02 Apr 2025

 Youth unemployment is exacerbated by among other things, skills mismatch in the labour market.

In an effort to address the challenge, the Ministry of Higher Education intends to hold a Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) Pitso. This was said by Minister of Higher Education, Mr Prince Maele during a courtesy call by Ambassadors of Japan and Ukraine, Mr Yusuke Shindo and Dr Oleksiy Syvak respectively in Gaborone yesterday.

Mr Maele said all the relevant stakeholders would gather at the Pitso to discuss and share best practices on how best to transform the TVET, stressing that many countries had been able to develop their human capital and improve the employability of their people through TVET. 

More often than not, Mr Maele said the skills that graduates acquired were not necessarily what the labour market required. For that reason, he said, some employers were not willing to absorb young people for attachments or internship.

“However, we are hoping to learn more on how we can motivate the industry to be able to absorb the trainees for internships or attachments to ensure that the graduates produced from tertiary institutions were job ready and relevant to the industry,” he said.

Furthermore, he said government was focusing on Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics in the education system to emphasise the value of the creative arts.

Investing on human resources, Japan Amabassador Shindo said was key adding that in his country, there was  collaboration between the private sector companies, academia and government.

This, he said, was an experience that Botswana could learn from to diversify the economy, through advancing TVET and investing more on human resource development.

“In Japan, companies are willing to invest in human resources development. Even before young people join the companies, they are willing to give training,” he said.

In Japan, the ambassador said, some manufacturing companies had their own high schools, ‘so, those who graduate from high schools, join those companies, such as Toyota and Denzel’. 

“So, human resource development begins even before people join companies. That is how Japanese companies develop and nurture skills,” he added

For his part, Ukraine Ambassador, Dr Syvak, said Ukraine was open to cooperate with Botswana on transforming TVET for students to acquire the best skills and education recognised in the world.

“We are very open to cooperation in the education field, as we understand that it is valuable for students to acquire the best qualifications possible that are recognised in  the world,” he said.

Dr Syvak added that he had an opportunity to discuss with the Minister of Education and Science in Ukraine and got his full support for his ministry to sign an agreement with the Ministry of Higher Education in Botswana. 

The agreement, he said, would work as a tool to provide more opportunities for Botswana students in Ukraine.

“We’ve also discussed a format that will allow Botswana students to have a distant education in cooperation with the local universities in Ukraine. 

What we have in mind is to establish dual diplomas that would incorporate the Curriculum of Botswana and the partner universities in Ukraine, so they will provide credits both universities enough to a diploma that is recognised in Europe and worldwide,” he said.

“We also discussed opportunities to cooperate in the scientific sphere, because we understand that it’s not only about having diplomas, bachelor’s degree or master’s degree, but also about having joint scientific projects. 

When we establish this cooperation, we can use not only the resources of both countries, but also the resources and potential of our partners in Europe and world-wide.” ENDS