I am pleased to once again welcome you to our 22nd graduation were we are graduating a record 542 youth by this institution’s standards disaggregated as 351 males and 192 females in various courses which include commercial agriculture, hospitality studies, clothing technology, motor mechanics, auto electrics, welding, building and carpentry and joinery.

Let me hasten to say that Magamba is transforming herself into a modern institution in line with the Government’s move to adopt the effective Education 5.0 in place of the ineffective Education 3.0.  The latter model is a colonial education structure that is being replaced with the new model that promotes industrialisation and modernisation in addition to teaching, research and outreach, in conformity with the Government’s thrust for Vision 2030. The thrust of Education 5.0, which we are now enthusiastically pursuing, is to focus on the production of goods and services as opposed to Education 3.0 which was inherited from a colonial system structured to produce a pool of labourers to service the settler economy.

This year’s theme

The above thrust is in sync with our theme which is, “Skills Development for Accelerated Transitional Stabilisation Programme”. Magamba Training Centre has realised that its skills development thrust will accelerate the achievement of the objectives of the Government’s Transitional Stabilisation Programme, i.e setting the economy on a recovery path after years of stagnation and recession towards attaining a middle income economy by 2030. Skills development, especially with the thrust of employment creation, is key in making sure that objective comes to fruition and the country’s macro-economic fundamentals are put in place and the country is in the right trajectory to achieving the developmental vision.

College helps to rebuild

Chimanimani

The devastation of Chimanimani by Cyclone Idai this year, resulted in immediate response from intra-national and international humanitarian aid through food and other material provisions to the traumatised survivors. After providing the immediate basic needs to the affected community, the time is now ripe to start the re-building of the once flourishing community.

It is against this background that Magamba Training Centre, being a community- based training organisation and keen to partake in the re-building of Chimanimani, partnered with World Vision in offering a building short course to 200 youth. The youth who were drawn from Wards 9, 13, 14 and 17 of Chimanimani were trained between August and September 2019. The youth who are part of our graduands today and whose gender distribution is 168 males (84 percent) and 32 females (16 percent), were given a building start up kit each to go and start building activities in the  district.

Partnerships, the way to go

To achieve the above, Magamba Training Centre has partnered with various organisations such as the British American Tobacco Zimbabwe Tobacco Empowerment Trust (BATZTET), World Vision, Youth Alive, FHI 360, Foundations for Farming and RUFORUM, FACT, to name but just a few, in a three- pronged training approach ie conventional training, short courses and skills outreach programmes.

The latter approach is where the college carries out training in situ. This approach is for those youth who are unable to come to the college for training. This approach was used to train girls and young mothers in bakery and food preparation and garment construction in the Chimbike area of Makoni District. A total of 23  girls and young mothers were trained in the above mentioned courses in partnership with FHI 360.

In a bid to contribute towards the generation of the much needed foreign currency for the country and help in the attainment of middle income economy at household level, Magamba has partnered with BATZTET through training both new and practicing tobacco farmers.

The tobacco courses are at certificate, diploma and a modularised Farmer Development Programme which seeks to improve productivity in the tobacco industry. The latter course is done in partnership with the Tobacco Research Board, Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board and the British American Tobacco Zimbabwe Tobacco Empowerment Trust.

Having taken cognisance of the glaring and apparent effects of global warming, the college has partnered with Foundations for Farming under COMESA initiatives in conservation agriculture better known internationally as climate smart agriculture. This makes use of indigenous technical knowledge systems such as minimum soil disturbance, natural remedies for crop diseases and pests and maximum soil cover for moisture conservation envisaged by Education 5.0.

Magamba Training Centre has also partnered the Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM) in the area of research in tied contours and rainwater harvesting techniques (TC-RWH) in Buhera South. In addition, the partnership also has a scholarship package where 20 students are funded annually.