The Sunday News
Robin Muchetu, Senior Reporter
THE Ministry of Skills Audit Development says they are up to the task of developing skills in Zimbabwe as the world is evolving to embrace essential new technology skills.
Skills Audit Development Minister, Professor Paul Mavhima said they are ready to drive the country and its labor force in the direction of the new trajectory.
“We need to have skills that will enable Zimbabweans to participate in the knowledge economy in the fast-paced changing environment we are experiencing. We are up to the task, we will discover what we need to do and in some cases, the ministry will develop some programmes to make sure that we have developed the skills that we need,” said Prof Mavhima.
He said the Ministry will also advocate for institutions that deliver those skills and also advocate for the enhancement of the training and research infrastructure for the country for national development, research, innovation the development of new products that will lead the country to prosperity.
Turning to the essence of Heritage-based, education 5.0 which is a Government programme spearheaded by the Minister of Higher and Tertiary Education, Innovation Science and Technology Development, Prof Mavhima said the programme moves away from the traditional way of doing things.
“It has three components to it, the research, teaching, as well as community engagement of the faculty and also the student population. But we have now said for Zimbabwe what is needed is to convert our education, and our knowledge into the production of goods and services hence the establishment of innovation hubs and industrial parks to motivate innovation and the creation of new ideas and the industrial parks will convert those ideas into finished products and services” he added.
The Minister said through this, an education system becomes complete adding that for Heritage-Based Education 5.0 to yield results there has to be a deliberate strategy for the development of the skills that are needed in the country.
“We have to have the researchers, we have to grow educational conveyor belts from primary education through to our tertiary institutions. For a researcher in the area of science, the training has to be done from Early Childhood Development level to have a sufficient supply of those learners who will be engineers, we have to teach STEM from basic education so that by the time they reach university, they are well prepared into those areas,” said Prof Mavhima.
@Nyembezimu
