By CHIBAMBA KAYULA  –
THE Technical Education, Vocational and Entrepreneurship Training Authority (TEVETA) will intensify the provision of various practical skills to encourage entrepreneurship in the country.
Board Chairperson Francis Ndilila  said starting next year the training authority would introduce skills training as a way of encouraging.
“The areas to be covered include construction and building technology, creative arts and fashion, as well as information and communications technology amongst others,” Dr Ndilila said.
He said this during the awarding of certificates to participants who took part in a training of trainers’ course in Lusaka yesterday.
Dr Ndilila urged them to go and practice the skills learnt during the 10-day workshop.
“I am happy to learn that the final certification by TEVETA will be based on the evidence you graduates will provide that you have applied what you have learnt,” he said.
This should be achieved by participants training at least 20 prospective entrepreneurs within 12 months from the day of graduation as well as starting a new or expanding an existing scalable or growth oriented micro-business enterprise.
“As an authority, excellence is one of our values; should some of you perform beyond these minimum standards or expectations,” he said.
The authority would expect the participants to inculcate in the people they were going to train entrepreneurship and innovation skills which would enable each one of them to create at least two new jobs; that is one job for oneself as well as an additional one for a youth.
He said this was the minimum standard by which they were going to measure their efforts as well as the impact of their graduates on job creation and industrialisation.
The workshop drew 30 participants from various trades’ institutes across the country.