HRDC ENGAGES SELIBE PHIKWE, LOBATSE TOWN COUNCILS AND SOUTHERN DISTRICT COUNCIL

As part of the Human Resource Development Council’s (HRDC) stakeholder engagement campaigns, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of HRDC, Dr Raphael Dingalo addressed different Councils across Botswana.

On the 19th September 2017, Dr Dingalo addressed Lobatse Town Council, informing them about all the strategic initiatives undertaken by HRDC in effort to coordinate and promote the implementation of the National Human Resource Development Strategy (NHRDS).

In his address, Dr Dingalo informed the Councillors that, in implementing the NHRDS, HRDC has since embarked on developing the National and Sector Human Resource Development (HRD) Plans which seek to address the misalignment between supply of graduates and the demand for skills in the labour market.  “HRDC believes that through a truly demand driven system of skills development, challenges of unemployment caused by the mismatch of skills in the labour market will be addressed” emphasised Dr Dingalo.

To date, HRDC has established 12 sector HRD Committees whose one of their responsibilities among many others is to; advice HRDC on emerging economic trends and relevant education, training and skills needs of the sectors. The CEO also informed the Councillors about one of the key functions of the HRDC which is funding. Through this function, HRDC is responsible for managing three Funds, namely; the Human Resource Development Fund (HRDF), Public Tertiary Education Institutions Fund (PTEIF) and Tertiary Education Student Sponsorship Fund (TESSF). HRDC oversees these Funds in order to ensure an effective, efficient and sustainable financing and foster the development of the necessary competent human resource to transit Botswana from resource - based to knowledge - based economy. Dr Dingalo explained that, the Human Resource Development Fund (HRDF) is a Training Fund that has been established for skills development in the country.  It is operated through a Levy Grant System in which companies pay a training levy into the Fund.  The Levy Payers (employers) train their citizen employees and are reimbursed for costs they incurred for training.

Dr Dingalo stated that in a quest to find sustainable ways of funding of tertiary education in Botswana, the Ministry of Tertiary Education, Research Science and Technology (MoTE) in collaboration with HRDC hosted the first Tertiary Education Pitso in October 2016.  “Since funds for education are not enough, this workshop was hosted to discuss ideas of funding Tertiary Education in Botswana” said Dr Dingalo. 

Dr Dingalo extensively explained the different functions under the mandate of HRDC such as Institutional Planning, Work - Place Learning, Student Planning, Welfare and Academic Services as well Statistics, Research, Development and Innovation. The Council briefings were very successful as honourable Councillors appreciated the HRDC functions and engaged the CEO on matters they deemed necessary for improvement by HRDC. 

 

News Date: 
Friday, December 1, 2017