate preparedness.

According to the agreement, ZNCC will mobilise businesses to participate in the survey and engage with training institutions, while industry is expected to provide evidence on the skills required to support production.

This comes as Zimbabwe seeks to strengthen human capital development in support of industrialisation, investment and economic transformation.

Speaking at the signing ceremony, the Minister of Skills Audit and Development, Dr Jenfan Muswere, said the Government was determined to ensure that the MoU translated into tangible economic outcomes rather than becoming another agreement that was signed and forgotten.

He said the Joint Technical Working Group established under the partnership should translate the agreement into annual priorities, measurable outputs and visible results.

Minister Muswere said that skills development should not be measured by the number of certificates produced, but by the extent to which Zimbabweans and local companies can increase their productive capabilities.

“Five years from now, we should be able to demonstrate what changed because we signed this MOU. That is the ambition we bring to this partnership.

“Ultimately, skills development is not about producing more certificates. It is about expanding what Zimbabweans can produce, what Zimbabwean firms can achieve, and what the Zimbabwean economy can become,” Dr Muswere said.

ZNCC president Ms Josephine Takundwa said the MoU presented an opportunity to take the engagement to a national level, particularly as Zimbabwe seeks to build competitive industries and increase the productive capacity of local businesses.

She said Zimbabwe’s industrialisation ambitions could not be achieved if the skills development system continued operating separately from the industries the country sought to build.

“Today, we are signing an MOU, but what we are really doing is connecting skills to production, education to enterprise, and human capability to economic ambition.

“For business, skills are productive capital. They determine whether a machine is fully utilised, whether technology is adopted, whether investment becomes productive capacity, and whether our firms can compete,” Ms Takundwa said.

She said the agreement would also ensure that discussions around skills moved beyond conferences and resolutions to measurable changes in the economy.

ZNCC has already incorporated an industry-academia session into its annual congress, showing the growing need for closer engagement between training institutions and employers.

Ms Takundwa also urged businesses to take greater responsibility for shaping the skills pipeline instead of criticising the quality of graduates while remaining detached from the training process.

“Industry cannot complain about the skills coming out of our institutions while remaining absent from the process that produces those skills,” she said.

The signing ceremony was attended by the Secretary in the Ministry of Skills Audit and Development, Ambassador Rudo Chitiga, senior Government officials, business leaders, representatives of academia and skills development institutions.