KIGALI - Preparations are in high gear for a national sector-based labour survey. The exercise aims at providing an updated data on the labour market, which will be availed to all stakeholders, both in the public and private sector.

The survey will be conducted by Labour market Information System (LMIS). It is expected to be instrumental in helping government to plan its policies.

In an exclusive interview with The New Times, the acting Director of LMIS, Pacifique Karinda, said that they are currently in the procurement process for a firm that will conduct the survey.

He said it will be conducted later this year without being specific on time.

LMIS was established by the government in 2008 to address the problem of lack of adequate and reliable information and data on the labour market, which was seen as one of the key challenges to the country’s development.

In its early stages, the programme was under the Workforce Development Authority (WDA), a public agency  mandated to provide a strategic response to the skills development challenges facing the country across all sectors of the economy.

It was later moved to Rwanda Development Board (RDB).
On why nothing has been done since its creation, Karinda said that moving LMIS department from WDA to RDB derailed their delivery. He, however, was quick to add the LMIS team has already registered some progress over the past three years.

"We have managed to establish a website where employers are able to upload their vacancies while jobseekers can also upload their CVs.”

The website also matches available vacancies with CVs and vice versa, provides information about training institutions and also contains some valuable labour related information.
The website currently has 863 registered job-seekers, 768 CVs, 70 registered employers and 27 available vacancies. It also gets an average of 2,000 hits every day, Karinda added.

The LMIS team, now under RDB’s Human Capital Directorate, undertook a traceability study in four vocational and technical institutions. They are IPRC Kavumu, Amizero Training Centre, Ecole Technique SOS and ETO Gitarama.

The exercise involved tracing what graduates from these institutions were doing after completing their studies, Karinda explained.

The survey, which will be conducted in every sector, is seen as one way through which the scattered data on labour market will be amalgamated. It will also create reliable information regarding the state of employment in the country.

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