ADF provides US $21.8 million for vocational education

The African Development Fund will lend Tanzania US $19.6 million and grant it an additional $2.2 million for a project in support of the country's "Strategic Action Plan for Vocational Education and Training", the African Development Bank Group announced on Monday. Speaking at a ceremony to mark the occasion at the bank's headquarters in Tunis, Theodore Nkodo, the bank’s vice-president in charge of the north, east and south operations region and the private sector, said the loan and grant approvals were aimed at supporting Tanzania to promote growth and reduce poverty through "human capital improvement". He said: "In line with this thrust, this project will support demand-driven vocational education and training, aimed at creating employment and self-employment opportunities for school leavers and with a special emphasis on attracting women trainees." The project is designed to contribute to the availability and improved regional distribution of vocational and technical training facilities for primary and secondary school leavers, the bank reported. It added that the main objectives of the project were to increase access to better-equipped vocational education and training institutions, and to upgrade the quality and improve the management and delivery of vocational education and training programmes for the formal and informal sectors of the economy. More concretely, the bank said that the funds would provide some 32 new workshops and extensions with an area of 6,400 m2; 12 classrooms with an area of 2,200 m2; 10 boys' and girls' dormitories with an area of 2,200 m2; five libraries and resource centres with a total area of 2,100 m2; and 30 units of staff accommodation with an area of 3,000 m2.