UMGUZA Vocational Training Centre (VTC) in Matabeleland North province has appealed to the government for more land to accommodate its growing training needs and agricultural projects.
The call was made by the centre’s acting principal Sarudzai Nyoni during a tour organised by the Parliament Portfolio Committee on Youth, Empowerment, Development and Vocational Training on Thursday.
“Our institution occupies 16 hectares of land which is small for the commencement of our project and it has limited us from practising animal husbandry,” she said.
“We appeal for allocation of more land so that we can be able to keep a big number of cattle so that we can be able to sustain our institution.”
Nyoni said due to the limited space, they have reduced their livestock production capacity hence affecting the institution’s revenue generation.
“When this institution was commenced we received an offer letter from government that we would be occupying 60 hectares of land but at the moment we are occupying 16 ha,” she said.
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“We engaged our Provincial Affairs minister and the Ministry of Local Government last year, but we are yet to have a response on any development considering allocation of land.”
Nyoni also bemoaned the massive shortage of qualified trainers at the institution.
“At the moment, we are facing a big challenge as government has been failing to offer assistance and we had to self-sustain our institution with the fees paid by our students,” she added.
“We have a limited number of students. The total number at the moment is 50, which proves that it is hard to improve our institution.”
Youth ministry deputy director Joseph Makore said youths in Matabeleland North province are facing a huge challenge as all seven districts rely on a single VTC.
“We have about 3 000 youths in Matabeleland North and it is a big challenge,” he said.
“We have one vocational training centre which has low quality infrastructure and this shows that all the youths in the province are being disadvantage as this proves they are unable to attain the necessary need skills for the development of the province.”
Youth Empowerment, Development and Vocational Training Parliamentary Portfolio Committee chairperson Mutsawashe Ziyambi said their mission to tour the institution was aimed at having an insight into the challenges faced by the institutions.
“As we have visited the institution, we are going to recommend to the government to increase the funds for vocational training centres so that the youths have better lives,” he said.
“We have visited many vocational training institutions nationwide and the big challenge which most of them face is lack of modern machines.”
Ziyambi said they were going to implore the government to invest more in the vocational training institution so that most youths can attain skills to better their lives which would lead to the development of the nation at large.
