Mbabane- The Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Education Naniki Mnisi has defended its role in the Mkhondvo-Ngwavuma Water Augmentation Project skills programme, saying its mandate is to improve the employability of young people rather than guarantee them jobs.
The clarification comes after Senator Lizzy Nkosi questioned the Ministry of Education and Training during the Senate debate on the ministry’s first-quarter performance on Thursday over the employment of young people trained through the programme.
Nkosi sought to establish how many of the youth trained under the Directorate of Industrial and Vocational Training programme had been employed at the Mpakeni Dam project, in line with the initial understanding that the training would create opportunities for young people to work on the major water infrastructure project.
In an interview with this publication, Mnisi said the ministry’s responsibility was to train young people and improve their chances of securing employment, rather than employ them directly. The African Development Bank (AfDB) has provided a technical assistance grant of E12.5 million (US$665,000) for the programme, titled Integrating Skills and Jobs in the Mkhondvo-Ngwavuma Water Augmentation Project (ISJ-MNWAP).
The project is coordinated by the Ministry of Education and Training in collaboration with the Ministry of Labour and Social Security’s DIVT and the Eswatini Water and Agricultural Development Enterprise (EWADE).DIVT Project Manager Stan Maphosa, however, provided further details on how the training has been linked to employment opportunities at Mpakeni Dam.
Maphosa said the programme was designed to improve the employability of young people, including those without academic certificates. He said 100 young people had so far been trained, while the programme also accommodates unemployed graduates holding diplomas and degrees.
He explained that some of the trainees were attached to the Mpakeni Dam project, but were not employed as permanent workers. Instead, they were taken on as apprentices to gain practical experience and learn from experts working on the project.
“They are attached at the dam, but not as employees but as apprentices,” Maphosa explained.
According to Maphosa, the practical exposure is intended to give the young people an additional qualification and hands-on experience beyond the qualifications they already possess, improving their chances of finding employment after completing the programme.
He said DIVT had an arrangement with the dam project under which a pool of trained young people could be made available for employment opportunities. Maphosa said the programme had already recorded cases of young people who completed the training and subsequently secured employment at the dam.
He further revealed that some graduates had also been employed by Maloma Colliery, with DIVT continuing to monitor their progress after they were transferred to their respective employers. “Some have been employed at Maloma,” Maphosa said, adding that the monitoring exercise showed that more than 10 programme beneficiaries had secured employment in various companies.
The programme therefore appears to be operating on a model that separates training from direct employment, with the government providing skills development and industry partners offering opportunities for practical exposure and, where possible, employment.
The issue of employment has nevertheless brought into focus the expectations surrounding skills-development programmes, particularly those funded through major infrastructure projects, where communities often expect training beneficiaries to benefit directly from jobs created by the projects.
Discussion about this post