Chronicle Editor
Patrick Chitumba, Midlands Bureau Chief
A TOTAL of 3 000 young people have been enrolled for apprenticeship training at various State institutions as the Second Republic intensifies efforts to develop skills to push ahead the industrialisation agenda in line with Vision 2030.
About $730 million will be channeled towards the payment of tuition, boarding fees and wages of apprenticeship students in their first and second years of training.
The Second Republic resumed the programme in 2019 after its abandonment in 2015 to pave the way for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Advanced Level scholarships.
However, the STEM initiative was discontinued in 2017 following allegations of corruption at the Zimbabwe Development Fund (Zimdef), a body that administered the facility.
In 2016, the then Minister of Higher and Tertiary Education, Science and Technology Development Jonathan Moyo was arrested following allegations of pilfering the fund.
His deputy, Dr Godfrey Gandawa, Zimdef chief executive Mr Frederick Mandizvidza and principal finance director Mr Nicholas Mapute were also implicated in the scandal.
With the coming in of the Second Republic and a new leadership at Zimdef, the apprenticeship programme resumed and to date 3 000 young people have been enrolled for training at State institutions of higher learning.
There are two different types of students on apprenticeship: those who are directly recruited by the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education, Science and Technology Development through the Industrial Training and Trade Testing Department and those who are directly recruited by employers.
In an interview on the sidelines of the Zimdef three-day strategic plan progress review workshop at Village Lodge in Gweru last week, Zimdef chief executive Engineer Sabastian Marume said: “A total of 3 000 young people have been enrolled for apprenticeship training at various State institutions and a total of $260 million was disbursed in 2021 and we have $470 million projected for 2022.”
Eng Marume said the apprentices are drawn from across the 10 provinces, cutting across all disciplines.
“Zimdef activity is supposed to be manpower development and this programme aims at developing skills so that we are able to stand as a country in terms of innovation and industrialisation.
The apprenticeship programme facilitating traineeships of technicians in various industrial entities was stopped to pave the way for STEM but I won’t go back in the past with regards to how STEM was stopped,” he said.
Eng Marume said Zimbabwe is known for having literate people, but not so when it comes to innovators.
“I am not saying we don’t have innovators in the country or out there, but I am saying we need to develop more to push economic growth, to push the industrialisation programme in line with Vision 2030.
“We have Zimbabweans who are good at operating machines and are on demand outside our borders but we are saying we need Zimbabweans that can innovate, that can produce goods and services to push industrial development,” he said.
Eng Marume said for example, the British education system was designed in such a way that it produces inventors who then channel products to other countries like Zimbabwe.
He said on the other hand, the Zimbabwean education system was designed for people to look for a job, to operate machines and depend on Britain for everything.
“That’s why the Government came up with Education 5.0 hinged on heritage. We have the people who need skills development and we have the natural resources.
“We train the apprentices, they innovate, they go to innovation hubs and then industrial hubs and we develop as a country,” said Eng Marume.
“If you go outside the country, Zimbabweans are in demand to operate machines which they did not develop. We want them to develop our own innovations. So, the Government, through Zimdef working with the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education, has now deliberately moved towards capacitating students with industrial skills.
“Apprenticeships are done to equip the students with the practical skills so that when they graduate, they will be ready to produce; they will be ready for innovation.”
Higher and Tertiary Education, Science and Technology Development Minister Amon Murwira said skills development through apprenticeships and the innovation hubs as well as industrial parks are the way to go.
“We can’t continue borrowing education from other countries. We are doing it our own way so that we develop using our own skills and the natural resources we have,” the minister said while addressing the Zimdef workshop.
Zimdef was established in 1984 to finance programs incidental to skills development in the country.
Online Reporter