Zimbabwe should shift focus from academic qualifications to technical and vocational skills, if the country is to grow its industrialisation and job creation base, a top academic has said.
Speaking at a recent Gweru Polytechnic graduation ceremony, University of Zimbabwe pro-vice chancellor for Infrastructure Development and Digitisation, Hodson Makurira said technical and vocational education and training (TVET) was a key driver of industrialisation, economic growth and national development.
“A nation that produces theorists without technicians is a nation that imports its expertise and exports its opportunities,”Makurira said.
“Zimbabwe cannot afford that path. We have the minerals, the agricultural resource base and the population. What we require is the skill to convert raw potential into finished value.”
Makurira said under government’s Education 5.0 thrust students are not merely prepared to pass examinations but are prepared to innovate and industrialise.
He said graduates needed hands on skills over just academic qualifications to start businesses and create employment.
“A nation with a large base of unemployed youth cannot solve technical challenges through white collar educational programmes alone,” he said.
“It requires young people who can create solutions, secure employment or employ others.”
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The UZ pro-vice Chancellor said the country’s industrialisation must be driven by local skills and innovation.
“Industrialisation cannot be imported, donated or outsourced,” he said.
.”It must be built skill by skill by citizens who understand that a machine repaired locally is foreign currency saved, a product manufactured locally is a job created and a solution engineered locally is dignity restored.”
Meanwhile Gweru Polytechnic principal Washington Chandiwana said the institution was increasingly shifting focus to entrepreneurship, practical innovation and community impact in a bid to produce graduates who not only seek jobs but are capable of creating employment.
