The program to strengthen vocational education in Tanzania kicks off: Italy at the forefront to create employment opportunities for young people

Dar es Salaam, 15th June 2022 – This afternoon the Italian government and the Tanzanian government signed the agreements that officially kick off an important program worth around 20 million euros disbursed through a soft loan that will promote the creation of new employment opportunities for young people through the strengthening of technical and vocational education in Tanzania. The agreements were signed by the Ambassador of Italy in Tanzania, Marco Lombardi, and the Principal Secretary of the Ministry of Finance and Planning of Tanzania, Emmanuel M. Tutuba, at the presence of the representative of the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation (AICS) in Tanzania, Paolo Razzini, and a delegation from the Italian Cassa Depositi e Prestiti (CDP) composed by Dr. Antonella Baldino and Dr. Lisbi Carina Valdez, who flew to the country to sign the financial agreement. The agreements see the Embassy of Italy in Tanzania, CDP, the Ministry of Finance and Planning of Tanzania and AICS put their efforts together to strengthen different technological institutes through the creation of new training courses that can enhance employment opportunities for young people, while strengthening the technological innovation.
The Italian Cooperation in Tanzania has intervened in the past with a grant program concluded in 2014 aiming at improving the quality of teaching and learning in scientific and technological education, with a special attention to promoting women access to this type of education. This new initiative stems from the success of the previous one and means to significantly contrast the phenomenon of youth unemployment. Planned activities include the creation of four Centres for Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Technology Transfer (CEITT), which will include start-ups incubators and laboratories for innovation; the creation of new training programs at the Dar Es Salaam Institute of Technology (DIT) in the fields of energy, civil engineering, tourism and agriculture; the creation of a centre of excellence in leather processing technologies; the creation of new curricula in technologies for renewable energies and for environmental protection and conservation.
The initiative intervenes in sectors of excellence for Italy, as it covers areas in which the Italian System has developed a high-level expertise representing an added value within the creation of strategic partnerships between the two countries (professional training, artistic-cultural heritage preservation, technologies for renewable energies, conservation techniques of agricultural products).
Project background info:
The initiative “Strengthening technical and professional education in Tanzania to contribute to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals” is financed by the Italian government in Tanzania and aims to reduce youth unemployment, while promoting the entrepreneurial skills of young people as well as enhancing the development of a third generation of academic institutions promoting innovation.
The initiative is worth 19,790,400 Euros disbursed as a soft loan and includes a grant component managed by the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation (AICS) in Nairobi to provide technical assistance as support with the monitoring and visibility activities through the Program Management Unit (PMU) based in Das es Salaam.
Target institutions are the Dar Es Salaam Institute of Technology (DIT), Mbeya University of Science and Technology (MUST), Arusha Technical College (ATC) and Karume Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) of Zanzibar.
Direct beneficiaries include young people between 15 and 25 years old in the vocational training system, who will obtain an enhanced training offer and improved job orientation; entrepreneurs and young innovators who will benefit from the new dedicated services; the teaching staff of the higher institutes of technology, who will benefit from skills development activities.