16 Nov 2016

The director at Human Resource Development Council (HRDC) Dr Ellah Matshediso has called on tertiary education institutions to desist from shutting their doors on HRDC.

Giving a keynote address at the HRDC institutional planning workshop in Gaborone on November 15, she spoke against institutions that treat HRDC as a threat thinking that HRDC’s mandate is to destroy them.

She stated that HRDC was established to guide these institutions in accrediting their programmes to ensure they stay at par with the rest of the world.

Dr Matshediso noted that the Botswana National Human Resource Development (BNHRD) strategy 2009-2022 aimed at producing globally competitive workforce that would place Botswana graduates in a good position to compete with others.

She stated that all institutions should align themselves with the strategy hence these workshop convening all training institutions to monitor and evaluate their programmes.

The director highlighted that their strategy outlined the need for training, capacity building which she indicated that could only be achieved through partnerships.

She state that compliance with the strategy was a must because government had invested so much on moving from resource base to skills based training.

Dr Matshediso noted that it was public knowledge that Botswana’s education had deficiencies in that the industry had in the past expressed worry over the quality of graduates.

She said industry had stated that the graduates were not employable as they lacked skills which she said proved that there was skill mismatch.

She urged the institutions to take responsibility and own their students while they are on industry attachment to see how they are performing and how they can assist them acquire necessary skills.

Giving an outline on the objectives of the workshop HRDC’s Onkabetse Mmereki concurred that the meeting intended to discuss the need for tertiary education institutions to align to BNHRD strategy.

He further highlighted that the workshop was meant to explain the roles and expectations of both HRDC and tertiary education institutions.

He noted that HRDC would share planning frameworks to be used and the process for purpose of improving.

Mr Mmereki stated that at the end of the workshop institutions would be expected to submit draft institutional plans for technical support. BOPA