Zimbabwe News Update
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28 min read
By Mary TaruvingaA NAMIBIAN delegation is in Zimbabwe on a benchmarking mission aimed at strengthening cooperation in Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) with a particular focus on diamond cutting and polishing at Zimbabwe’s only Diamond Training Centre.The delegation, led by Namibia Training Authority (NTA) Chief Operations Officer Penda Shilongo and Zimbabwean government officials visited polytechnics across the country, Chinhoyi University of Technology, Diamond Training Centre and the Zimbabwe School of Mines among other training institutions.The purpose of the visit is to learn from Zimbabwe’s experience in developing skills for mineral beneficiation and industrial value addition.Speaking during the visit to the Diamond Training Centre, an indigenous-owned institute based in Harare, Shilongo said Namibia wanted to draw lessons from Zimbabwe’s model of transforming natural resource wealth into employment through practical skills development.“What we take home is that we need to start with mineral beneficiation in our country.
At the moment, we do not have a training facility that offers these types of skills. We see this as an opportunity to collaborate and leverage the expertise of our sister country so that we can also add value to our mineral resources in Namibia,” Shilongo said.He added that Namibia was eager to strengthen bilateral cooperation with Zimbabwe, particularly in upskilling trainers and aligning TVET standards across the SADC region.“We invite our Zimbabwean counterparts to visit Namibia to identify areas where we can also assist each other.
There is a lot to learn from one another,” he said.The NTA, which regulates the country’s TVET system, is implementing reforms to bridge gaps in technical training and align courses with emerging industries such as green energy.Richard Kambinda, acting general manager for TVET and VTC development support, said Zimbabwe’s capacity in vocational training was impressive and that the visit would help Namibia build stronger foundations for technical education.“We came to Zimbabwe on a study tour to see what programmes can help us bridge the gaps we have in Namibia,” Kambinda said.“We don’t have a diamond-cutting college back home, so it’s important to learn from our brothers and sisters here.
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