On Friday, a signed tripartite of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) by the Private Sector Economic Diversification Project PSCEDP with the Ministry of Labour, the Ministry of Education and Educational Institutions was witnessed at Maseru Avani.
The aim of the MoU is an agreement between these organizations to coordinate efforts towards skills gaps in the higher education institutions, and link together with the job market requirements.
The high unemployment rate, especially amongst youth requires a coordinated effort between ministries and organizations that can have a positive influence in managing and reducing the unaligned development goals for the future workshop.
Dr. Thabiso Lebese, the Principal Secretary of Higher Learning stated that the Lesotho’s economy is changing because there are new technologies and scarcity of government jobs and the ease of the labour movement simply means that there needs to be change in terms of their attainable jobs and the set of skills required.
“The government of Lesotho is currently focused on the diversification of the country’s economy by providing growth in all sectors particularly those that are the country’s comparative advantage such as manufacturing, agro-processing and tourism.
Dr. Lebese also stated that the considerable mismatch that is found between their graduate skills and the knowledge and the needs of the industry as well as the business.
“We are here as parties concerned to correct the skills mismatch that have been highlighted and the signing of the MoU is not only going to benefit the students target as apprentices but the industry or the market which sells to benefit from this signing.”
Chaba Mokuku from PSCEDP said the private sector is experiencing enormous challenges at the moment for the simple reason like business on its entirety is a very sensitive commodity, where there is instability and you expect people to impress, it becomes a problem.
“Anybody in their right frame of mind would never want to impress in their country if there is instability. We have this initiative which has been made by our partners to include us in trying to see that we grow the economy of the country.
Mokuku further stated that we consume more than we produce but we appreciate this initiative.
PSCEDP is a government of Lesotho initiative through the Ministry of Trade, in partnership with the World Bank and African Development Bank. The aim of the project is to improve efficiency of the public sector to create an enabling environment for the private sector to develop, as well as expand market access for the private sector.
‘Malinkeng Machema from the St. Mary’s Home Economics on behalf of the TVD expressed her gratitude to participate. “While listening to the preparations, we feel we have been waiting for this.”
Machema further stated that this programme is going to alleviate poverty.