Continuous Learning: Equipped and future proof
To remain relevant in the labour market, skills acquisition is vital. However, there is need to develop skills that respond to the demands of the labour market.
HARARE, (ILO News) Skills have become increasingly important in the globalized world. The ILO Centenary Declaration for the Future of Work calls for a human-centred agenda where lifelong learning is instrumental to keep workers employable throughout their working lives. The Declaration also calls for promoting the acquisition of skills, competencies and qualifications for all workers throughout their working lives.
However, there is a caveat. Although vocational and technical skills are essential, but employers are seeking applicants with more soft skills. They want employees who can continue to learn and adapt; read, write and compute competently; listen and communicate effectively; think creatively; solve problems independently; manage themselves at work; interact with co-workers; work in teams or groups; handle basic technology, lead effectively as well as follow supervision. These core skills for employability are both important to employers’ recruitment and enhance an individual’s ability to secure a job, retain employment and move flexibly in the labour market as well as engage in lifelong learning.
Moreover, employability entails much more than the ability to get that first job. It is having the capacity to network and market oneself, navigate through a career and remain employable throughout life. It requires the ability to ask questions, acquire new skills, identify and evaluate options, understand rights at work including the right to a safe and healthy work environment, adapt successfully to changing situations and the courage to innovate.
In Zimbabwe, as in many parts of Africa, the skills development landscape typically consists of public and private providers and is often highly fragmented and poorly coordinated. Skills development programmes normally lack demand-orientation and quality and neither meet labour market demand for skills nor social demand for accessible skills development that can lead to better employability, according to the ILO Skills Anticipation Report 2021.
To complicate matters, the employment scenario in Zimbabwe remains challenging with high levels of unemployment, underemployment and informality. This suggests a large proportion of the population exposed to decent work deficits, exclusion from formal social protection and labour administration systems. Young people and women are disproportionately affected, largely concentrated in the most precarious jobs.
It is for these reasons that skills development has been at the core of ILO and its constituents in Zimbabwe. ILO Country Office in Harare has been working to promote more and better jobs for young people and women especially in the rural and informal economy. The initiative promotes skills development, entrepreneurship and local economic development to place beneficiaries in self and wage employment. ILO tools like the Training for Rural Economic Empowerment (TREE) methodology designed to boost jobs in rural economies, the Quality Informal Apprenticeship designed to recognize skills acquired informally, and recently - Skills for a Green Economy. Other interventions have been focused on entrepreneurial skills and value chains development and including equipping people with skills to facilitate transition to formality.
Some of the results that the Country Office has achieved in imparting new skills to date include:
However, there is a caveat. Although vocational and technical skills are essential, but employers are seeking applicants with more soft skills. They want employees who can continue to learn and adapt; read, write and compute competently; listen and communicate effectively; think creatively; solve problems independently; manage themselves at work; interact with co-workers; work in teams or groups; handle basic technology, lead effectively as well as follow supervision. These core skills for employability are both important to employers’ recruitment and enhance an individual’s ability to secure a job, retain employment and move flexibly in the labour market as well as engage in lifelong learning.
Moreover, employability entails much more than the ability to get that first job. It is having the capacity to network and market oneself, navigate through a career and remain employable throughout life. It requires the ability to ask questions, acquire new skills, identify and evaluate options, understand rights at work including the right to a safe and healthy work environment, adapt successfully to changing situations and the courage to innovate.
In Zimbabwe, as in many parts of Africa, the skills development landscape typically consists of public and private providers and is often highly fragmented and poorly coordinated. Skills development programmes normally lack demand-orientation and quality and neither meet labour market demand for skills nor social demand for accessible skills development that can lead to better employability, according to the ILO Skills Anticipation Report 2021.
To complicate matters, the employment scenario in Zimbabwe remains challenging with high levels of unemployment, underemployment and informality. This suggests a large proportion of the population exposed to decent work deficits, exclusion from formal social protection and labour administration systems. Young people and women are disproportionately affected, largely concentrated in the most precarious jobs.
said Alice Vozza, Skills and Lifelong Learning Specialist at ILO for Eastern and Southern Africa“The working-age population (15–64) in Zimbabwe is expected to grow from 55 to 64 per cent in 2032. Given the demographic transition and high level of informality, skills development has a key role to play in spurring decent work,”
It is for these reasons that skills development has been at the core of ILO and its constituents in Zimbabwe. ILO Country Office in Harare has been working to promote more and better jobs for young people and women especially in the rural and informal economy. The initiative promotes skills development, entrepreneurship and local economic development to place beneficiaries in self and wage employment. ILO tools like the Training for Rural Economic Empowerment (TREE) methodology designed to boost jobs in rural economies, the Quality Informal Apprenticeship designed to recognize skills acquired informally, and recently - Skills for a Green Economy. Other interventions have been focused on entrepreneurial skills and value chains development and including equipping people with skills to facilitate transition to formality.
Some of the results that the Country Office has achieved in imparting new skills to date include:
- Over 10,000 participants benefitted from the TREE and QIA Programmes, with 6,000 workdays created.
- 77 teachers trained, https://www.greenenterprize.org/skills/ 30 TVET institutions capacitated, 1,673 students trained on technical and entrepreneurial skills for green jobs, 446 jobs created.
said Vozza, adding that skills needs anticipation is crucial to meet future labour market demands and reduce the mismatch.“Young people and women have unique challenges in acquiring skills. Often the main challenge is about access to opportunities. Specific efforts are needed to improve outreach, quality and relevance of education and training, and to improve the links to world of work for disadvantaged groups,”