Launch of the Skills for Employment Tanzania (SET) Programme

The programme design is aligned with Tanzania’s National Skills Development Strategy (NSDS 2016-2026) and aims to strengthen the national capacity of the Vocational Skills Development (VSD) system and promote labour-market-driven skills development opportunities. It’s been proven that VSD makes an important contribution towards reducing poverty as it equips the youth with practical skills and qualifications needed to compete in today’s world of work. With the planned implementation of inclusive approaches and targeted cohesion between the public and private sector, Swisscontact will play a facilitatory role and work closely with its partners to improve the prospects of gainful youth employment and self-employment through contribution to improved access, relevance and quality of VSD.

SET targets young men and women between 15 and 24 years, in particular, those who cannot access the formal VSD system, including young mothers. The programme will work closely with the Vocational Training and Education Authority (VETA), the Tanzanian Private Sector Foundation (TPSF), local organisations, the Morogoro Vocational Teachers and Training College (MVTTC), training institutions (both public and private) and other stakeholders to create more opportunities in agriculture and agri-business, which are among key economic sectors. At least 16,000 young people, mostly women, are expected to benefit from this programme.

‘The project will work closely with its partners in developing and mainstreaming novel approaches while considering labour market analysis and will improve vocational teacher training and the capacities of public and private training providers. All these efforts are aimed at offering youth, women and young mothers’ better prospects of gainful employment,’ reiterated the project team leader, Mr. Søren Poulsen.

The SET programme will run for 12 years within a budget of CHF 24,000,000. The first four-year phase runs till 30^th June 2022.