Daka implores journalists to evaluate effectiveness of govt programmes
By Lenganji Sikapizye
Sun 31 Oct. 2010, 04:01 CAT
PETER Daka has implored journalists to use their skills to evaluate the effectiveness of government programmmes and hold it accountable. During the second Zambia Institute of Mass Communication (ZAMCOM) graduation ceremony in Lusaka on Friday, Daka who is science and technology minister said the mass media was an important part of development as it enhanced citizen participation in democracy.
“As government that is committed to transparency and accountability, we implore new journalists to use their skills and media platform to evaluate the effectiveness of government programmes and hold us accountable. This however should be done in an objective and fair manner,” he said.
He said the role of the media was to make citizens aware of the numerous projects and programmes the government embarked on to improve the quality of life.
“But if you create despondence with the story that brings shivers, know that your training has been fruitless,” he claimed.
And Daka said the ministry through the Technical Education and Vocational Training Authority (TEVETA) was committed to improving the quality of training to ensure that colleges had acceptable training standards.
“The government is encouraging more players to get involved in training and also promote open distance and flexible learning,” he said.
And ZAMCOM board chairperson judge Flavia Chishimba revealed that the trust would before the end of this year invest US$ 30,000 in acquiring VSAT to facilitate e-learning programmes.
Labels: FLAVIA CHISHIMBA, PETER DAKA, TEVETA, ZAMCOM
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CEEC launches school’s Graduate Empowerment Programme
By Salim Dawood
Thu 05 Aug. 2010, 14:00 CAT
Citizen's Economic Empowerment Commission (CEEC) yesterday launched the Graduate Empowerment Programme at Lusaka’s Munali High School with a call on youths to explore entrepreneurship and self-employment.
The programme which is yet to be taken to other secondary schools and high learning institutions in the country is aiming to promote and cultivate an entrepreneurship culture and enhance business leadership skills in the youth.
And Ministry of Education permanent secretary Nalituba Mwale observed that many 90 per cent of the young people were unable to access the Citizens Economic Empowerment Fund (CEEF) because they were unable to meet the selection criteria.
Speaking during the launch, CEEC director general Mable Mung'omba encouraged young people to explore entrepreneurship and self-employment through the recognition and development of their inventive, critical thinking and problem-solving skills.
“The Programme will target TEVET Graduates and University to be graduates with the hope of assisting them in developing attributes and skills associated with entrepreneurs and leadership,” she said.
She said the Graduate Empowerment Programme was aimed at transforming the minds of young people in secondary schools and high learning institutions to prepare them to succeed in the entrepreneurial economy.
Mwale said for entrepreneurship to flourish people needed to cultivate transformed minds that can adopt innovative, self confidence, leadership skills and traits in adopting into an entrepreneurial culture.
She said government had developed policies, legal and legal frames to create an entrepreneurial environment.
“These developments have resulted in a considerable increase in the number of people registering business and accessing credit, including the Citizen's Economic Empowerment Fund.,” she said.
Mwale said the funds extended to lending institutions including the Citizen's Economic Empowerment Fund were targeted at individuals with knowledge of the undertaking entrepreneurship.
“From the type of the CEEF Proposals submitted by the youth, more than 90 per cent do not match the selection criteria. This has been exacerbated by the inability of the entrepreneurs and youth in particular to articulate and sell bankable projects through robust plans,” she observed.
Mwale said in most instances, youth have not been able to find formal employment because of the inability of the job market to create sufficient jobs to absorb these new entrants.
“The Graduate Empowerment Programme is one such programme that has been created to help and prepare the youth get but viable employment opportunities,” said Mwale.
And Munali Boys High Head teacher Cyrus Chikanta said the school was grateful that CEEC chose to launch the programme at his school.
“We will harness it and make sure it is a success he said,” said Chikanta.
Labels: CEEC, TEVETA
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Tertiary education
By Editor
Sat 06 Feb. 2010, 04:00 CAT
A society which values its future affords the highest priority to providing its young people with the best possible education.
