Luanda - The policies being implemented by the Angolan Executive, under the guidance of President João Lourenço, will provide a greater supply of qualified professionals for the job market, in the country's various strategic sectors.
The information was provided on Thursday, in Luanda, by the Minister of State for Social Area, Maria do Rosário Bragança, giving as an example the National Human Capital Development Plan 2023-2037, which emanates from the Long-Term Development Strategy Angola-2050, and the guidelines for promoting employment, defined in the National Agenda for Employment.
The official was speaking at the opening of the International Conference on National Qualifications Frameworks, which Angola is hosting until Friday, in partnership with the African Continental Qualifications Framework Project (ACQF).
“These national instruments are aligned with the UN Agenda 2030, on the Sustainable Development Goals, with the SADC Agenda 2050 and with the African Union Agenda 2063, on African Aspirations for the Africa We Want”, she highlighted.
Regarding the event, she said that it should be seen as a privileged room for dialogue, sharing of ideas, experiences and good practices between participating African and European countries, aiming to boost development, through the implementation of National Qualifications Frameworks.
She highlighted that the African continent began the process of developing its Qualifications Framework in 2019, at the inaugural Workshop, held at the AU headquarters, under the auspices of the African Union and the European Union.
“From this period onwards, there was an important technical visit to Angola by experts from the African Continental Qualifications Framework Project, which took place in 2020, under the coordination of the Technical Management Unit of the National Plan for the Training of Staff of the Auxiliary Bodies of the President of Republic of Angola, which produced a series of notable transformations in terms of qualification and development of national staff”, she explained.
The minister said that, in this evolving context, priorities for the development of the country's human capital were reinforced, with special emphasis on the expansion of educational and training provision adjusted to the needs of the labor market and the increase in education and qualification levels of the population that aim to increase the impact on improving human and social development indices.
According to Maria Brangança, this goal is only possible with the application of numerous policy measures applied over years by the public administration, labor, education, higher education, planning and finance sectors.
She emphasized the Continental Education Strategy for Africa (CESA-25), which guides “creating national qualifications frameworks and regional qualifications frameworks to facilitate the creation of multiple pathways for the acquisition of skills and competencies, as well as mobility in the subsector and “develop a continental qualifications framework linked to regional qualifications and national qualifications frameworks, to facilitate regional integration and graduate mobility”.
“As a way of fulfilling the desired Continental Education Strategy for Africa, there is an urgent need to implement human capital development policies, highlighting, among these, the Program for Establishing the National Qualifications System, which has been developed in close alignment with the Technical Education and Vocational Training Revitalization Project, financed by the European Union”, she argued.
The conference takes place under the motto “Next Generation National Qualifications Frameworks, Innovation, Challenges and Perspectives”.
The National Qualifications Institute of Angola was created in 2022, by Presidential Decree No. 208/22, of 23 July, under the supervision of the Ministry of Public Administration, Labor and Social Security, assisted by the Ministry of Education.
Angola also approved the Legal Regime of the National Qualifications System (Presidential Decree no. 210/22, of 23 July), which includes the National Qualifications Framework with 10 levels of qualifications, of which 6 levels correspond to the technical-vocational secondary education and vocational training, and four levels correspond to higher education.
With the creation of the National Qualifications Institute, the Republic of Angola made significant progress regarding the effective implementation of its Professional Qualifications Framework, matching other countries in the SADC region, as well as on the European Continent, some of which are more than two decades old development and consolidation of Qualifications Frameworks.
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