By Wallace Mawire in Harare
In a comminique titled:HARARE CALL TO ACTION ON SKILLS From Training to Value Creation: Skills for Resilient and Competitive African Industries:A shared call to governments, parliaments, TVET and higher technical institutions, employers and industry, workers and social
partners, training providers, youth and learners, regional and continental bodies, development partners, academia and civil society released recently in Harare,Zimbabwe at the recently held Africa Skills Weeks 202, the Zimbabwe government under the Ministry of Skills Aidit and Development said with participants and stakeholders gathered at the third Africa Skills Week in Harare, Republic of Zimbabwe, from 12 to 16 October 2026, recognise the breadth of continental engagement.
Among other calls, the governmemt has called the African Union (AU) and its member states to conene a Biennial Africa Education and Skills Summit.
The event brought together 1,636 attendees, with representation from 49 of the African Union’s 55 Member States (89%), including 875 Zimbabwean and 761 non-Zimbabwean attendees.
Of the attendees, 1,469 participated in person and 167 virtually; 603 were youth and students. The Skills Development Marketplace and Exhibition featured more than 53 exhibitors, including 10 international exhibitors, connecting skills, enterprises and innovation.
The Zimbabwe government said building on the editions in Ghana and Ethiopia, they affirm Africa Skills Week as a recurring platform for national and regional implementation. Africa’s demographic dynamism, industrial ambitions and digital and green transitions require relevant, inclusive and agile skills systems.
They said training must connect to productive investment, technology, strong institutions, finance and markets to deliver decent work, enterprise, productivity and resilience.
They added that guided by Agenda 2063 and its Second Ten-Year Implementation Plan, the Continental Education Strategy for Africa (CESA) 2026–2035, the Continental TVET Strategy 2025–2034 and the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), we call for a decisive shift from declarations to delivery, from certification alone to demonstrated competence, and from training alone to sustainable livelihoods and African value creation.
The Zimbabwe government has called on all actors in Africa’s skills ecosystem to advance some of these priorities, aligning skills with Africa’s economic and industrial transformation.
Adopting a whole-of-government approach linking education, employment, industrial and trade policy with finance, innovation, climate action and social protection.
Aligning CESA and the Continental TVET Strategy through country-led priorities that build on national systems and respond to different implementation capacities. Aligning skills investment with productive investment and local and regional value chains, including agro-processing, automotive manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, critical minerals and beneficiation, transport and logistics, renewable energy and digital trade. Strengthen enabling legislation, institutional coordination and social dialogue so that skills support local production, value addition and competitiveness rather than the continued export of unprocessed resources.
Putting industry, employers and quality work-based learning at the core by making employers co-designers, co-deliverers and co-investors in skills development, alongside government, training institutions and workers’ organisations.
Expand quality apprenticeships, internships and dual training through sector partnerships and work-based learning compacts with clear commitments to workplace learning, co-investment and pathways into decent work. Involve industry in occupational standards, competency-based curricula and assessment, and enable small enterprises and master craftspersons to participate. Ensure competent supervision, occupational safety, fair treatment and learner protection, so that work-based learning develops capability and does not substitute for regular employment or expose learners to exploitation.
Preparing Africans for AI, digital, green and human-centred futures by integrating digital, artificial-intelligence, green, entrepreneurial and transferable human skills across TVET and higher technical education.
Support lifelong learning and flexible pathways for upskilling and reskilling as technologies and industries change. Invest in teachers, trainers, institutional leaders and workplace mentors, including continuing exposure to industry practice.
Modernise learning environments and equipment while addressing connectivity and access barriers. Technology should expand productivity and opportunity through a just and inclusive
transition, preserving the judgement, creativity, collaboration and adaptability essential to resilient economies.
Making skills systems evidence-based and responsive by strengthening labour-market information, skills anticipation, value-chain analysis and graduate outcomes tracking, and use this intelligence to guide policy, curricula, financing and investment. Empower industry-led sector skills bodies, with social-partner participation, to connect skills demand, training quality and enterprise development.
Link skills planning to existing and emerging employment and market opportunities, including in informal and rural economies.
Measure success through employment, earnings, enterprise sustainability and productivity, not enrolment and certificates alone, and use disaggregated evidence to identify who benefits and who remains excluded.
The Zimbabwe goernmemt has called for the advancement of Pact for Skills Africa as an African-led continental framework connecting productive investment, skills development, workforce anticipation and skills intelligence.
They said through Skills Alliances linking governments, industry, universities, TVET institutions, workers and financial institutions, the Pact should strengthen capabilities for AfCFTA value chains and cross-border economic participation, building on existing institutions without duplicating their mandates.
They added that its development should be supported by feasibility work and sustainable financing, and advanced through relevant African Union processes, including the relevant Specialised Technical Committee, for consideration and endorsement.
Making skills visible, portable and valued wherever they are acquired by strengthening trusted qualifications, quality assurance and recognition of prior learning so that formal, non-formal, informal and workplace learning open pathways to further education, decent work and enterprise.
Advance the referencing of national qualifications frameworks to the African Continental Qualifications Framework (ACQF), and implementation of the Addis Ababa Convention within its higher education remit. Promote comparable occupational standards, mutual recognition and interoperable, verifiable digital credentials while respecting national mandates. Connectrecognition with wider mobility arrangements so that artisans, graduates, experiencedworkers, migrants and refugees can use their skills across institutions,sectors and borders.Making inclusion a core measure of skills-system performance by embedding inclusion in mainstream skills policy, delivery, financing and accountability.
Ensure equitable opportunities for young women and men, persons with disabilities, rural and underserved communities, informal workers, migrants, refugees and learners outside traditional pathways.
Remove financial, geographic, social, administrative and accessibility barriers through flexible, community-based and accessible provision. Inclusion must be experienced in learning, workplace participation and transitions into sustainable livelihoods, not merely reflected in programme design. Give young people and excluded groups a meaningful role in shaping priorities and assessing results, and expand access to higher-value technical and emerging occupations.
Financing skills sustainably and invest in strong institutions by mobilising predictable, diversified and accountable financing through public investment, training funds, employer contributions, partnerships and appropriate development finance.
Where suitable, use transparent levy-grant and cost-sharing mechanisms that enable smaller enterprises toparticipate. Align resources with quality, inclusion and outcomes across the full pathway from learning to livelihoods, including workplace learning and post-training transitions.
Strengthen institutional leadership, trainers, infrastructure, equipment and quality systems, and promote shared resources and collaboration among TVET institutions, universities, research bodies and industry.
Sustain the knowledge, networks and cooperation developed throughcontinental skills initiatives beyond individual programme cycles.
Enabling youth, enterprise and local value creation by equipping young Africans to secure decent work and create viable enterprises, technologies, products and jobs. Connect skills with tools, finance, mentorship, business development services, buyers and local and regional markets.
Support institutions as platforms for applied research, innovation, production and community enterprise, drawing on African resources and indigenous knowledge and protecting innovators’ interests.
Learn fromAfrican-led models, including Zimbabwe’s Heritage-Based Education 5.0, while adapting approaches to national contexts. Strengthen skills hubs and university–TVET–industry partnerships that turn ideas into marketable solutions.