Tanzania to launch Apprenticeship and Internship Guidelines

Dar es Salaam (ILO News) Tanzania’s vision 2025 is aimed at attaining a middle income country status by 2025. The nation’s second Five year Development Plan (FYDPII) aims at Tanzania becoming an industrialized economy come 2021.

Youth unemployment, todate at the rate of 13%, partly attributed by lack of employable skills among the youth is a matter of concern for the country to attain the envisaged middle income country status. Having a skilled workforce is a critical factor in facilitating industrialization as envisioned in the FYDPII. The Government therefore places skills development and creation of quality employment a matter of priority in attaining the above goals.

Majority of graduates from different levels of education and training in Tanzania are hardly absorbed in the labour market mainly due to skills mismatch and lack of work experience required in the labour market. Workplace based skills training that includes apprenticeship are viable models for enhancing graduate employability and reduce the time for school to work transitions for graduates.

The Prime Minister’s Office, Ministry of Labour, Youth, Employment, policy, and Persons with disability in collaboration with the ILO and other stakeholders will on 16 September 2017 launch the National Apprenticeship and Internship Guidelines, in Dodoma, Tanzania. The guidelines are aimed at providing guidance to all stakeholders in developing, implementing, monitoring and evaluating formal apprenticeship training programmes in the country. More specifically, the guidelines, among others, set out roles and responsibilities of the stakeholders in training, funding, quality assurance and coordination of the programmes.

The event, to be officiated by the Prime Minister, H.E. Majaliwa Kassim Majaliwa, is aimed at raising awareness to various stakeholders and create a platform of engagement and exchange of practices through networking of national and international partners.

The growing challenge of graduate unemployment is now a global phenomenon. Partly this problem is contributed by skills mismatch between supply and demand; the other part is contributed by other factors including non- inclusive economic growth policies and global slow- down of economic growth. In response, the ILO continues to double its efforts in supporting member countries to develop and market responsive skills development policies, strategies and programmes.

Certified Apprenticeship programme in hotel operations is being implemented in Tanzania (both mainland and Zanzibar) with support from the government of Norway. The programme is aimed at strengthening skills development system to promote access to quality training and employability, especially for young women and men.

To date, in Tanzania mainland, a total of 32 youth have undergone training and already in employment, 103 others fresh apprentices under training. In the isles, the first group of about 60 apprentices have successfully enrolled in the programme and will train for two academic years.