Earlier this week the Skills Initiative for Africa (SIFA) was launched in Pretoria by the German Ambassador to South Africa, Martin Schafer. The aim of the project is to support the development of practical and employment-oriented skills for youth, women and vulnerable groups.

According to The Citizen, the project was in collaboration with the African Union, the Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) of Germany.

“Africa has a great potential of young workers, and South Africa, where I am representing the Federal Republic of Germany, shows that everyday. South Africa is able to produce world-class products that are able to compete with the best of the best on the world market,” said Schafer.

While addressing the delegates Schafer states that the private sector should play a leading role in ensuring that higher education graduates are fully equipped with the requisite skills to match the demands of the workplace.

“Millions of young people leave higher education institutions without the proper skills required in the workplace. That is the problem we are tackling with this project we are launching. For decades in Germany, we don’t have youth unemployment because the people who come from school are being taken up by the dual education system to get the education that the economy needs,” added Schafer.

The publication further adds that there are currently eight other African countries who are part of the SIFA project, including Cameroon, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Togo and Tunisia.

[Source – The Citizen]
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