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Rejoice Makoni and Mutsawashe Mashandure
Graduates have been urged to start their own companies where their parent college will have a minority shareholding while the former students hold a controlling stake, Higher and Tertiary Education, Innovation, Science and Technology Development Minister, Professor Amon Murwira, said yesterday.
In a speech read on his behalf by Deputy Minister Raymond Machingura, during a graduation and prize giving ceremony at Harare Polytechnic, Prof Murwira said the Second Republic’s emphasis was on imparting practical skills that will lead to the production of goods and services.
“Through the graduate employment creation and development programme, Government is supporting students to start their own companies, where the parent college will have a minority shareholding while the students have a majority stake,” he said.
“We urge graduates to form companies, register them and strive to gain market share in the economy. As we implement programmes meant to realise Vision 2030, the Government of Zimbabwe is leaving no one and no place behind.
“Through the integrated skills expansion outreach programme, the Second Republic’s emphasis is on imparting practical skills that lead to the acquisition of competencies leading to the production of goods and services.”
The programme was targeted at empowering citizens who might not have had a chance to go to a tertiary institution.
Through the programme, learners are exposed to real learning by doing, to perfect their skills in cooking, hairdressing, welding, plumbing, carpentry, and building, among others.
“Under this programmeHarare Polytechnic College is offering courses in electrical engineering, construction, welding, automotive engineering, vehicle maintenance and agriculture. Well-done for engaging communities to teach them competencies of practical work to produce goods and services for the upliftment of our people’s lives.
“Education must not end in an institution; its impact must be felt in the communities through addressing the needs of society,” said Prof Murwira.
The Education 5.0 model was yielding positive results.
He said this year’s Harare Polytechnic graduation and prize giving ceremony, was taking place at a time when the results of the reconfiguration of the Higher and Tertiary Education sector were beginning to show.
“We are now producing industries that satisfy the needs of our people. The Marula/Amarula beneficiation plant in Rutenga has changed positively the lives of the people of Mwenezi; our oxygen, nitrogen and acetylene plants are producing enough industrial gases for the country, resulting in stable prices of industrial gases on the market.
“We are taking head-on the problems that our people face, through accelerated innovation and industrialisation anchored on the Heritage-based Education 5.0 design. Heritage-based Education 5.0 directs institutions to innovate and industrialise using the resources they have.
“We firmly believe in homegrown heritage-based solutions towards resolving local problems. Our end in mind is the industrialisation and modernisation of Zimbabwe using knowledge and innovation to attain Vision 2030, of an upper middle-income economy,” said Prof Murwira.
Harare Polytechnic Principal Dr Tafadzwa Mudondo hailed the rebranding of the tertiary education ecosystem to Education 5.0 philosophy.
“Harare Polytechnic has seriously taken the entrepreneurship essentials into its master operational framework for harnessing the process of raising capital, identify business opportunities, evaluate ideas and assess the market availability, explore the risks and rewards of entrepreneurship, and identify any misalignments between the dynamics of organisation culture and external markets coupled with the ministry’s strategic goals,” said Dr Mudondo.
“This has seen practitioners embracing and modulating to the dictates of the learning processes and procedures at the pace of learners to purposefully mould organisational culture and architecture to maximise talent, advantage diversity, and drive performance through alignment of staff, systems, infrastructure, and information culture as well as generate income.”
The Second Republic amended the Manpower Planning and Development Act, making innovation and industrialisation mandatory in all tertiary institutions.
On Thursday, 619 students graduated at Belvedere Technical Teachers’ College.
In his remarks, Prof Murwira, again represented by Deputy Minister Machingura, said through teacher training colleges, “we are providing the capabilities for achieving Vision 2030 through correct skills set underpinned by a correct philosophy that is anchored on our heritage-based philosophy”.
“We shall use cutting-edge, universal scientific and technological knowledge, but only with our resources. The onus is upon us as citizens of this country to transform our country, and we cannot expect outsiders to come and develop it for us. Nyika inovakwa nevene vayo/ Ilizwe lakhiwa ngabanikazi balo,” he said.
Online Reporter