24 Aug 2014

Lack of requisite skills to meet job requirements has been identified as one of the reasons attributed to graduate unemployment

The Assistant Minister of Education and Skills Development, Mr Keletso Rakhudu said this during the Human Resource Development Council’s (HRDC) inauguration of sector committee members on Tuesday, August 19.

Mr Rakhudu said they believe that through a demand driven system of skills development, the twin problems of unemployment and the mismatch of skills and labour market demand would be addressed.

The newly elected sector committees include members of health, information and communication technology and finance and business services

Mr Rakhudu said Botswana has invested heavily in the health sector and that it has contributed to positive results in the country’s social indicators such as life expectancy and low child mortality.

“Currently 95 per cent of the total population has access to health facilities as government realises that a healthy workforce is a productive one,” he said

Despite these achievements, Mr Rakhudu stated that the health sector still faced challenges such as maternal mortality, high HIV/AIDS prevalence, increased burden of non-communicable diseases and others.

“Our expectation is that the human resource development sector committee for health would proactively assist the sector in addressing challenges facing the sector through the availability of relevant and focused skills in the sector,” he said

He said health facilities both public and private were still in serious shortages of different types of skilled health workers, and that he expects sector committee to assist in identifying the critical skills gaps in health and propose most efficient ways of addressing them.

On the other hand, the minister said Information and Communication Technology was an enabler in fostering investment and economic growth.

He said access and ease of information flow through modern technology would enhance foreign direct investment which would contribute positively to job creation, income generation and the expansion of the asset base.

“This calls for necessary financial resources and human resource capacity building to ensure that the aspirations are turned into reality,” he said.

Furthermore, Mr Rakhudu noted that the finance and business services sector wields potential for both employment creation and economic growth as depicted by the positive growth rates that the country has been experiencing over the years.

He however said the sector still faces challenges which include maintaining a robust framework for the financial sector stability, promotion of competitiveness and cost effective access to finance, adding that the issues would have to be discussed in the HDR sector committee and their skills requirements mapped out.

For his part, the chief executive officer of HRDC, Dr Patrick Molutsi said the objective of the committees include the provision of a new, improved and high level micro understanding of the strategic and long term human resource requirements of the sector which aligns the education and training capacities and capabilities, the needs, demands and priorities of the sector from the national and global perspective. ENDS