D/Telegraph Correspondent
Authorities have stated that they are working tirelessly to retain 100 percent of the country’s human capital skills, as the current status stands at 32 percent.
Speaking to Digital Telegraph over the weekend, Minister of Skills Audit Paul Mavima revealed that an audit conducted since 2018 indicated a shortage of 68 percent in order to enhance economic development in line with National Development Strategy 1.
“We have the findings of the current status of human capital in the country. We began with the baseline of 2018, which identified areas such as STEM, engineering, the sciences, agriculture, mining, and medical sciences,” Mavima explained.
“From that audit, we found an overall shortage of 68 percent, with our skills base estimated to be at 32 percent. There are a few areas where there is a slight oversupply of skills, particularly in the field of business administration and management.”
Mavima further highlighted that some of the shortages are a result of skilled individuals leaving the country and migrating to various countries in Africa, North America, Europe (particularly the United Kingdom), and Oceania (including New Zealand and Australia).
He emphasized that the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education will play a vital role in reducing the skills shortage.
“We still lack mainly in those areas, despite the efforts of the Ministry of Higher Education to increase output in the shortage areas identified in the audit,” Mavima stated.
“We need the essential skills from the diaspora, and the idea is to bring those skills back to the country or ensure that they contribute to the economy remotely, wherever they are. Zimbabwe can benefit from the experience they have gained.”
Meanwhile, the minister stressed the need to embrace Artificial Intelligence (AI), as it enhances economic development by improving efficiency.
“AI has had both positive and negative impacts on the world. On the positive side, AI can increase efficiency by eliminating human errors in decision-making and operations,” he explained.
“AI is beneficial for the productivity of various sectors, including service delivery and manufacturing. If we want to remain competitive against the rest of the world, which has embraced these technologies, we must deploy them in all our productive sectors. We need to train our people in these specific areas so that we have enough individuals who can manipulate and develop useful AI models for our industries and service delivery.”
