Staff Reporter |

The new Ministry of Skills Audit and development which was introduced by President Emmerson Mnangagwa last year in October has officially been launched today in Harare.

In an address at the launch, the minister of the new ministry, Professor Paul Mavhima, underscored the critical role of the ministry in driving Zimbabwe’s aspirations for socio-economic advancement.

“The ministry is central to the achievements and aspirations that Zimbabwe has in terms of vision 2030, but also in terms of the intermediate programs like NDS1 and NDS2 coming in 2025.” Minister Mavhima articulated.

More so, the Minister highlighted the importance of collective effort towards national development and urged Zimbabweans to adopt a proactive mindset, stating, “We are going to the promised land, and everyone should say I am going to contribute to the achievement of that objective.”

The minister elucidated on the core functions of the Ministry of Skills Audit and development, delineating two fundamental responsibilities. Firstly, emphasizing the significance of skills audit in assessing the existing skill sets within the country while identifying areas of deficiency and secondly underscored the imperative of skills development to bridge the identified gaps and meet the demands of a rapidly evolving economy.

“The auditing part is determining the skills that we have and making sure we know where the gaps are, this is wide-ranging in every sector and every level, once we have identified the skills shortages that we have, we then go and say how do we meet this demand for the skills,” Minister Mavhima affirmed.

Furthermore, Minister Mavhima emphasized the need for favourable working conditions, highlighting that the Ministry is keen on looking at how workers are exposed to comfortable working conditions.

“Skills are important, we then have to deal with issues of motivation as well, which means for the civil servants that we have trained and given orientation, we need to make sure their conditions of service are such that they are dedicated to the utilization of those skills.”

The launch of the Ministry of Skills Audit Management signals a concerted effort by Government to harness its human capital towards achieving sustainable growth and prosperity.