The Ministry of Technology and Science has revealed that it targets to train at least 10,000 youths to equip them with skills as part of practical delivery by the end of the year 2022.
Minister of Technology and Science Felix Mutati said this yesterday at the launch of the National Youth Skills Empowerment Programme in Chongwe district, flanked by five (5) other cabinet ministers.
Those in attendance include; Mines and Minerals Development Minister Paul Kabuswe, Agriculture Minister Reuben Mtolo Phiri, Health Minister Sylvia Masebo who is Chongwe Member of Parliament, Small and Medium Enterprise Development Minister Elias Mubanga and Sports, Youth and Arts Minister Elvis Nkandu represented by his Permanent Secretary Kangwa Chileshe.
Speaking at the event, Hon Mutati said the ministry targets to role out this program to all the constituencies across the country which would then have a multiplier effect of creating jobs for many other youths.
Hon Mutati said technology encompasses delivering the skills that are necessary while working with other ministries as one government system.
Hon Mutati assured that with skills acquisition, youths are guaranteed to be permanently employed and to also employ others.
The minister said the ministry intends to be practical particularly for the year 2022, with a philosophy that local jobs should be preserved for the local people so that the monies revolves around the communities.
He said the ministry’s formula for skills development will be government going to the people and not the other way round as President Hakainde Hichilema is delivering the skills which young people embrace.
Hon Mutati said after acquiring the skills, what will be important for the youths is to be ethical and deliver quality within appropriate standards.
Hon Mutati said with the increased allocation of the Constituency Development Fund to K25.7 million, there will be need to have a cadre of skilled youths that will assist in the construction sector and many other aspects that will require local sourcing of labour and skill.
Meanwhile, Minister of Small and Medium Enterprise Development Elias Mubanga said the New Dawn government wants to nature a cadre of entrepreneurs with the right skills and mindset to contribute effectively to national development.
Hon Mubanga said this would as a result reduce on government dependence for empowerment schemes amongst the youths.
And speaking at the same event, Minister of Youth and Sports Elvis Nkandu said government has realized that if trained in the right skills, youths can have the capacity to play a vital role to contribute towards the growth of the country by creating technologies that can solutions to socio-economic challenges the country faces.
In a speech read for him by Permanent Secretary in the ministry Kangwa Chileshe, Mr Nkandu said the launch of the national skills empowerment program will explore and facilitate for the provision of smooth training because President Hakainde Hichilema places emphasis on the importance of human and socio-development as an essential tool in having a skilled population.
And Agriculture Minister Hon Reuben Mtolo Phiri who was also speaking at the same event underscored that it is important to equip the youth with the necessary skills and tools and as such, the ministry seeks to encourage youths to look at agriculture as a business.
Hon Phiri said the ministry has since reserved 100,000 hectares of land in each province which will be used as farming blocks, calling on the youths to take advantage of this opportunity.
Speaking earlier, Mines and Minerals Development Minister Hon Paul Kabuswe said the country cannot afford to have degree holders only because those with requisite skills are key in the development of the country.
Hon Kabuswe said with the skills acquisition being promoted, government is already living up to its campaign promises, calling on the Technology and Science Minister to consider rolling out skills training centres to all the districts.
And Hon Sylvia Masebo, Member of Parliament for Chongwe Constituency and Health Minister urged the 50 beneficiary students of the training at the newly launched centre under the Lusaka Business and Technical College to use the skills to their full potential.
Thanks, our working government. Those who deliberately wear wrong lenses and cant see this good work, hard luck
You have failed to fulfil the promises you made during election campaigns, now you expect us to believe more of your lies. Fuseke
You are better off training your own brick layers and engineers to reduce the cost of construction. Look at the way we re building houses, unless foreigners are involved, you will not find quality builds by local Zambian contractors.
The corrupt moron lungu and his theiving goverment spent billions and 10 years yet Zambians can not even build a quality car park ………
They expected the private sector to do everything………….
HEHH and his GRZ are on the right course…….
This is the way forward not bogus empowerment programs of giving useless Chink buses with a shelf life of fresh fish on sunny day and tankers to PF cadres masquerading as youth
PS says youth funds were incompetently handled
GOVERNMENT will not be able to recover some monies it gave youths through loans because most recipients failed to make good use of the funds.
The latest Auditor General’s report revealed that 12,836 youth groups got K88.9 million between 2012 and last year but only K5.9 million had been paid back, leaving a balance of K82.9 million.
In another case, 2,750 small and medium enterprises (SMEs) obtained K52 million but only K2.8 million has been recovered, with K49.2 million still outstanding.
When I say PF was a reckless bunch of crooks this is what I mean.
You say you want to train ten thousand youths by year end. Trained in what? Trained to do what job? And will there be a job offer at the end of the training? If there is one thing that Zambians hate, it is EMPTY PROMISES!
UNREALISTIC FIGURES BEING THROWN OUT
HH NEEDS A CABINET CHANGE
SURELY HE CAN SEE AND HEARS OF THE SAME OLD SAME OLD PROMISES BEING THROWN OUT RECKLESSLY
10,000 is nothing because that’s about the annual tertiary institutions uptake as against the 100,000 school leavers yearly. We must consider to downgrade most of these skills from tertiary to ordinary level as that will take care of the limited spaces in the tertiary institutions. Skills like carpentry, automotive mechanics, metal fabrication, horticulture, animal husbandry, bookkeeping, etc can be trained at ordinary level. We’ll then have skilled school leavers. This was what UNIP wanted to achieve through compulsory ZNS training. Those that didn’t make it into college stayed on at ZNS for such training. Mutati must heed my advice
LEAVE ZNS OUT OF IT….. AS ITS JUST A LAWLESS INSTITUTION