Ministry commits to developing informal skills
Deputy Minister of Labour Vera Kamtukule has urged stakeholders to jointly engage in the transition of certifying to formal recognition all informally attained skills to raise the profile of results from labour.
Speaking during a hybrid official launch of Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) in the Technical, Entrepreneurial and Vocational Education and Training (Tevet) sector, the deputy minister said the arrangement will address the mitigating factor of unemployment, especially among vulnerable groups such as the youth.
Kamtukule said: “The RPL system will ensure that services and skills forever needed and are required informally in local settings are of high quality and sustainable.
“This will also offer an opportunity for people with limited access to formal vocational training to be up to date with latest technology, that way no one is left behind.”
She said 11 percent of the population is in formal employment and youth unemployment stands at 7.40 percent with close to one in every five youths who constitute majority not in education, employment and training.
Tevet Authority director of finance Elwin Sichiola, who represented acting executive director Modesto Gomani, said the project will assist in enhancing access to tertiary education as per current demand.
He said: “As a body that will do a lot in the implementation of the project we will make sure that despite this being an alternative to the formal technical education that people get, we will make sure that the standards are still the same had they gone to a technical college.”
In his remarks, Employers Consultative Association of Malawi executive director George Khaki said conducting the RPL implementation strategy to target groups in phases will allow challenges to be sorted as the programme continues to roll out.
According to the organisers, RPL candidates’ registration started immediately after the launch and piloting will be from January 2022 to July 2022 with 20 trades fully rolled out.
Trades covered in the RPL piloting phase are bricklaying, carpentry and joinery, fabrication and welding, tailoring and fashion designing, automobile mechanics and tourism and hospitality in that order.
