WorldFish and its partners have launched a major new project in Zambia. The Aquaculture Technical, Vocational and Entrepreneurship Training for Improved Private Sector and Smallholder Skills project aims to increase the human resources in the private sector and the number of smallholder commercial fish farmers with enhanced aquaculture knowledge and up-to-date practical skills.
Zambia has a high rate of unemployment. There are noticeable disparities between men and women in the labor force, especially a lack of women formally working in the fisheries sector who have received fisheries skills training. In addition, the current technical education, vocational and entrepreneurship training (TEVET) system faces challenges, including developing skills that are relevant to the employment market, particularly the private sector.
Moreover, there are poor linkages between the private sector and smallholder fish farmers, affecting their ability to organize for improved input supply, aggregation and sale of their outputs as well as their greater participation in other aquaculture value chain activities.
Enhancing technical education
The new USD 2.5 million, 3.5-year project is funded by the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation . It will be implemented by WorldFish through FISH, in partnership withthe Natural Resources Development College (NRDC), Musika and BluePlanet . It will be carried out in the Zambian capital Lusaka and the Northern and Luapula provinces.
The project has two components:
upgrading the fisheries science curriculum (long- and short-term courses) and training tools, and developing an online training platform and internship program at NRDC with links to other TEVET institutions to scale the upgraded training ‘package’ over the course of the project; enhancing the technical education, vocational and entrepreneurship skills of rural…