NEW INSTITUTE SEEKS TO COMPLEMENT SKILLS DEVELOPMENT
The Zimbabwe government’s renewed emphasis on skills development has been lauded as a key driver in fostering economic development through the full utilisation of local skills.
To pursue the skills development agenda, President Emmerson Mnangagwa created the Skills Audit and Development Ministry in September 2023, to ensure the availability of an adequate and competent workforce to catalyse Zimbabwe’s transition to an upper-middle income economy by 2030.
To complement that effort, a local private entity the Institute of Social Development Practices (ISDP) is set to roll out a range of capacity development programmes to foster an entrepreneurial mindset among students and graduates.
In an interview, ISDP founder Petronella Tatenda Muungani said skills development is a key part of the Zimbabwe’s economic development agenda.
“We applaud the government’s stance (on skills development) and as a private sector entity we are coming in to support the government’s initiatives. Our ideology is based on understanding that degrees and diplomas alone are not enough, rather, students and graduates need to complement their academic credentials with soft skills that can help them to succeed,” she said.
“The courses and workshops we offer aim to promote the development of these skills. Everyone has skills, they only need to be trained how to effectively apply them to practical tasks.”
Muungani said the ISDP, to be launched by Skills Audit and Development Minister Professor Paul Mavhima, is eager to partner several stakeholders to push the skills development agenda.
She said the ISDP was conceived out of the need to cover the gap between knowledge and skills acquisition.
“I think there was a gap in the market for a social science/humanities-oriented institute. There has been a lot of interest around STEM so those outside that discipline eagerly wanted an entity that makes them feel seen and relevant. That is what we are offering,” she said.
“We are launching in October. We have secured high profile speakers who we expect to bring great value and insight to the development dialogue. We are also actively engaging corporates and partners to promote our brand.”
Already, strategic partnerships have been tied up with stakeholders including the GEM Consulting, and plans are in place to secure collaborations with Non-Governmental Organisations, Foreign Embassies and others.
“At the moment we have been working with the Centre for organizational leadership development where we have designed the Ascend leadership development program (ALDP) alongside Fate Consultancy to provide graduates and those already employed with a platform to develop skills that drive innovation, critical thinking and problem solving.
“The ministry of skills audit and development has also been supportive as it has been involving multi stakeholder consultations platforms which we have participated in thus allowing us to learn and effectively manage our projects,” she said.
“In the long term, we want to see our brand going global. We want to be able to replicate our local successes at regional and international levels. We want to see development practitioners from across all regions coming together to create regional cooperation. We dream of organizing a development practitioners regional and international conference where professionals converge to share experiences and perspectives. We want the conversations around social development to be ignited and to stay alive.”