The statistics of figures of secondary school leavers who access higher education given by Dr Patrick Nkanza tell a very frightening story. We are told that only six per cent of the total number of pupils who complete Grade 12 are able to access a higher education. We are also told that only three per cent of this six per cent access technical, educational, vocational and entrepreneurship training, two per cent go to universities and one per cent pursue other tertiary programmes. And this leaves 94 per cent of our school leavers in limbo, waiting for the dice to roll.
Dr Nkanza further observed that there was need for the government to formulate the national skills development plan, so as to increase the number of training institutions in the country. Are we being told that our country doesn’t have a national skills development plan? If this is so, how can we seriously talk about development? Is there a country in the world that has developed without such high skills among its people? Is there a country that has developed with 94 per cent of its young people, of its school leavers not accessing tertiary education?
Good tertiary education policy is very critical to the development of our country. And it is time our policy makers recognised that tertiary education is a major driver of economic competitiveness in an increasingly knowledge-driven global economy which has made high quality tertiary education more important than ever before. The imperative for our policy makers, for those who manage the affairs of our country is to raise higher-level employment skills, to sustain a globally competitive research base and to improve knowledge dissemination to the benefit of society.
It is criminal to deny 94 per cent of our school leavers access to tertiary education. Tertiary education contributes to social and economic development in many ways – the formulation of human capital, primarily through teaching; the building of knowledge bases, primarily through research and knowledge development; the dissemination and use of knowledge, primarily through interactions with knowledge users; and the maintenance of knowledge.
Of course, the scope and importance of tertiary education have changed significantly over the years. Over 40 years ago, tertiary education, which was more commonly referred to as higher education, was what happened in universities. This largely covered teaching and learning requiring high-level conceptual and intellectual skills in the humanities, sciences and social sciences, the preparation of students for entry to a limited number of professions such as medicine, engineering and law, and disinterested advanced research and scholarship. These days, tertiary education is much more diversified and encompasses new types of institutions such as colleges, university colleges, or technological institutes. These have been created for a number of reasons: to develop a closer relationship between tertiary education and external world, including greater responsiveness to labour market needs; to enhance social and geographical access to tertiary education; to provide high-level occupational preparation in a more applied and less theoretical way; and to accommodate the growing diversity of qualifications and expectations of school leavers.
As participation in tertiary education is expanding, tertiary education institutions are expected to assume responsibility for a far wide range of occupational preparation than in the past. And as the result of a combination of the increased knowledge base of many occupations and individual’s aspirations, not only doctors, engineers and lawyers but also nurses, accountants, computer programmers, teachers, pharmacists and business managers now receive their principal occupation qualifications from tertiary institutions.
Furthermore, tertiary institutions are now expected to involve themselves in a wider range of teaching than their traditional degree or diploma level courses. It is also increasingly becoming more common for tertiary education institutions not only to engage in teaching and research, but also to provide consult services to industry and government and to contribute to national economic and social development.
Clearly, what is needed here is not only to increase access to tertiary education but also to encourage institutions offering tertiary education to be more responsive to the needs of society and the economy. This calls for a reappraisal of our tertiary education and the setting of new strategies for the future.
Knowledge and advanced skills are critical determinants of a country’s economic growth and standard of living and learning outcomes are transformed into goods and services, greater institutional capacity, a more effective public sector, a stronger civil society, and a better investment climate. Good quality, merit-based, equitable, efficient tertiary education and research should be essential parts of whatever social and economic transformations we undertake. Our country will certainly benefit from the dynamic of the knowledge economy. The capacity for our country to adopt, disseminate, and maximise rapid technological advances is dependent on an adequate and efficient system of tertiary education. Improved and accessed tertiary education and effective national innovation systems can help our country progress toward sustainable achievements in the Millennium Development Goals, particularly those goals related to all levels of education, health and gender equality.
