In a statement during the opening of the meeting, SSC Chairperson, Ms. Chikondano Mussa, Secretary of Labour in the Ministry of Labour, thanked the EU for their support and noted the steady progress being achieved in various aspects of the programme.
She cited, for example, the piloting of the Centres of Vocational Excellence (CoVEs) in Technical Colleges, in the four areas of Agricultural Mechanisation, Tourism, Renewable Energy and Marine Transport, which she described as a game changer for skills development in Malawi.
Mussa said: “It is our expectation that the CoVEs will be the one-stop innovative knowledge hubs for skills development in the selected sectors, working with selected institutions to achieve more output and good quality”.
She said Government believes the CoVEs will contribute to reducing unemployment, improve productivity and efficiency in the four selected sectors.
Head of Cooperation at the EU Delegation to Malawi, Mr. George Dura, while commending the progress made in the programme, emphasised the importance of ensuring that the Monitoring and Evaluation system is up and running as a priority, considering the advanced project implementation period.
On skills development, Dura said the EU was looking forward to seeing the TEVET Policy review being finalised and the revised TEVET Act debated and passed in the April Budget meeting of Parliament.
Dura noted that the absence of the guiding policy framework is a clear limitation to the strategic development of the TEVET sector, but he hoped that the issue can be addressed by project implementers soon.
In terms of incubation and access to finance, it was reported during the meeting that 2,374 applications were received, with 558 high-potential entrepreneurs advancing to the foundational stage.
Among them, 171 completed pre-incubation, developed prototypes, and entered the full incubation phase. Similarly, Standard Bank has effectively managed the financing facility, simplifying access to capital and ensuring entrepreneurs receive the necessary funding for growth.
Regarding the advancement of entrepreneurship voices, 45 of 67 media outputs have so far been broadcast and published across 18 media platforms, reaching over six million views.
The program also held stakeholders’ consultative meetings for labour law reviews, resulting in consolidated labour law currently under review by the Ministry of Labour. Furthermore, 141 Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Inspectors were trained and have begun drafting OSH regulations.
SSC members in attendance included representatives from Ministries of Education, Youth, Gender, Tourism, Finance, Energy, Transport, National Planning Commission, ECAM, MCTU as well as Zantchito implementation partners- the British Council, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), CARE Malawi, PLAN International, PROMAN, Danish Trade Union Development Agency (DTDA), UNOPS, GOPA Worldwide Consultants.
