A total of 54 Rwandan youths have been selected for a pilot training programme unveiled Wednesday by the Rwanda Workforce Development Authority (RWoDA).

These skills training courses were launched during a ceremony at RWoDA headquarters in Remera.

The ceremony was presided over by the Minister of Public Service and Labour, Hon. Anastase Murekezi in the presence of senior officials from the Government, donor community and the private sector.

"Rwanda today needs skilled personnel. RWoDA is a very important institute in empowering people with skills. So, by working together with the vocational training centre, it will be in position to increase the number of skilled personnel in the country,” Murekezi said.

"The three priority skill areas as identified by RWoDA- Vocational Pedagogy, ICT in Networking and Electronics Servicing are undisputedly paramount for the implementation of national development programmes,” he underscored.

According to Fatina Mukarubibi, a member of the taskforce that helped establish RWoDA, Rwanda’s education system has hitherto continued to produce graduates with theoretical knowledge but significantly lacking in practical skills.

"This trainers’ training is very important because it will empower students with skills and by so doing, address the skills development challenges facing the country across all sectors of the economy,” Mukarubibi said.

She added that RWoDA’s training programmes are exclusively practical and are aimed at enabling trainees to translate their theoretical knowledge into practice, thereby giving them employable skills and entrepreneurship capacity.

It is envisaged that hundreds of other Rwandan youths will be admitted in various skills’ training courses every year after completion of rehabilitation works at the only workshop at RWoDA’s disposal.

"Skills development at vocational level is an important issue that Rwanda wants to address immediately. To address this, a systematic approach has to be adopted.

First and foremost, is the development of a demand led competency-based curricula which we started in February (2008) with active participation from the industry practitioners,” said Chong Fook Yen, the Director General of RWoDA.

"Today we are ready to do a pilot run on the practical aspect of vocational skills applications on a day-to-day basis. Besides the skills training courses, we recognized that not many instructors are trained in how to teach (pedagogy),” Chong elucidated.

Chong explained that Rwanda has "borrowed from the pedagogy training models of other countries and refined it to the local context so that we are able to implement the training today.

At the same ceremony, RWoDA launched the pilot website for the first-ever Rwanda Labour Market Information System (LMIS).

It is an initiative aimed at helping in developing market driven courses that will provide all the necessary information leading to the preparation of training modules that respond to changes in the labour market.

The LMIS is expected to help match industrial requirements with relevant skills supply thereby addressing the current mismatch of skills between what is produced by the Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) institutions and what is needed by the labour market. 

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