The forum was convened under the Skills for Employment Tanzania (SET) project, funded by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) through the Embassy of Switzerland in Tanzania. In her opening speech Sabine Renggli, Swisscontact Country Director and SET Project Lead, highlighted the programme’s impact:
“Since 2022, together with our partners, we have reached more than 10,900 young people in Morogoro and Iringa regions with short vocational skills trainings, many of them young women and single mothers. What matters most is what happens afterwards: Seven out of ten young people transition into (self-) employment.”
Strong Government Commitment to Youth Employment
A highlight of the event was the strong commitment toward youth economic empowerment demonstrated by Morogoro Regional Commissioner Hon. Adam Kighoma Malima:
“Strengthening entrepreneurship among young people plays a critical role in tackling unemployment and accelerating economic development in the region. Through the Morogoro councils, we have established a registration programme to ensure that youth businesses are properly registered and officially recognised”
His commitment points to an important shift: enabling youth not only to start businesses, but to support them in formalising and growing these businesses within a supportive and inclusive ecosystem
Also, the Govenrment of Switzerland signaled its commitment to creating an enabling environment where young entrepreneurs can thrive.
In her remarks, H.E. Nicole Providoli, Ambassador of Switzerland to Tanzania, underscored Switzerland’s contribution to vocational skills development and emphasized three strategic priorities:
1. strengthening private-sector partnerships,
2. supporting pathways from skills to income,
3. and ensuring that the inclusion of vulnerable groups remains at the centre of all interventions
Youth Voices at the Heart of the Forum
The forum deliberately created space for young people to share their journeys—bringing reality into policy discussions.
Winnfrida Mloka, a young entrepreneur from Morogoro, shared her journey with the SET project:
Her experience reflects a broader lesson from the SET project: when practical technical training is combined with entrepreneurship skills, mentoring, and market linkages, it can translate into tangible economic outcomes.
Key Themes Shaping the Future of Skills Development
The event also allowed space for exchange among the audience. Participants worked in groups to address three critical areas of vocational skills systems: climate change, gender equality and social inclusion, and youth entrepreneurship:
Climate Change and Green Skills: Unlocking Opportunities for a Sustainable Economy
Discussions on climate change emphasized the need to position green skills development as both an environmental and economic opportunity. Participants highlighted the importance of creating demand for green products and services by showcasing successful business models, raising awareness about profitability, and promoting value addition for green products. Eco-labelling was also identified as tools to enhance consumer trust and market access.
There was strong consensus on the need to greening the vocational skills development system by integrating renewable energy solutions, climate-smart agriculture practices, and circular economy approaches such as recycling into vocational skills programmes. Participants stressed that the vocational skills development system must evolve to equip learners with competencies relevant to low-carbon and resource-efficient economies.
To accelerate this transition, stakeholders pointed to the need for enabling conditions for private sector engagement, including financial incentives, supportive policies, technical capacity development, and infrastructure investments. Public procurement and prioritization of green products were also highlighted as important drivers for market transformation.
Youth Entrepreneurship and Access to Finance: Bridging the Gap from Skills to Opportunity
A key takeaway from the forum was that technical skills training alone is not sufficient to enable youth to succeed in business. Participants emphasized the need to complement training with entrepreneurship development, financial literacy, and practical, hands-on work experience. Strengthening value chains, facilitating linkages to companies, and supporting business formalization were seen as critical steps to help youth transition into sustainable livelihoods.
At the same time, youth face multiple barriers to business growth, ranging from individual challenges—such as low confidence, weak financial management, and limited innovation—to systemic constraints including lack of access to finance, bureaucratic hurdles, and a poor market infrastructure. These challenges highlight the importance of taking a holistic approach that goes beyond training to strengthening the broader business ecosystem.
To improve access to finance and business support, stakeholders identified the importance of stronger partnerships between the public and private sectors, expanded financial education, and innovative financing mechanisms such as blended finance and digital financial services. Structured business development services—covering areas such as financial record-keeping, market linkages, and business formalization—were seen as essential to unlocking youth entrepreneurship potential.
Gender Equality and Social Inclusion: Ensuring No One Is Left Behind
The forum underscored that inclusive skills development requires intentional efforts to reach young women, single mothers, and other vulnerable youth. Community-based approaches, partnerships with local actors, and engagement of families and communities were identified as effective strategies to increase participation in vocational skills programmes and address social barriers. Participants also stressed the importance of working with schools and training centres to re-engage youth who have dropped out.
Gender-sensitive and inclusive training was defined as practical, participatory, and tailored to diverse learner needs, using non-discriminatory language and approaches. Creating safe learning environments, promoting equal participation, and addressing social norms (also outside of the training) were identified as core elements. Inclusion of persons with disabilities was also highlighted as essential to ensuring equitable access to opportunities.
Beyond training, achieving equitable employment and income outcomes requires systemic change, including stronger enforcement of inclusive policies and improved access to finance and markets for women. Addressing restrictive gender norms and providing services such as childcare were also seen as crucial to enabling women’s full economic participation.
Continuing the Learning Journey
The Skills for Employment Forum demonstrated the value of bringing diverse actors together to jointly analyse challenges and co-create solutions for a more inclusive and labour-market relevant vocational skill system in Tanzania.
To support continued learning and knowledge sharing, the SET project provides a Knowledge Hub, featuring:
These resources aim to support practitioners, policymakers, and training providers in translating insights from the forum into practical action and sustained systems change.