Africa-Press – Mauritius. SME Mauritius Ltd and the Mauritius Institute of Training and Development (MITD) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), yesterday, at SME Mauritius Head Office, in Port-Louis, with the objective to promote and develop entrepreneurship skills, and to update the technical skills of entrepreneurs.
The objectives of the MOU are: provision of short courses in relevant trades to help Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in their quest for development and growth; provision of technical assistance and organisation of workshops on entrepreneurship; and identify market needs and come up with solutions through entrepreneurial prospective.
Signatories were the Chief Executive Officer of SME Mauritius Ltd, Mr Ravin Rampersad, and the Chairman of MITD, Mr Harrykrishna Vydelingum. The signature ceremony was held in the presence of the Minister of Industrial Development, SMEs and Cooperatives, Mr Soomilduth Bholah; the Minister of Labour, Human Resource Development and Training, Mr Soodesh Callichurn; and other personalities.
In his address, Mr Bholah underlined that SMEs formed a vibrant pillar of the Mauritian economy. He underlined that despite the severe impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the SME sector had remained a major engine of growth and continued to contribute to the resilience of the economy by responding to fast changing conditions.
The Minister further dwelt on the difficulties faced by SMEs for their business start-up including access to finance, market, unskilled people, and lack of technology.
He expressed confidence that the joint venture would surely address the issues of skills mismatch and that the MITD would bring its expertise in skills development through the provision of technical and vocational training to ensure the employability needs of the country.
Minister Bholah reaffirmed that Government was ensuring that supportive and enabling entrepreneurial policies and programmes were in place, so as to leverage the creativity of young people as agents of change.
Minister Callichurn underlined that unemployment was a universal concern for every nation while highlighting that his Ministry had put in place several development schemes to reduce unemployment and enable people to get jobs more easily.
He stressed on entrepreneurship education, and emphasised the need to train students to acquire the proper knowledge and skills essential to explore career opportunities in businesses.
“SME,” Minister Callichurn said, “are among the emerging forces in Mauritius driving the economy and generating employment.
” “As technology is advancing, new business models, products and services are emerging,” he pointed out.
“Government is fully committed to providing a conducive environment for the sustainable development of SMEs sector as well as respond to the changing needs of SMEs in a proactive manner,” he added.
He also spoke of youth entrepreneurship and highlighted that there existed substantial entrepreneurial potential among the youth, and reiterated his Ministry’s support to integrate the youth in entrepreneurship.
Mr Rampersad underlined that the collaborative venture formalised the common and converging objectives of both institutions to equip trained persons with entrepreneurial skills.
He indicated that human capital, adequacy, readiness and optimisation were pivotal to relaunch the economy and were key enablers to stir growth and development in the country.
“Hence the need for skill development trainings,” he highlighted.
The Chairman of MITD, Mr Vydelingum, underlined that the MITD was a central public provider of vocational and technical trainings in Mauritius since 1989.
He indicated that the MITD had embarked on new training programmes such as solar energy technical programme and upgrading of MITD trainers, for year 2023, which were underway. He was confident that the MOU would establish a comprehensive and coherent approach to empower trained learners to start their business.
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