TEVETA’s David Chikonta preaches skills training expansion

…TEVETA must reach rural areas

By Ashton Kelly Bunda

TECHNICAL Education Vocation and Entrepreneurship Training Authority (TEVETA) Director-General (DG) David Chikonta is preaching expansion of professional skills to rural Zambia’s in line with the Seventh (7th) National Development Plan (SNDP), recently launched by President Edgar Chagwa Lungu themed: ““Accelerating development efforts towards Vision 2030 without leaving anyone behind,”. On his part, Development and National Planning Minister Lucky Mulusa is elated that the Seventh National Development Plan  2017- 2021, anchored on five pillars namely; ‘Economic diversification for job creation; Reduced poverty and vulnerability; Enhanced human development; Reduction in developmental inequalities; Creating a conducive governance environment in a diversied economy. is creating synergies between implementing institutions is based on provincial comparative advantages enhancing resource endowment.”  During a Press Briefing at the Southeren Sun Ridgeway Hotel in Lusaka, Chikonta said a survey by TEVETA shows that training of life-skills and entrepreneurship programmes is limited to the line of rail, hence slowing down the sought after industrialization throughout Zambia’s ten (10) provinces namely; Central, Copperbelt, Eastern, Luapula, Lusaka, Muchinga, Northern, North-Western, Southern and Western regions, reports Ashton Kelly Bunda.  Chikonta said that through the TEVETA guided government policy pronouncements, goals and visions related to national development will carry-out countrywide statutory mandates, implemented by developing as regulatory tools for shaping learning experiences and environments. The forward-looking Chikonta says regulatory tools are developed and deployed through divisions with

President Edgar Chagwa Lungu with Vice President Inonge Mutukwa-Wina and Zambia’s High Commissioner to South Africa Emmanuel Mwamba

in authority. Chikonta announced that government in conjunction with TEVETA and stakeholders have five (5) policy impact pillars building a firm foundation; ‘Access, Quality, Responsiveness, Equity and Sustaining Financing’. In a related development, TEVETA Director General David Chikonta says that low education attainment and low proportional formal skills training are characteristic of the Zambian labour force, with five percent (5%) of the total 5.8m employment persons having attained tertiary education of certification or degree, 18.6% of the employed population received formal skills training, 11.9% have never been to school.