Partnership set to bolster agricultural education

Two non-governmental organisations, Development Aid from People to People (DAPP) Namibia and Humana Spain, are set to implement a collaborative project involving several international partners, that will introduce two new vocational management qualifications to better equip youth in Namibia’s agricultural sector.

This will be done under the auspices of the Strengthening Agricultural Sector through Agricultural Technical and Vocational Education and Training (SAS.ATVET) project which was launched on 19 March in Windhoek, according to a DAPP Namibia media release.

The qualifications will be offered by various Agricultural Technical and Vocational Education and Training providers. A National Vocational Certificate in Agriculture and a National Diploma in Farm Management are expected to provide skills to the youth to contribute to the agricultural sector in Namibia and the country’s sustainable socio-economic development.

Multi-stakeholder partnership

The SAS.ATVET project, which is co-funded by Erasmus+, a European Union (EU) programme that supports education, training and sport, has many stakeholders.

It is being implemented in partnership with the Deutsches Institut für Tropische und Subtropische Landwirtschaft, the German Institute for Tropical and Subtropical Agriculture and Transdisciplinary and Social-ecological Land-use Research, or DITSL; Nevsehir Haci Bektas Veli University, or NEVU, a Turkish higher education institution; the Namibia University of Science and Technology, or NUST; and the Namibian Employers’ Federation.

Other organisations will be involved with the project at various levels: agricultural training providers will offer courses being introduced by the project as part of their curricula and the Namibia Training Authority will collaborate with the project’s consortium partners to also facilitate the project implementation, says DAPP Namibia’s news release.

Pedagogical exchange

Beyond equipping young people in Namibia with agricultural skills, the project also seeks to facilitate exchange of learning methods between Namibia and Europe. This is according to the ambassador of the EU to Namibia, Ana Beatriz Martins. “Education and training represent critical building blocks of human development and [are] key ingredients to achieve EU global priorities,” she is quoted as having said at the programme’s launch.

She added: “With the Erasmus+ SAS.ATVET programme, we are not only strengthening capacity building in VET [Vocational Education and Training] in Namibia but also nurturing the Africa-EU partnership by facilitating the exchange of pedagogical approaches, teaching methodologies and training materials, fostering a rich cross-cultural dialogue and collaboration.”

In turn, DAPP Namibia said the SAS.ATVET project is going to align agricultural training in Namibia with Namibia’s National Development Plans and strategies, which focus on expanding agricultural production to enhance the wealth of Namibians and ensure food security for all.

“The project will meet Erasmus+ programme objectives of fostering links between the European education area and the rest of the world, thus contributing to Africa-EU partnership priorities and benefiting not only Namibia but also other African countries,” the organisation said.

DAPP Namibia, one of the organisations involved in the implementation of the SAS.ATVET project, has been working on similar projects for more than 30 years, according the organisation’s managing director, Kirsten Moeller-Jensen.

She said at the launch that the SAS.ATVET project came at the right time to start building the capacity of VET providers, addressing the pressing need for skilled workforce in agriculture, and laying the foundation for sustainable growth in the country.