Industry has been complaining about that are being churned out by the country’s tertiary institutions, claiming they have to fish out extra funds to retrain such products to fit the industry requirements. The problem will soon be addressed, particularly for students from technical and vocational institutions, as a draft National Apprenticeship Policy has been developed.

The drafted policy aims, among others to ensure that an apprenticeship is a compulsory requirement for all students, especially those within the Technical and Vocational Training (TVET) schools.

Basically the aim of the intended policy is to bridge the gap between education/training and the job market since industry has had cause to complain about the lack of skill-sets required for the job market.

Enterprises in the country seem to have adapted to a low skills level by adopting low level technologies which in turn means there are relatively few high-skilled job opportunities.

A major reason ascribed to the low skills level has been that choosing technical/vocational training upon the completion of basic education is the result of mostly mediocre academic performance at basic education, rather than the result of being attracted to a vocation.

The draft policy is currently before the board of the Council for Technical and Vocational Education and will go to Cabinet after that level with the hope these processes will be concluded so that the policy can be launched before end of year.

We believe the timing for the policy could not have come at a better time, since technical and vocational training is crucial to the growth of enterprises and the economy as a whole.

The labor market relevance of formal institution-and school-based TVET has been generally poor. This is because curricula tend to be excessively theoretical; instructors with marketable and up-to-date skills are difficult to attract and retain; and they are not encouraged to acquire the required practical experience through industrial attachments.

It is with this in mind that it was decided to improve upon the existing situation by drafting a compulsory apprenticeship program for TVET to bridge the skills gap between training and the job market. We are left in no doubt that Cabinet will give the green light for it to be adopted as a requirement.