As a growing and increasingly important sector offering off-grid energy solutions in rural and remote areas of the country and employment opportunities for local youth, the renewables sector in Tanzania is on the rise.
Through our International Skills Partnership between Edinburgh College in the UK and Tanzanian partners Arusha Technical College and VETA Singida, the British Council is supporting employer engagement and capacity building of teachers in the renewable energy sector.
Staff from all three participating institutions came together in a partnership visit to Arusha, Tanzania, in spring 2025 where they agreed priorities and expected outcomes for the project. The partners have agreed to focus their collaboration on three areas within the renewable energy curriculum:
- Improving employer engagement and work-placement models;
- Continuous professional development of teaching staff (including securing opportunities for staff to have placements with employers to upgrade their skills and knowledge of equipment and stay abreast of the latest developments);
- Embedding soft skills and entrepreneurship training in the curriculum.
"The collaboration between Edinburgh College, Arusha Technical College, and VETA Singida has enabled us to learn and apply best practices for employer engagement to strengthen the delivery of Renewable Energy and Green Skills training. By sharing active learning methodologies, optimizing institutional resources, and enhancing quality monitoring systems, the partnership is not only improving teaching and learning but will also increase the employability of our graduates in response to evolving industry needs and global sustainability goals.", Prof. Musa N. Chacha, Rector of Arusha Technical College
The project’s focus areas reflect current priorities for the TVET system in Tanzania, including the need for improved consistency in quality assurance processes and better coordination and sharing of teaching materials and standardisation of how the curriculum is delivered across courses; limited access to continuous professional development and industrial attachment opportunities for academic staff; and an increasing demand for soft and entrepreneurial skills to prepare young people to enter the labour market and start their own business in the country where most employment and income opportunities remain in the informal sector.
A visit to the Entrepreneurship Centre at Arusha Technical College allowed the partners to gain a better understanding of the challenges facing TVET graduates, such as scarcity of structured opportunities to develop skills at an enterprise setting during their course of studies and a lack of formal employment opportunities after completion of the training courses.
Visits to local employers and meetings with staff, students and alumni allowed the partners to identify opportunities for improvement in employer engagement on several levels. The partners established that whilst there is engagement with employers in the renewable energy sector, it is not consistent or standardised in approach and it would be beneficial to have more regular industry forums, to feed into the curriculum development and review, and employer events to strengthen partnerships and facilitate connections with students selecting businesses for their work placements. Another identified area for improvement is the need for a suitable structure to manage student placements with employers. Currently, students in Tanzania source their own placement, and there is no standardisation of engagement with the students or employers during the placement, or analysis of feedback gathered after the placement, to ensure that they are undertaking suitable tasks and benefiting from the placement.
The partners also had a chance to visit a newly built Kikuletwa Renewable Energy Training and Research Centre and met with the campus leadership who are keen to put effective quality assurance processes in place from the first day of teaching at the new campus.
Representatives from the Vocational Education and Training Authority (VETA) and the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology also joined the programme, indicating the government’s support for and commitment to the project.
The next steps agreed by the partners include the development of employer engagement guidelines that can be used in other curriculum areas in the future, to ensure continuity and local ownership. The UK partners will share details of apprenticeship and work placement models at Edinburgh College, to support with development of similar processes for managing work placements at Arusha Technical College and VETA Singida. The partners will also share details of quality assurance / self-evaluation processes at Edinburgh College, as well as their approach to managing a shared bank of teaching resources. Finally, the partners will collaborate to build a continuous professional development programme for teaching staff at the Tanzanian partner institutions.
“Through this partnership, we have shared resources and built capacity to ensure our training aligns with the growing demand for grid-connected solar systems. The partnership has equipped us with the practical skills and knowledge to improve our trainees and graduates’ employability in the green economy.” , Trophine Mariseli Kimario; Solar Installation Intructor at VETA Singida
Arusha Technical College and VETA Singida will return a visit to Scotland in autumn to observe innovative practices in quality assurance and employer engagement and learner experience first-hand.
