In March of this year, GAN launched the SkillingNow global campaign to open up the discussion on skills, and how and when to acquire them, by providing a platform for an interactive, global dialogue, engaging people from diverse sectors and backgrounds in an exchange about building the skills we need for a future of good work through work-based learning.
Through the SkillingNow campaign, GAN hopes to:
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Spark and facilitate an interactive global discussion on key questions and challenges as well as showcase promising and tested approaches to skilling through work-based learning;
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Raise awareness about work-based learning as a viable way to connect people and businesses through skills for a future of good work;
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Generate recognition that government, businesses and individuals all have an essential proactive role to play in building the skills we need to thrive in a future of good work.
Collaboration being at the core of SkillingNow, GAN has partnered with The Launch Pad Tanzania to take the campaign to Tanzania. The Launch Pad is a not for profit organisation that specialises in human capital development with a focus on skills development as a means to tackle the youth unemployment endemic in Tanzania and surrounding regions. The organisation articulates its vision through its #FOWSS mantra which stands for Future of Work Secured in Skills.
The Launch Pad Tanzania believes that through careful identification of skills gaps for targeted groups, they can develop innovative approaches to fill those gaps and increase the chances for employment and self-employment. Its approach to this mission is through a 3-tier triangulated framework which forms the basis of all their engagements: Skills Development and Lifelong Learning underpinned by Equitable Inclusion to ensure marginalised groups (youth, women and those living with disability) are catered for. The Launch Pad Tanzania offers comprehensive and bespoke training programmes in 21st Century Skills based on needs analysis. They also offer work related learning opportunities (apprenticeships and internships) through their network of partners and coaching and mentoring for both formal and informal job sectors.
In Tanzania, every year, approximately 700,000 youth with different qualification levels are considered labour market ready but only 10% of these youth are successful in securing employment. Research shows this is largely due to lack of competency in the employability skills which is a direct result of an education system that inadequately prepares the youth for the demands of 21st century labour market platform which has skills as an essential prerequisite. The partnership between The Launch Pad Tanzania and GAN will seek to share good practice and innovative strategies from a global perspective in the context of youth employability, especially in areas related to education and skills development through work-based learning in the countries where both organizations are active.
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