The SEDWAY project equips youth with technical and vocational skills
With funding from the African Development Bank (AfDB), the SEDWAY project seeks to support the Government of Zimbabwe (GoZ) to facilitate entrepreneurship and skills development through vocational and technical training for youths.
17 October 2023
Masvingo, Zimbabwe (ILO News) - Equipping young people with technical and vocational skills has become strategic in Zimbabwe where formal sector job opportunities have dwindled – with national youth unemployment rate at 38.4% in 2023. Youths not in education, employment nor in training (NEETs) stood at 45.4% for ages 15-24 years and 48.5% for the 15-34 years. This was due to multiple factors that include, among others, overall lack of economic transformation, impacting negatively on economic growth and poverty reduction.
Technical and vocational skills therefore fill the gap by empowering young people to gain skills that empower them to develop careers and transition between school to productive employment.
With support from the Ministry of Youth Empowerment, Development and Vocational Training’s Community Skills Outreach Programme, the SEDWAY project is equipping 3,000 young people including persons with disabilities across the country with much needed technical and vocational skills and at the Mushagashe Vocational Training Centre (VTC) in Masvingo Province, 150 young people (86 Female and 64 Male) are undergoing training.
Through the project, the VTC has been able to acquire new equipment to enhance its training in a variety of skills such as sewing, hairdressing, garment making, construction, carpentry, mechanics, hospitality, and tourism, among others, as part of enabling the young men and women to shape their own future. The Centre has begun to tender and supply uniforms to government departments and schools in the community.
This model of training increases access to employment and opens economic opportunities, giving hope to many educated but unemployed young people.
The AfDB's Country Manager for Zimbabwe, Moono Mupotola, and ILO’s Officer in Charge, Annamarie Kiaga, toured the training centre to witness how the programme was being rolled out and assess its capacity to impact the young people’s lives and livelihoods
Charity Mazire, 22, who has been undergoing training to become a dressmaker for three months at the institution said; “I have been taught how to make tracksuits, work-suits, dresses and other clothing in general and I am currently working on my final year project. My ambition is to start my own business. Once I manage to secure my own equipment, I will be able to get my own business off the ground. I do not want to be employed; I want to start my own business.”
In addition to contributing to the country’s efforts to reduce youth unemployment and gender inequality through entrepreneurship and development of sustainable enterprises; the project is also building women’s agency and self-mastery. It is helping to reduce historical gender imbalances and making sure women and persons with disabilities are not left behind in the economic development of the country.
Another student, Tadiwa Mhape, 23, said that he was interested in becoming a chef following his three-year training in hospitality and tourism.
I am very passionate about food. Once I gain experience by working in an established institution, I hope to acquire my own equipment and start my own catering business
Tadiwa Mhape
The overall goal of ILO in implementing the SEDWAY project is to promote social justice and decent work. Decent work is central to global efforts to end poverty, and is a means for achieving equitable, inclusive, and sustainable development.