Kigali: On 20th November 2018, Hon. Dr. Eugene MUTIMURA, the Minister of Education, officially opened the Africa Skills Competition 2018 at Kigali Convention Center.

 The Government of Rwanda with World Skills International and FESTO DIDACTIC were organizing the Africa Skills Competition 2018 and TVET Symposium to enhance hands-on skills and international exchange of technical in the field of TVET with the specific objectives to expose the Rwandan and African youth to a variety of skilled careers and equip them with the tools and resources they need to build a future, set up a communication channel to explain the motivational and educational benefits of competitions by showing how they build competitor’s character, confidence, commitment and self-esteem.

The Minister of Education expressed that the government’s   vision is for the promotion of TVET which is guided by the principle enshrined in our Vision 2020 and make our country a knowledge-based economy, thus moving from a third world to middle income economy by 2020.

He also said that this competition will be a good opportunity for Rwanda to identify TVET skills that we give to our children and know our standardization among the countries. He also expressed that this Africa Skills Competition will be highlighted where we can put efforts.

Addressing to the media, Dr James Gashumba, Vice Chancellor of Rwanda Polytechnic, expressed that they started preparing this activity in April 2018, and there is an optimism that our children got more skills and are able to compete with other competitors from different countries.

He added that the government of Rwanda strives for providing a quality education that complies with applicable standards through vocational education that enables beneficiary to acquire skills required to create jobs and compete in the labor market.

The competition itself will take place at IPRC Kigali from 21/11/2018 to 23/11/2018 and will focus on 7 trades namely: Mechatronics, Electrical Wiring, Cooking, Welding, Plumbing, Brick Laying, Hairdressing.

The Africa Skills Competition will attract a wide variety of different actors of TVET sector from different corners of the world therefore a good opportunity to organize a TVET Symposium scheduled to take place on 23/11/2018 at Kigali Convention Centre with the objective to discuss and share experiences and expertise around different themes related to the contribution of skills development which is critical for industrial growth and job creation in Africa. A number of countries such as Morocco, Uganda, Kenya, Ghana, Liberia, Rwanda attended.

 Sophie Nyirabakwiye