There is need for us to be very clear when we talk about tertiary education. When we talk about tertiary education broadly, we are referring to all post secondary school education, including but not limited to universities. Universities are clearly a key part of our tertiary system, but the diverse and growing set of public and private tertiary institutions in our country – colleges, technical training institutes, nursing schools, distance learning centres, and many more – should be developed to form a network of institutions that our country needs to support the production of the higher-order capacity necessary for development.
As we have already stated, it will not be possible to develop this country without a good system of tertiary education. But our politicians, our policy makers don’t seem to see this as a priority area, a key result area. The amount of money that they spend on their own personal allowances for attending political meetings far outweighs what they spend or are willing to spend on tertiary education.
It seems to be such an easy thing for George Kunda to ask for an additional K5 billion to cater for an increase in allowances of Lusaka-based members of parliament attending the National Constitutional Conference. It also seems so easy for the Minister of Finance to mobilise such money for allowances of members of parliament, which include himself and George. But if any of our tertiary institutions – the University of Zambia, Copperbelt University, Evelyn Hone College, among others – ask for a smaller amount of money than this, it can’t be found, it’s not there, it wasn’t budgeted for. This is how our country is being run. When one looks at the amount of money that has been spent and is being spent on allowances for those attending the National Constitutional Conference, one wonders if this really is a poor country. Why should ministers of government be paid additional allowances for attending to public duties within the normal working time when they are on full time salary? Ministers are paid a salary for being full time servants of the people, why should they be paid an allowance for going to Parliament or for sitting on the National Constitutional Conference during the time they should be sitting in government offices and are being paid for that? This is banditry! This is corruption! They are collecting double pay for one job, for the same job from the same employer! They can’t say they are being paid overtime because there is no such a thing in that job. They are simply stealing public funds.
This also applies to other public workers, whatever their description, who are in full-time employment and are salaried, who leave their offices to go and collect allowances from the National Constitutional Conference or the boards of other public institutions on which they sit.
This money is needed for tertiary education. And all those receiving such money as double pay should in future, when there is change of regime, be asked to return it. It is needed for tertiary education.
Labels: CARITAS, TEVETA, VOCATIONAL TRAINING
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Caritas calls for broadening of vocational training
By George Chellah
Sat 06 Feb. 2010, 04:00 CAT
CARITAS Zambia executive director Sam Mulafulafu yesterday called for more commitment towards the broadening of vocational training institutions in the country. And Mulafulafu said the nation has been very slow to respond to the increasing demand of youths' need for vocational training.
Reacting to Technical Education, Vocational and Entrepreneurship Training Authority (TEVETA) director general Dr Patrick Nkanza's revelation that only six per cent of the total number of pupils who complete Grade 12 are able to access higher education, Mulafulafu said the system was churning out Grade 12s who could not get into colleges.
“It's a problem to get a child into a college now. Now they are being at the mercy of exploitation by these private colleges which have mushroomed then TEVETA itself is not monitoring the standards,” Mulafulafu said.
“So we have most of them just being exploited, they pay to these private colleges they get the qualifications but the job market does not accept them because of those qualifications.
“They want them to go into the traditional government colleges or better recognised colleges. So it's really a problem because it's aggravating the problem of youth unemployment and we need to see more commitment to broadening vocational training institutions.”
He stressed the need for institutions to equip youths with skills that would make them self-sustaining.
“But I think those institutions must also ensure that they prepare the youths not only for employment maybe in the formal sector and so forth. They should be skills that should be able to make them live on their own if they can't get employment into the industry or other formal sectors,” he said.
He said the current situation as far as tertiary education is concerned was a matter of serious concern.
“They should invest more in education, there is more demand for vocational institutions than the infrastructure which is available. We can hardly pinpoint at new colleges that have been constructed since the ones which where constructed by Dr Kenneth Kaunda,” Mulafulafu said.
“And yet the schools have expanded. The number of secondary schools, the number of basic schools have grown so where are all these youths going to be trained?"
Mulafulafu said the nation had been very slow to respond to the increasing demand by youths for vocational training.
Making a presentation during a familiarisation meeting on the operations of TEVETA at the Ministry of Science and Technology, Dr Nkanza noted that out of over 300,000 pupils who complete Grade 12 every year, only six per cent - translating into 14,000 - were able to access tertiary institutions.
