Authorities in the labour sector say they are working on popularising access to skills development towards aligning aspirations in the Malawi 2063.

According to Labour Minister Vera Kamtukule, much as government does not have adequate resources to reach out to all young people with required skills, her ministry is working on mobile skills development through the Technical, Entrepreneurial and Vocational Education and Training (TEVET) Authority.

She said: “If you look at the Malawi 2063, one of the critical pillars therein is the human development and under the human development we are looking at skills development very much.”

“So as a government, we have come up with a way of ensuring that we are democratising access to skills by ensuring that whoever wants to have skills should have them.”

Kamtukule said through the programme, well trained individuals will be certified in various professions so that they venture into their own business or get employed.

“We have got a programme in the Ministry called the Recognition to Prior Learning about which is like an informal programme where people have skills already, there is a way of accessing them,” Kamtukule said.

“To understand what their skill base is all about and then you certify them and then reach the in the industries where they can establish themselves but also use those certificates to find jobs for themselves.”

Recently, Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs Sosten Gwengwe told the National Assembly that to move from rhetoric to action in youth empowerment.

The Tonse Alliance administration trained 3,043 youths under business incubation programme in the 2021/2022 fiscal year.

Gwengwe said 1,022 of the trained youths are now running their own small and medium-sized businesses and have created over 1,000 jobs.