Adila is among 130 trainers from vocational institutions in Maputo and Manica who completed pedagogical training through Swisscontact’s Skills to Build project. The training equipped participants to turn technical knowledge into structured, practical learning that helps young people demonstrate what they can do.
Competency-Based Training requires trainers to do more than present information. They must plan practical sessions, guide trainees through tasks and assess whether they can apply their skills in real or simulated workplaces. Trainers must also prepare assessment tools and complete the documentation required for internal and external verification.
During the sessions, participants practised participatory teaching methods, reviewed assessment procedures and discussed challenges facing their institutions. Trainers from different centres compared approaches, clarified areas of uncertainty and considered how to make learning more practical and responsive to trainees’ needs.
In Manica, 72 trainers participated, including 58 men and 14 women, from the Armando Guebuza Polytechnic Institute and the Marera Agrarian Institute.
In Maputo, 58 trainers took part, including 42 men and 16 women. They came from the Salesians of Matola Vocational Training Centre, the Metalworking Vocational Training Centre, the Public Works Vocational Training Centre, the São José de Lhanguene Training Centre and the São Francisco de Assis Technical Vocational Institute.
The training followed the national framework established by Mozambique’s National Professional Education Authority, ANEP. This supports consistent application of national vocational education standards while allowing institutions to respond to their trainees and local labour-market needs.
José Ernesto, a trainer at the Armando Guebuza Polytechnic Institute, says the practical focus helped him address areas he had not fully understood.
The effects should become visible in classrooms and workshops. Better-prepared trainers can organise sessions more clearly, use practical exercises effectively and assess competence more consistently. They can also identify where trainees need further support before entering the workplace.
For vocational institutions, improved teaching practice can increase consistency across departments and support compliance with national requirements. It can also strengthen engagement with employers by focusing training on demonstrated skills rather than classroom attendance alone.
The training does not yet provide evidence of improved employment outcomes or company performance. It does, however, address one of the conditions required to achieve them: trainers who can help young people build and demonstrate skills that employers recognise.
For Adila and her colleagues, the next test will come in the classroom, where revised assessment tools, clearer session plans and more practical teaching methods will shape how trainees learn.
This project is financed by the Medicor Foundation, Happel Foundation, and Linsi-Foundation. It is part of the Swisscontact Development Programme, which is co-financed by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), Federal Department of Foreign Affairs FDFA.