On Wednesday 21/06 the Support to Skilling Uganda project, together with the Belgian Embassy, organized a visit of Belgian Minister for Development Alexander De Croo to the Roofings factory in Kampala. Roofings Group employs over 2000 staff in Uganda, making it one of the country’s biggest enterprises. The company produces steel and plastic building products for both the local Ugandan market and the markets of the East African Community and COMESA. This is done through the principle of “local content”, where skills are needed for the localized production of goods for the East African market.

“Our doors are open”
BTC supports the Skilling Uganda Strategy proposes private sector involvement in skills development as the game changer in the Business, Technical and Vocational Education and Training (BTVET) system. The goal is to spearhead modern, innovative, demand driven skills development approaches that meet the needs of the Ugandan labour market. This can only be achieved by bridging the gap between the world of school and the world of work and creating public private partnerships in skills development.

The visit to Roofings showcases how such a partnership on skills development can be approached together with the private sector. International experience shows that effective and relevant skills development systems are built on strong alliances with employers and the business sector. Such alliances involve joint efforts in policy development, planning, monitoring and quality assurance. However, equally important are partnerships in training delivery and training finance. As Mister Lalani, chairman and founder of Roofings, stated “Our doors are open to become more involved in skills development”.  

A Win-Win situation
After a guided tour of the factory, Minister De Croo and the Roofings team discussed the Win-Win situation where the private sector engages in skills development for BTVET students and graduates through hands-on training and qualitative apprenticeships and internships, while at the same time easing the intake of well-trained future personnel and improving the quality of the company’s labor force. They agreed that work-based learning is indispensable to bridge the gap between the world of work and the world of training.  

Thierry Foubert added that through piloting a skills development fund together with the Private Sector Foundation of Uganda, BTC stimulates bottom-up public private partnership for innovating training modalities such as lifelong learning. The debate was rounded-up with the role of the private sector in setting up training and certification standards for BTVET. Practical tests can allow employees who acquired their skills on-the-job to obtain a valid certification, also for the informal economy. Minister De Croo added that “with the right certificate, that person can take a next step in his or her career.”