"On the issue of training support, there is need to improve access to training because when you look at the figures here, from the schooling Grade 12 we only have three per cent accessing TEVET institutions, one per cent access other tertiary institutions, for instance education colleges, and two per cent are able to go to universities, but you see here 94 per cent of school leavers do not go anywhere," he said.
Dr Nkanza said the scenario had led to a number of pupils enrolling at unregistered institutions.
Labels: CARITAS, TEVETA, VOCATIONAL TRAINING
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Only 6% of G12 access higher education - Dr Nkanza
By Allan Mulenga
Thu 04 Feb. 2010, 04:00 CAT
ONLY six per cent of the total number of pupils who complete Grade 12 are able to access higher education, TEVETA director general Dr Patrick Nkanza has revealed.
Making a presentation during a familiarisation meeting on the operations of Technical Education, Vocational and Entrepreneurship Training Authority (T EVETA) at the Ministry of Science and Technology yesterday, Dr Nkanza noted that
out of over 300,000 pupils who complete Grade 12 every year, only six per cent - translating into 14,000 - were able to access tertiary institutions.
“On the issue of training support, there is need to improve access to training because when you look at the figures here, from the schooling Grade 12 we only have three per cent accessing TEVET institutions, one per cent access other tertiary institutions, for instance education colleges, and two per cent are able to go to universities, but you see here 94 per cent of school leavers do not go anywhere,” he said.
Dr Nkanza said the scenario had led to a number of pupils enrolling at unregistered institutions.
“The issue of students enrolling at unregistered institutions is worrying that is why last year we ran adverts in various newspapers informing the public about the names of TEVETA registered institutions in the country. The idea is to alert the students about the genuine institutions,” he said.
Dr Nkanza observed that there was need for the government to formulate the national skills development plan, so as to increase the number of training institutions in the country.
“Some of the issues affecting TEVETA are that; there is need for the national skills development plan, the TEVET qualifications framework for this one we are still awaiting the decision on the memorandum from Cabinet. For the transfer of examinations from ECZ to TEVETA we started last year and we are proceeding well,” said Dr Nkanza.
And science and technology minister Dr Brian Chituwo said there was need for TEVETA to strengthen boards in all skills training institutions.
Dr Chituwo said having strong board members in place would help improve the quality of education among the skills training institutions.
“Our role as TEVETA should be to provide guidance and oversight, but there are certain boards that are not doing well. I don’t think we provide guidance in terms of financial resources. We need to strengthen the boards in all training institutions,” said Dr Chituwo.
Labels: EDUCATION, NEOLIBERALISM, PATRICK NKANZA, TEVETA
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ZNCB to provide industrial training to TEVET students
Written by Chiwoyu Sinyangwe
Monday, May 11, 2009 11:42:23 PM
Zanaco Plc has partnered with the Technical Education, Vocational and Entrepreneurship Training (TEVET) to provide industrial training to students from institutions of higher learning. The programme is being pioneered with three local colleges.
The TEVET Learnership Scheme is a binding agreement between training providers, employers and learners and is aimed at providing students with industrial experience. It is also a learning experience conducted under joint supervision of a training provider and an employer leading to a recognised national qualification.
The three colleges that are pioneering this programme with Zanaco are the Zambia Insurance Business College Trust (ZIBCT), Zambia Institute of Business Studies and Industrial Practice (ZIBSIP) and the Zambia Institute of Management (ZAMIM) ñ Chingola campus.
“Zanaco managing director Mark Wiessing said the programme was important as it was in line with the country’s economic empowerment initiatives.
Economic empowerment initiatives are about building people. Empowerment is not just about ownership. It is also to a large extent about employment equity for existing employees but also to build the leaders of the future,” said Wiessing.
Earlier, science and technology minister Gabriel Namulambe said the TEVET Learnership Scheme had a potential to provide sector dialogue on matters of mutual interest with regards to skills development.
