Bridging skills gap key to achieving EDPRS 2 targets, says Akamanzi

The government should start improving human resource skills to ensure the sucess of the second phase of the Economic Development and Poverty Reduction Strategy (EDPRS 2), Clare Akamanzi, acting chief executive officer of the Rwanda Development Board (RDB), has advised.Akamanzi was speaking during the Sector Skills Councils (SSCs) review meeting in Kigali last week.Sector Skills Councils (SSCs) is a national partnership organisation that brings together industry, labour and trainers, to devise means of improving skills of particular sectors’ workforce.Akamanzi noted that the councils were linked to the EDPRS 2’s second pillar of having “human resource development and a knowledge-based economy”. This pillar aims at creating an adequate skills base in the country to meet local, regional and international market demands in the next seven years.“The government is investing a lot of resources in education. So, we need to ensure that the skills people acquire have a direct impact on the different sectors of the economy,” she said.She challenged the private sector to invest in staff training to improve the capabilities of workers.“We want to use the outcome and recommendations of the skills councils to directly impact policies in the country,” she said.The government has since November 2012 established eight Sector Skills Councils in the tourism, mining, ICT, agriculture, financial services, energy, construction and manufacturing sectors. An additional four councils will be formed by the end of the year, according to officials from the Workplace Development Authority.According to Didier Munezero, the director of partnerships at the Workforce Development Authority, the councils are important as they help identify the critical skills needs of the country, and develop them “to make Rwanda self-reliant”.“We will embrace all the innovations undertaken by the councils and also support them fully since all sectors do not fall under technical and vocational education training centres (TVET),” he noted.

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Bridging skills gap key to achieving EDPRS 2 targets, says Akamanzi