The Zanzibar Association of Tourism Investors (ZATI) has highlighted a skills mismatch as having a severe impact on the Archipelago’s tourism sector.
A report issued with the support of BEST-Dialogue, a grant-giving programme that assists organisations to create better business environments, revealed that the skills mismatch is one of the major problems that have been impeding progress of the tourism industry in the Isles. “One of our long-time cries has been that the basic knowledge of many students is at very low levels. It makes it difficult for them to even undergo vocational training or on-the-job training,” noted ZATI chairman, Seif Masoud Miskiry.
According to the report, about 92% of the labour force in Zanzibar is either unskilled or semi-skilled, and only 8.4% of the labour force has training and an education level above secondary education. This leaves a major gap in the tourism workforce, with government expediting the prioritising and mainstreaming of labour-market-related skills development initiatives into the current development frameworks as key in developing competent workforce for the tourism sector. The report further calls for collaboration apprenticeship where training institutions and tourism stakeholders work together in internship trainings, workplace skills upgrading and offering demand-driven entrepreneurship trainings.
ZATI has urged the Zanzibar government to review the Zanzibar Education Policy 2006, the National Employment Policy and the Tourism Development Policy 2003, to acknowledge skills training and viable measures to develop a competent workforce. It proposes a Skills Development Levy (SDL) to provide the financial backing to implement the development of general education and training; and calls for a collaboration with relevant stakeholders to develop and implement a competency-based training curriculum that feeds into the tourism industry. This should encompass subjects including communication, mathematics, ICT, geography, history, ecology, bookkeeping, and other technical subjects that will be taught with a tourism perspective.
