Last month Sustainable Skills has been officially awarded a consultancy contract sponsored by the World Bank to address skills imbalances and shortages in Uganda. Client of the contract is the Private Sector Foundation Uganda (PSFU) and this is the first non Australian government contract in the history of Sustainable Skills/SkillsDMC.
The Government of Uganda received credit from the World Bank towards implementation of the Uganda Competitive Fund for employer-led short-term training which is part of the Uganda Skills Development Project (USDP) aimed to address prevailing skills imbalances and shortages in Uganda. An important element of the initiative is to facilitate collaboration between training providers and industry to promote demand driven skills development with special attention to innovative modes of training.
The grant component of USDP aims at:
- supporting training activities that lead to improved productivity and competitiveness in the formal and informal sectors, hereby creating new income opportunities,
- providing funding primarily for the improvement of the quality and relevance of existing skills systems,
- prioritising innovative new approaches to skills development with special attention to micro and small enterprises.
The first stage of the project now officially commenced under the guidance of Peter Merckx as the leader of our TVET experts team. Originally from Belgium, Peter lives in Nairobi and has more than 30 years’ experience working as education expert and consultant, particularly in Kenya and Uganda. He was involved in long and short term assignment to strengthen teacher education and support systems in different African countries, and assisted Ministries of education in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Malawi, Zambia and Botswana in building the capacity to develop frameworks for continuous professional development of teachers, trainers and education managers. Peter will be in Uganda next week to work with the Skills Development Facility and a representative from the World Bank.
The rest of the team comprises Lisa Giammarco, as the Senior Consultant, and Simon Nangabo and Mary Jo Kakinda as Associate Consultants. Between 31 July and 8 August, they travelled to Kampala to conduct the first of the site visits, start the activities, and work with the Skills Development Facility team on processes and documentation. The initial feedback has been really positive and the team is looking forward to getting into the routine of the project.