Project Name：Vocational Training Project (Swaziland)

Project status：Completed projects

Cooperating Country：Africa, Kingdom of Eswatini

Project Description：In responding to low rates of employment and limited economic growth, the government of Swaziland requested assistance from Taiwan in pursuing vocational training at the Joint Ministerial Conference between Swaziland and Taiwan, based on the country’s national development and industrial needs. The plan would be to provide Swazi students with the relevant skills and thereby increase the labor force in line with market needs.


An appraisal of various training centers throughout Swaziland indicated that training categories are duplicated, and that resources are spread thinly and have not been integrated. Furthermore, the quality of teaching and the results of vocational training in Swaziland have failed to meet market demands. Training institutes have little control over teaching quality and effectiveness, and lack training records, evaluation data and teaching equipment.

As part of this Vocational Training Project the TaiwanICDF will dispatch consultants to Swaziland’s National Handicraft Training Center (NHTC), providing training courses in four subjects – sewing, mechanics, plumbing and electrical work, and computing – and training seed trainers and technicians. This will raise the quality of the country’s labor force, supplying the qualified labor needed to meet the development of industry and commerce, as well as provide Swazi students with the relevant skills and thereby increase the labor force in line with market needs. The project will also nurture basic human resources at a local level by providing community-based education and training.

Project No：TCD-2010-A03

Implementation Start Date：2011-01-01

Implementation End Date：2015-12-31

Project Objectives：The objectives of this project are:

1. Sewing: Train 25 seed teachers; hold an Intermediate Sewing Course for 90 people; hold a furnishing processing class for 60 women; train 60 teacher trainers at district offices; hold short-term vocational training courses for industrial sewing cooperatives and assist 225 unemployed youths to find employment; hold outreach programs to train 400 people.
2. Metalwork: Train 30 seed teachers and 50 basic formal trainees; hold outreach program training courses for 400 people; provide guidance to 50 trainees to sit for the Class C metal processing examination.
3. Electrical services and plumbing: Train 15 seed teachers and 50 basic formal trainees; train 15 seed teachers for the outreach program and 450 trainees; provide guidance to 550 people to sit for examinations.
4. Computing: Manage an advanced training center; establish and manage an information systems testing center, government ICT training centers and eight Digital Opportunity Centers; provide guidance to nine managers to manage DOCs and government ICT training centers; train three project assistants, 100 basic trainees, 50 advanced trainees and 15 seed teachers; hold 400 ICT workshops and a short-term computer class for government staff; train about 8,000 adult and children from the general population; train approximately 800 people in various communities using a 40-module, computer-based curriculum.

Executing Agency：

1. Embassy of the Republic of China (Taiwan) in the Kingdom of Swaziland
2. International Cooperation and Development Fund (TaiwanICDF)
3. Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Trade (Kingdom of Swaziland)
4. National Handicraft Training Center (Kingdom of Swaziland)

Current Progress：

To the end of June 2015, the following activities have been completed:

Graduates employment rate reached 5% in 2011.
Graduates employment rate reached 15% in 2012.
Graduates employment rate reached 25% in 2013.

Graduates employment rate reached 52% in 2015.

In 2015

1. Sewing: Completed 100 students training. Hand over to Swaziland in March 2015.
2. Metalwork:  Hand over to Swaziland in March 2014.
3. Electrical services and plumbing: Completed 165 students training. Hand over to Swziland in June 2015.
4. Computing: Completed 125 students training of outreach classes. Completed 979 participants of ICT workshops. Hand over to Swaziland in June 2015.

Projected Benefits：To date, technicians have been trained in various industries through courses offered at the NHTC or through the Skills Development Outreach Programme. This has improved productivity and employment in Swaziland. The project team will now identify outstanding graduates and provide further training so that these graduates can become seed teachers, which would represent an important means of transferring skills to a wider number of Swazi citizens.