ILO joins the Government of Tanzania to celebrate the graduation of 2,537 graduates from RPL programme

Dar es Salaam. The International Labour Organization (ILO) joined the Government of Tanzania in celebrating the Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) programme certification award ceremony which took place on January 15, 2022. The 2,537 RPL graduates were awarded certificates by the Vocational Education Training Authority (VETA), a nationally recognised and credible qualification that will enable them to pursue new opportunities.

RPL is defined as the process of identifying, documenting, assessing, and clarifying informal learning against formal education and training standards. Thus, RPL provides an opportunity for informally skilled workers to acquire qualifications that match their knowledge and skills without going through formal education or a training programme. Since 2019, the RPL programme has been part of the government's National Skills Development Programme, which has set a target of reaching 10,000 candidates per year.

The certificates will enable graduates to prove their knowledge, skills and competencies in their occupations, which are among the 10 approved by the government. These include carpentry and joinery, auto-body repair, tailoring, electrical installation, food production, food, beverage services and sales, masonry and bricklaying, motor vehicle mechanics, plumbing and pipe fitting, welding and metal fabrication.

The guest of honour of the event, Prof. Adolf Faustine Mkenda, Minister of Education, Science and Technology, stated that RPL was an important skills development initiative that would contribute to meet the country’s labour needs.

“The Government of Tanzania expects to create eight million new jobs by 2025. We want these jobs to be taken up by skilled workers with VETA certificates,” he said and added, “our focus is not on how many programmes we have started or how many training institutions we are building, but on improving Tanzania's workers' skills and competencies."

Graduates hailing from different regions across Tanzania, including Mwanza, Kilimanjaro, Kigoma, Dar es Salaam and Dodoma, will now be able to use their certificates to prove their competencies and access more decent employment opportunities, including ongoing public work projects, access to formal education and training programmes, start or improve their businesses and access government tenders and financial support for their businesses.

Elisia Evaresti, 30 years, is eagerly waiting for the opportunity to use her certificate: "This is the first certificate I have ever had. I want to use it to be a teacher and train other tailors like myself.” Like many other Tanzanians in the informal sector, Elisia did not complete her education and obtained her vocational skills informally: "I paid a lady in my neighbourhood to teach me to sew for Tsh 25,000 per month over an eight-month period. She was not a certified trainer, but she was all I could afford at that time.”
The graduates have not only received a certificate of competency in their occupation, but Elisia and her peers also received theoretical technical training from VETA to help them develop and run their own businesses.

Honorary Prof. Joyce Lazaro Nalchik, Minister of State in the Office of the Prime Minister affirmed the importance of the capacity-building training provided to RPL candidates who passed the assessment process:

“These graduates have also received training based on their shortcomings, so the certificates they have obtained will allow them to develop their theoretical understanding of their work, possibly lead to more academic development and allow them to compete in the national and international labour market.”

Since 2014, the ILO has been supporting the Government of Tanzania and social partners to spearhead the recognition of prior learning as a key mechanism for skills development and social inclusion at the national level. In 2019, the RPL programme was piloted in Zanzibar and officially launched in 2021.

The RPL programme in Tanzania is supported through the Global Programme on Skills and Lifelong Learning (GPSL3), which is financially supported by the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD).