Formal apprenticeship programme for skills development in Tanzania

DAR ES SALAAM (ILO News) - The ILO in collaboration with the Association of Tanzania Employers, Tourism Confederation of Tanzania, Hotel Association of Tanzania and the National College of Tourism (NCT) has organized a subregional workshop on formal apprenticeships on 14 December 2015 Dar es Salaam.

Participants to the workshop included policy makers, social partners and academic experts drawn from Kenya, Malawi, Uganda and Zambia and the hosts, Tanzania.

According to ILO, The programme is aimed at upgrading skills and improving service delivery in the hotel sector. The college phase covered general orientation and theoretical aspects while the workplace training phase instils practical skills and experience, workplace dynamics and core skills required for the occupation.

Apprentices receive training in all hotel departments so that they will gain broad understandings of hotel operation before they specialize in one field of operation.

The pilot formal apprenticeship programme has demonstrated the provision of demand-driven skills training through viable public-private partnerships (PPP). The success in the hotel industry through PPP approach and a recent move to develop the National Framework on Formal Apprenticeships, Tanzania has experiences to share with neighbouring countries that face skill development challenges.

The above programme is financed through the United National Development Assistance Plan (UNDAP). In this programme 60% of the training takes place at workplaces (i.e. seven major hotels participating in the programme) and 40% at the National College of Tourism (NCT).