Officials at the Technical, Entrepreneurial and Vocational Education and Training (TEVET) Authority, says TEVET sector is crucial to achieving the Malawi 2063 agenda and has encouraged girls to utilise bursary opportunities under SAVE project.
This was disclosed on Friday during TEVET Authority’s engagement with members of Blantyre press club where they were equipped with skills on effective information dissemination on developments in the TEVET sector.
Speaking at the meeting TEVET Authority Executive Director, Elwin Sichiola emphasized on the need for the country to promote the TEVET sector saying it is key to achieving the national blueprint, 2063 agenda.
Sichiola said enhancing agricultural productivity relies on quality human skills which he said the TEVET education is the centre of it, hence the need to be promoted at all cost.
“Skills are very important if we are to achieve the 2063 vision. In the first place, we cannot talk about industrialization without talking about the availability of technicians if we open those factories, we will need technicians at various level to operate the machines, to service them and also to ensure that products that are being produced are of good quality.
“If we are talking about enhancing agricultural productivity and even commercializing our agriculture, at the core of it is mechanising agriculture in Malawi. We cannot mechanize if we don’t have technicians even if we ask for tractors, who is going to maintain those tractors.
“At the end of the day you will see that whatever we want to achieve by 2063, will only happen if we have the right skills and the right skills, yes the universities are doing their part but the larger part are technical colleges who must train and graduate right the right quality of technicians to enable the country achieve the 2063 vision,” said Sichiola.
He further mentioned that the Authority with support from World Bank under the Skills for A Vibrant Economy (SAVE) project, is deliberately promoting female enrolment at all levels as a measure of eliminating the disparity that currently exist in skills development.
He said SAVE project also aims to increase access to labour market-relevant skills development programs, with a particular focus on priority areas and the inclusion of female and vulnerable populations.
The Executive Director then encouraged girls and young mothers to utilise the SAVE bursary scheme which seeks to support 5000 youth by the year 2025.
“SAVE project have a bursary element where 5 million United States Dollars have been set aside to make sure that we support girls and vulnerable youth to access TEVET by paying their application fees, school fees and examination fees but also providing so many other support as they are in colleges to ensure that they just not register but to register and complete their studies. So we are encouraging more girls to enroll,” he added.
Sichiola further challenged journalists to be advocates of the TEVET sector by among others encouraging females and vulnerable youth to enroll for TEVET training.