Labels: TEVETA, VOCATIONAL TRAINING, ZANACO, ZNCB
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Govt defends its rigidity with the CEEF
January 27, 2009
CHOMA District Commissioner Laiven Apuleni has defended government against accusations of rigidity in the approval and disbursement of money to applicants under the Citizenship Economic Empowered Fund (CEEF).
Mr. Apuleni says government is just being cautious to ensure that the history of poor repayment that had characterized similar empowerment programmes in the past did not occur.
He was speaking in Choma yesterday when he opened a two weeks training programme in bricklaying and entrepreneurship organized by Choma trades institute.
Mr. Apuleni said government is cognizant of the setbacks in previous empowerment schemes which had failed to achieve their intended purpose as beneficiaries abused the facility by failing to pay back.
He said government would want to ensure that beneficiaries of funds under the CEEF are those with capacity to pay back.
Mr Apuleni encouraged business persons wishing to access the fund to come up with partnerships that will formulate business project proposals that can attract funding.
And Mr. Apuleni has bemoaned the shortage of adequate skilled personnel to work in the booming construction in the country.
Mr Apuleni said it is government’s desire that more people acquire necessary skills so as to effectively compete for jobs in the construction industry.
He said government through the ministry of science and technology has devised a policy that will provide short intensive courses to empower Zambians with the needed skills in the construction sector.
Mr Apuleni noted that there has been an increase in construction activities due to the prudent economic policies of the MMD Government.
He said it would not argue well for foreign investors to import human resource when Zambians are able to offer similar skills.
Mr Apuleni commended Choma Trades Institute for designing a course and seeking funding from the Technical Education Vocational and Entrepreneurship training Authority (TEVETA) in bricklaying targeting members of the local community.
He also commended TEVETA for the for the financial support saying this was testimony of government’s good policies intended to empower its citizens with skills.
The DC said the course is in line with government policy to encourage and provide for citizens to actively participate in economic development through enterprise development and self employment.
Under the TEVETA support, the institute will train 40 local people in brick laying and entrepreneurship skills.
Speaking earlier, Choma Trades Institute principal Tom Kampamba said the provision of free skills in brick laying and entrepreneurship to the 22 participants is one way government intends empower its citizens.
He disclosed that additional funds have also been secured from TEVEA to train women of Masuku area in Choma in tailoring and also another group of women in Kazungula district would be empowered with bee keeping skills.
ZANIS/CM/MKM/ENDS
Labels: CEEF, CONSTRUCTION, MMD, TEVETA
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ZCSMBA calls for the building of small business
By Nomusa Michelo
Monday December 17, 2007 [03:00]
ZAMBIA Chamber of Small and Medium Business Associations (ZCSMBA) chairperson Timothy Siakaziba has said there is need to build the small sector business operators in order to foster development. In an interview, Siakaziba said small business operators were an important part of Zambia’s economy and should be supported. “The development of this economy lies in the hands of the formal and small sector operators,” he said. Siakaziba said ZCSMBA had received funding for capacity building in entrepreneurial and business management skills and processing for its members.
“We got the Africa capacity building funding, who are funding us for the next four years involving US$1.7 million,” he said. “We also have had money that we have got from TEVETA (Technical, Entrepreneurial and Vocational Education and Training Authority) and just in the course of this year we signed for close to K400 million for capacity building in terms of entrepreneurship and other business management skills among our members especially in processing and manufacturing.”
Siakaziba said the association had received good support from cooperating partners to support business development. “Recently we received funding from the Royal Netherlands Embassy, and the Government of Finland which is going to support the business development services which is called the voucher system,” he said.
He said the voucher system would be done in partnership with the government through the Zambia Development Agency (ZDA). “The main beneficiaries are ZCBSMA and Zambia, National Farmers Union (ZNFU),” he said. “We are starting to pilot these business development services for ZCSMBA in Mazabuka in the course of this year after we have secured the fund manager.
Labels: ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT, ECONOMY, SMEs, TEVETA, ZCSMBA, ZDA, ZNFU
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