Tanzania: 4000 Youth to Acquire Job Skills On Veta-Koica Deal

By James Kamala

THE Vocational Training Authority (VETA) and Korean International Cooperation (KOICA) on Monday inked a deal aimed at enabling youth in the country to acquire employability skills.

The agreement intends to carry out a project at a cost of 5.3 million US dollars (about 12bn/-). The project, dubbed 'Youth employment and skills for development in Tanzania' will be run for three years.

VETA in collaboration with the German Development Agency will be implementing the project, according to KOICA Tanzania Country Director Mr Kyucheol Eo.

"We are pleased to partner with VETA to support around 4,000 young people in Tanzania become employable and employ themselves so that they can fulfill their dreams. The project will be implemented in the regions of Lindi, Dodoma and Manyara," The KOICA Director highlighted during the project signing ceremony in Dar es Salaam.

He said that through the project, KOICA will also develop and run an entrepreneurship programme for other VETA students in the three regions, whereby one of the important aspects will be providing capital to startups by teams of students who won entrepreneurship challenge.

For his part, VETA Director General Dr Pancras Bujulu, expressed his appreciation for the support from KOICA, saying that the support came at a right time when more interventions to provide tailor made short courses linking graduates with the job market and employers were needed.

"There are graduates lacking skills and experience to match with the needs in the job market, therefore for them to receive internships, or apprenticeships will increase their employability skills needed by employers," he argued.

Dr Bujulu said that the programme will run for three consecutive years from 2021 to 2023 where after gaining skills, youth, in their groups, will be engaged in a contest to find best projects for being incubated and supported for taking off.

He said skills for the country's ongoing strategic projects will be a target since more personnel are needed in the areas like wielding, plumbing and masonry.