dyton mupawaenda
Trust Freddy–Herald Correspondent
In the face of rapid technological advances, stakeholders want comprehensive retooling and reskilling to produce graduates who are prepared for the demands of the modern economy.
These issues were discussed on Monday during a consultative workshop held by the Skills Audit and Development Ministry, which brought together stakeholders from tertiary institutions.
Skills Audit and Development Minister Paul Mavima said modern industry required advanced skills, particularly in the area of artificial intelligence.
“Even those who train teachers require additional training in things like IT skills and how to facilitate knowledge acquisition, especially given that we are now in a knowledge economy and you don’t always have to be standing in front of your class, but the class can be discovering knowledge on their own,” he said.
Minister Mavima said Government was identifying skills gaps starting from vocational training centres up to universities.
“We will do an assessment of all vocational centres, looking at their specialisation areas; if it’s wood technology, for example, we will look at the kind of equipment they have against what the ideal level of equipment they should have, and then we will make recommendations for what needs to be done to optimally capacitate them,” he said.
Speaking on behalf of all teachers colleges, Belvedere Technical Teachers College Principal Juliana Ruramai Mbofana emphasised the importance of keeping up with the latest technology.
“If we are to produce teachers who are relevant in the modern economy, we must ensure that they are reskilled in areas which perhaps were not there during their time,” he said.
“In order to address these challenges, what needs to be done is to ensure that we provide continuous professional development in terms of reskilling our lecturers. Besides we also need to look at the issue of retooling.
“It is not enough to simply teach them new skills; we must also ensure that they have access to the tools and resources they need to put those skills into practice”.
Zimbabwe Council for Higher Education chief executive, Professor Kuzvinetsa Dzvimbo, challenged universities to find more effective ways of measuring students’ skills after Form 6.
“We have succeeded in changing the way our medical doctors are trained,” he said.
“We have changed from a very archaic and dysfunctional British model to something closer, like the American model, where these kids get into a BSc in the sciences and, after three or four years, go into the medical stream.
“Some of them can get into bioengineering, some into pharmaceuticals, not to count drugs, but to actually produce drugs like they do in India.
“If we can extend it to the social and human sciences so that we produce graduates that Minister Murwira is talking about on a daily basis, Graduates will actually go up there, not regurgitate, but actually going to produce goods and services.”
Online Reporter