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| Photo: The Citizen |
Construction workers in Tanzania (file photo).By Ludger Kasumuni
Dar es Salaam — The government has revealed that 80 per cent of Tanzania's labour force is unskilled, a situation that pose an obstacle to moving into a middle income economy.
Delivering a speech on behalf of the Permanent Secretary in the Prime Minister's Office, the deputy director for employment Mr Joseph Nganga said that 80 per cent of 20 million working population in the country is unskilled.
That means 16 million Tanzanians are unskilled.
"The government is aware about this problem. We need to upgrade the current composition of unskilled labour. We have to move from 80 per cent to 54 per cent of unskilled working population," said Mr Nganga.
He was speaking at the occasion of completion of one year programme for graduate internship sponsored by the United Nations Industrial Organisation (UNIDO).
According to him, the problem gives Tanzania an uphill task as it eyes to become a middle income country come 2025.
"Study conducted by Association of Tanzania Employers (ATE) in 2012 shows that between 30 and 40 per cent of advertised jobs lacked skilled personnel. At least 32 per cent of the working people are poor because they lack skills," he said.
According to him, the government has drafted the national Internship Programme for accommodating 300,000 graduates in order to create more jobs through public-private partnership in the forthcoming years.
Prof Honest Ngowi of Mzumbe University's Business School who was a project consultant said that such a joint project between UNIDO and the Dar es Salaam-based campus had shown one million young stars are being produced every year while absorption capacity is 40,000.
ATE executive director Dr Aggrey Mlimuka called upon the country's move to update the National SMEs policy in order to consolidate UNIDO's approach for job creation.
"Apprenticeship programme for young graduates has proved to be successful but it must be complimented by updated SME policy. SMEs have been found to be the best tool for creating more jobs through skills development," said Dr Mlimuka.
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