Technological advancements and new innovations are likely to affect the conventional skills that youth acquire from schools. 

To date, the majority of start-ups are using new technologies and soon upgrading. Hence, change in markets and how current businesses are conducted, are among the reasons leading to a call for re-skilling youth.

Also, the World Economic Forum (WEF) predicts that 42 percent of the required skills to perform the current jobs will have changed by 2024 and in the next ten years, one billion jobs (a third of the existing ones) will be replaced by technology.

As Rwanda marked the World Youth Skills Day on July 15, experts, business operators and youths weighed in on how re-skilling young people can be tackled to meet the market demands and be equipped to move with the fourth industrial revolution.

Speaking to The New Times, Vivens Uwizeyimana, founder at UmuravaWork, a one-stop solutions hub for Tech and soft skills development, says that there is a need of re-skilling existing workforces and developing new training programmes for the jobs of tomorrow.

He says that the fourth industrial revolution is very complex and far-reaching. "As it appears, it will take more than just learning how to code, programme mobile apps or using predictive analytics for people to succeed - it will need a new combination of skills.”

Some employers are already battling with challenges of hiring staff with advanced skills needed on the market, according to Mantis Akagera game lodge Human Resource Manager, Emmy Nshimiye.

He says the skills gap has been a big challenge to talent acquisition managers for a couple of years, but as the government has brought in industrial attachment programs in Education, it’s now reducing a bit.

The attachments that Nshimiye referred to are offered by Rwanda Development Board (RDB) and are meant to bridge the skills gap as well as address unemployment among youth.

Elodie Rusera, the Chief Skills Officer at RDB, says that, "Rwanda prioritises skills development as a way to achieve socio-economic development of the country.”

Rusera added that it is part of the national strategy to groom Rwandans into capable and skilled people with quality standards of living and a stable and secure society. 

"The vision 2050 calls for collaborative efforts to invest in human capital of which the big number is the youth,” she says.

Priority sectors, according to Rusera, include energy, agriculture, private sector development, environment and natural resources, urbanisation, transport, tourism, manufacturing and ICT.

To achieve that, the government is scaling up the number of Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) graduates with skills relevant to the labour market and ensuring digital literacy for all youth (16 to 30 years) by 2024.

According to the Minister of State for ICT and TVET, Claudette Irere, there is a need to prepare for future skills such as Artificial Intelligence in production and manufacturing, modern farming techniques and agriculture mechanisation, industrial automation and big data management, transportation and logistics.

She says that: "We are doing full implementation of competency-based training and assessing diversification of TVET programs to address the youth talents, equipping schools with modern infrastructure, availing qualified and competent trainers, ensuring ICT penetration in the TVET value chain, and full involvement of industries in the training process.”

A Skills Development Fund (SDF) has been established to support short-term training of youth including employer-led short-term vocational training and apprenticeships.