The Honourable Minister, Professor Paul Mavima, this Monday officially opened the Ministry of Skills Audit and Development’s Strategic Planning Workshop at the Kadoma Hotel and Conferencing Centre, emphasising the ministry’s critical role in advancing Zimbabwe’s workforce for Vision 2030.
Professor Mavima complemented these insights by underscoring the importance of a progressive organisational culture, coordination, teamwork and internal coherence.
He urged staff to demonstrate excellence in the deployment of skills and called for better programme formulation and execution to maximise the national impact of our own contribution.
“We are not here merely to hold a meeting; we are here to forge the future. We are here to carve out the blueprints that will transform a national aspiration – Vision 2030 – into a living reality for every citizen.
“We live in a world defined by relentless, disruptive change. Global commodity prices fluctuate, geopolitical tensions shift, and technological progress accelerates at a dizzying pace. In this unpredictable landscape, our nation’s most reliable, most valuable and most enduring resource is not a mineral deposit or a vast tract of land. It is the ingenuity, the capability and the skill of our people.
“Our President has laid out an unambiguous national goal: achieving an upper-middle-income society by 2030. This is not rhetoric; it is a promise of dignity, of opportunity, and of self-determination for our entire population. But this promise will be delivered by a highly skilled, agile and future-ready workforce,” he said.
The Minister stressed the vital “connection between our programmes and the contracts of the Permanent Secretary and Honourable Minister,” highlighting accountability and alignment at all levels.
Addressing the ministry staff, Permanent Secretary, Ambassador Rudo Chitiga posed reflective questions: “What did we manage to do? What could have done better? What is it that we should now do?” She stressed that staff needed to work on their planning abilities and underscored the ministry’s focus on three thematic areas aligned with the National Development Strategy 2 (NDS2).
She stated clearly that ‘skills’ must ordinarily be in all the thematic areas of the NDS2 and affirmed, “we are an influencer as a ministry.”
Highlighting the shift in development focus, she described the moment as the end of the SDG era, explaining that the plan accelerates the implementation of the SDGs. Discussing Zimbabwe’s economic vision, she declared that an upper middle income is intentional in all it does; it plans, anticipates, strategises, coercive.
She pointed to essential competencies, saying, “it requires soft skills, life skills, strategic planning skills,” and defined the ministry’s pivotal role: “we are supposed to create and facilitate the upskilling of the whole system.” Ambassador Chitiga also emphasized the plan’s governance role in providing the framework for the performance of the ministry.
Her call to action was firm: “Be careful where you excel; excel in the strategic plan. Look in the strategic plan every week, if it is your output!” and reminded the team to adhere strictly to their mandate, advising resilience: “do not despair. Work as if you have everything you need.”
This workshop follows initial sessions characterized by candid reflection and ambitious vision-setting. The ministry’s shared vision is “a highly skilled and globally competitive nation that drives innovation and productivity to achieve inclusive and multi-generational economic prosperity and social progress.”
The current phase focuses on translating this vision into binding commitments to achieve Zimbabwe’s upper middle-income goal by 2030.