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Farirai Machivenyika
Senior Reporter
Two Canada-based Zimbabweans are seeking to partner with local tertiary institutions and those from Canada to boost skills and international competitiveness.
The duo, Mr Jon Chirisa and Diana Muvundusi recently held a symposium that was attended by representatives of tertiary institutions, students and schools’ heads among others, where they laid out their vision.
Speaking in an interview, Mr Chirisa said their efforts were aimed at supporting the Government’s thrust under Education 5.0 to foster productivity and entrepreneurial skills among students.
“I understand that there are companies that have been coming to Zimbabwe and they have been identifying that we are lacking in certain areas and that is because, on the skills side in industry, we have not mastered some aspects, so bringing in programmes maybe for the motor industry or manufacturing that will help us create a platform where innovation grows and ideas and structures and systems are put in place easier with a skilled labour force,” he said.
Mr Chirisa bemoaned the brain drain affecting the country saying attainment of internationally recognised certification for local students and workforce may assist companies get opportunities for toll manufacturing on behalf of international entities.
“The difficulty is, of course, that there are a lot of skills that are migrating because we don’t have enough opportunities in the country but bringing in the programmes, we want to bring, giving access to our students, programmes that are internationally recognised, they can make use of them here in Zimbabwe to get manufacturing contracts for the North American market or anywhere else in the world,” Mr Chirisa said. , adding they had assisted South African companies get certification from the Canadian Welding Bureau.
“I was approached by CBW I managed to get a company certified and their workforce certified to manufacture for the North American market and they have a list of companies that approach them to have their products manufactured to certain standards that is how the South African companies got those contracts but the sad thing is the majority of their staff are Zimbabwean.
“So, that is money and investment that should be coming to Zimbabwe. If we are to customise our training and curriculum to those international standards it will mean all that work will come here and our children may not necessarily have to migrate,” he said.
Harare Institute of Technology Director of Communications and International Relations, Mr Tinashe Mutema said they were still discussing areas of cooperation.
“We are yet to agree on areas of cooperation but discussions are ongoing,” he said.
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