Government launches national qualifications framework

Zimbabwe has started implementing a new national qualifications framework which the government says will increase the accessibility, efficiency and relevance of its higher education sector within and outside the country.

Authorities say the implementation of the Zimbabwe National Qualifications Framework (ZNQF) ensures quality in education and training, enhances national and international mobility of graduates and workers through increased recognition of the value and comparability of Zimbabwean qualifications, provides a model for transparency in comparison of qualifications, and increases coherence between education output and the needs of the labour market.

The framework is cognisant of the fact that Zimbabwe is part of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Qualifications Verification Network launched in 2017 and the SADC Qualifications Framework.

The Zimbabwean framework is coordinated through the National Alignment Committee and provides guidelines by which records of learners’ achievements are registered to enable national recognition of acquired knowledge, skills and competence, thereby ensuring an integrated system that encourages lifelong learning and facilitates prior recognition of learning.

It gives 10 levels of qualifications ranging from basic to tertiary and higher education, providing relevant levels of descriptors – knowledge, skills, competencies and attitudes for each respective ZNQF level.

It also creates a harmonised credit accumulation and transfer system.

“The Zimbabwe National Qualifications Framework enables the development of standardised qualifications through the establishment of minimum bodies of knowledge thus enhancing transparency to institutions, learners and employers. Through this framework, labour market needs will be better matched with the output of the education system,” reads part of the framework document.

The framework allows for the development, review, standardisation and assessment of existing and new qualifications to link and synchronise the various educational levels to allow for the transfer of credits and free movement of learners between various institutions inside and outside the country.

In a statement accompanying the ZNQF document, higher and tertiary education, science and technology secretary Dr Desire Sibanda said the framework ensures that the path to acquire higher qualifications will become more streamlined and predictable, making planning by learners easier. He also said industry and commerce can now know what to expect from graduates and their qualifications.

Launching the framework last month, President Emmerson Mnangagwa said the exercise will undoubtedly enhance precision in the human capital development planning process and serve as a guiding tool in the country’s industrialisation and modernisation agenda.

“As a result, students will be able to transfer from one institution to the other. Prior learning and experience will now be recognised before acceptance into institutions of higher learning.”