Building TVET capacity and student skills to support Climate-Smart Agriculture in Tanzania

Climate change presents significant challenges to agricultural development, particularly in Tanzania and other African nations. It disproportionately affects smallholder farmers, who often have limited resources to adapt and build resilience.

To contribute to mitigating the effects of climate change on farmers and enhance the overall sustainability of the agricultural sector in Tanzania, Maastricht School of Management (MSM) - Maastricht University (UM), in collaboration with Tanzanian partners—the National Council for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (NACTVET), Kilimanjaro Agricultural Training Centre (KATC), MATI Mlingano (Ministry of Agriculture Training Institute), Kilacha Agricultural & Livestock Training Centre (KALTC), Mt Maria Goretti Agriculture Training Institute (MGATI), and Profyta/GVA (a private sector partner guiding labour market improvements)—and in partnership with the American Farm School in Greece, developed the project: “Building Inclusive Centres of Vocational Excellence for Skills & Employment Development in the Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) Sector.”

This project aims to support the adoption of climate-smart agriculture practises in Tanzania by equipping agricultural Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) colleges with the necessary capacities and industry linkages to build a new generation of climate-smart agriculture-skilled graduates. The project has been awarded Erasmus+ funding for Capacity Building in Vocational Education from the European Union (EU) and is coordinated by MSM- UM and NACTVET, the main partner in Tanzania.

Objectives and impact
The project seeks to establish local hubs where VETs play a central role in facilitating “private-public networks for employability”. These hubs will help farmers create CSA business and innovation ecosystem platforms. This approach is crucial for inclusive development and agricultural transition to include CSA practices in the rural areas where the VETs operate.

With support from the project partners, VETs will collaborate with horticulture farmers and stakeholders to co-design CSA short courses and continuously update curricula. This enables VETs to better interact with farmers and CSA stakeholders, who in turn support the Vets in improving their education offering. Through the project and this practical, local-based approach, VETs will gain the capacity to become key players in achieving a transition to CSA agriculture among farmers in their region.

Capacity building
The project includes a series of capacity-building training sessions for VET staff to achieve this. Key in this are trainings to support them to work closely with private sector partners (the future employers of graduates) and other stakeholders. A second set of training programmes will focus on climate- and water-smart horticulture production techniques, equipping VET instructors with specialised skills in CSA agriculture.

A scalable, national model
The bottom-up approach taken by the four VETs across different regions of Tanzania aims to establish them as local hubs for innovation. This model can be scaled up and replicated in other regions throughout and after the project. With NACTVET as the main Tanzanian authority for vocational education, the project has the potential to multiply its impact across the country’s education.

Over the course of three years, project partners, under the coordination of MSM-UM, will work together in close collaboration to achieve these goals.

This publication was produced with the financial support of the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.

MSM's Expert Centre on Emerging Economies

This project is part of MSM's Expert Centre on Emerging Economies. The department is an expert centre on sustainable private sector development in emerging and developing markets.​ We capacitate managers and professionals from government, private sector, NGOs, and post-secondary education in Africa, Asia, Middle East, and Latin America. We offer consultancy and customized training programs, and we manage complex projects in key sectors, e.g. water, agriculture and health. For more information click here.

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