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Blessings Chidakwa Interview
PRESIDENT Mnangagwa appointed a new Cabinet last month in which he introduced a new ministry in the Office of the President and Cabinet, the Skills Audit and Development Ministry which is headed by Professor Paul Mavima. Our Senior Reporter Blessings Chidakwa (BC) spoke with Prof Mavima (PM) to get insights on the role of the new Ministry. Below are excerpts of the interview.
BC: What is really the role of your new Ministry?
PM: The ministry is central to the achievements and aspirations that Zimbabwe has in terms of vision 2030 which is very clearly outlined by President Mnangagwa, but also in terms of the intermediate programmes like NDS1 (National Development Strategy 1) and NDS2 coming in 2025.
Zimbabweans need to embrace the mindset, “We are going to the promised land and everyone should say I am going to contribute to the achievement of that objective”.
BC: Minister can you give us finer details about the new baby?
PM: The new 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 which are clearly stated in vision 2030 as well as NDS1 and then eventually NDS2. These are the intermediate programmes that are designed for the country to achieve Vision 2030, a prosperous and equitable higher middle-income society.
BC: When you say skills auditing, what exactly do you mean?
PM: The auditing part is determining the skills that we have and making sure we know where the gaps are. This is wide ranging in every sector and every level.
Once we have identified the skills shortages that we have, we then go and say how do we meet this demand for the skills. That is the second aspect of the Ministry which is skills development.
BC: What level of skills are you developing and how do you go about developing them?
PM: It is a development of a strategy for meeting the country’s demands. The levels that I am talking about include the lowest to the highest. Delivery mechanisms for that include re-orienting the curriculum at the primary and secondary levels.
If the country knows that for example by 2030 it will need a certain number of engineers, then we must have a pipeline for those engineers.
To have engineers trained at university, the primary and secondary education modules should be prepared to churn out those school leavers who can then go on to become engineers and innovators.
If our demands are in the aeronautic fields, we need to then have properly oriented students leaving the primary and secondary education sector into our tertiary institutions. We then go to the tertiary institutions and ask if they are currently designed to offer the training that is necessary to offer these various fields. We look at what we need to do in order to prepare our tertiary institutions.
BC: Is there any budget for all this?
PM: After identifying the needs, we have to come up with the necessary budgetary determinations which show how much investments are needed and then aggressively push for resource mobilisation.
The ministry is going to have its own budget to be able to undertake its functions, the delivery of the skills themselves will be done in partnership with other ministries. It is going to be a whole of Government approach. There are certain things that have to be done at the Primary and Secondary Education Ministry level which have to be funded under the budget of that ministry.
There are things that are going to be done at the tertiary education level that are supposed to be funded under the budget of those various institutions.
Technical vocational institutions are going to identify skills that need to be developed at that level.
The budgets will have to go to the Ministry of Youth responsible for those technical and vocational institutions.
These will be capital expenditure and also human resources-related because again for these skills to be imparted we need to have trainers, lecturers, and professors that are needed in order for the country to provide those skills.
BC: Are you only going to look at gaps?
PM: We are also going to look at which areas are the niche ones giving comparative advantages to the country. An example are the developments in the lithium sector where already there are indications as far as the value addition sector is concerned.
So as a country, we need to say two to three years from now what skills related to the value addition of lithium are we going to have and how are we going to develop those. Are we going to designate one institution or many institutions to do this development?
What exactly is going to be needed in terms of the basic infrastructure, capital expenditure, and what kind of people should we bring in as far as professors and other trainers are concerned for us to take off in this particular area.
The budgeting has to be very aggressive so that the resources are there for the nation to go where it wants to.
BC: Is this Ministry not going to encroach on other Ministries?
PM: It’s going to encompass not just other ministries, but the entire country. All the sectors of this economy. One other thing that we are going to do is to go into industry, various national employment councils and identify what we need to do in order for us to be excellent in productivity in those areas.
There is a need to find the skills that are imparted for example in tourism, what skills are needed to impart to all the players in order to make Zimbabwe the best tourism destination in the world.
What we are pushing for is excellence in productivity and these are the drivers of economic growth in a country.
What we are pushing for is a mindset for every Zimbabwean to say we are now going to transform this nation. In the process, we are going to create serious employment in this country and will feel it as the entire nation.
BC: Is this exercise really necessary?
PM: Skills are important and in a situation where the country wants productivity, its skills and motivation, we then have to deal with issues of motivation as well which means for the civil servants that we have trained and given orientation we need to make sure their conditions of service are such that they are dedicated to the utilisation of those skills.
We are going to be working with the Public Service Commission and the parent ministry to make sure we have created working conditions that lead to the optimal utilisation of skills that we have developed.
BC: We have a lot of people in the diaspora with vast skills, any plans to tap into that?
PM: The issue with the diaspora is double-pronged, we should have a programme to tap into the diaspora in terms of luring them back into the country. We have for example Zimbabwean talent in Silicon Valley, Wall Street, others working for international excellent companies such as Mackenzie, we have Zimbabwean talent working in some of the best universities, so, we will need to tap into that talent in terms of bringing them back. But for someone who is working at Oxford University and is Zimbabwean, if we want to bring them back, we then have to say UZ or any other institution of higher learning should have the laboratories that are necessary to attract that professor to come to Zimbabwe and work in the country.
The second aspect is some of them are not ready to come back but there is a need to create situations where for example they can come for short stints in the country.
Some of the best medical doctors operating elsewhere in the world can create conditions for telemedicine, for example, so that they will be collaborating with experts here and transferring the knowledge, skills as well as technology.
So, they don’t have to be in situ, they can contribute from wherever they are, but there is a need to have clear policies that allow for these skills that have been developed elsewhere to be utilised within the country.
There has to be a logical connection between skills development and skills retention.
For productivity to take place there should be a combination of two things: skills and motivation.
BC: Are Zimbabweans ready for this Minister?
PM: Part of what is to be created is a mindset for Zimbabweans to say for the next two years let’s come together and push the country to higher levels of productivity which will yield the economic development that will make sure that salaries are at par with the skills that the country has.
There are many countries that have done that including South Korea when they came out of the war.
As soon as the economic situation allows us to, we need to make sure that everyone who is contributing to this country is remunerated at levels that are at par with their skills and efforts they put into this process.
Online Reporter