Skills audit first phase complete

Blessings Chidakwa-Herald Reporter

The first phase of the national skills audit has been completed over two months, following wide consultations with all sectors, Skills Audit and Development Minister Paul Mavima has said. 

The Government consulted its own ministries, departments, agencies and their associated parastatals, the private sector, the national employment councils, religious sectors, and those with disabilities.

In an interview, Minister Mavima said the audit was meant to determine skills and identify gaps in the country and it is now cascading to provinces as the Second Republic intensifies its effort to cover skills gaps. Several anomalies observed during the audit, including those in critical sectors, were almost similar to those raised in the 2018 report.

“We are almost ready with the report of the first phases of the consultations. What we have done so far is to start the consultations with all the stakeholders. The way we have organised the stakeholders is, we started with sector ministries and the parastatals that fall within each of those ministries.

“Other stakeholders like associations that are related to the ministry all came together and we consulted them. So we have done all that over the past two months,” he said.

Minister Mavima said they were exchanging notes with stakeholders on skills needs that they have, the gaps that they see in their specific sector, as well as ways in which they can bridge those gaps.

“What we now need to do is to go into provinces where we will meet all the stakeholders, discussing their needs as well as the gaps that they see.”

Minister Mavima said the skills audit had revealed the same gaps that were identified in 2018. 

“There are big gaps in the agricultural sector, from lower levels, even at the level of consultants to what we used to call extension workers, to engineers, to people who can push for innovation, and there is need for us to take advantage of the trends that we are seeing elsewhere in the world. 

“Engineering for example, issues of precision agriculture, issues of irrigation development, all those we have serious shortages. If we go to the medical field, the shortages are defined in terms of the number of doctors, in terms of the number of patients, the same for nurses, and other professionals within the medical field,” he said.

“In mining, we are beginning to see that there are also gaps there. There are also gaps in terms of the skill sets that our institutions, like the School of Mining, have.”

Minister Mavima said Government is now moving to fill the identified gaps.

The Skills Audit and Development Ministry is central to the achievements and aspirations that Zimbabwe has in terms of Vision 2030, to become an upper-middle-class society.

The ministry is responsible for two major basic things, among them skills audit which is about determining what skills this country has at the same time also identifying where there are gaps in terms of the skills to achieve the aspirations of the Government.