It is vital to have career information readily accessible to students. The Human Resource Development Council (HRDC), in line with its function to establish linkages between the education and training systems and the workplace, was requested by the Careers Guidance Service (CGS) of the Ministry of Labour, Human Resource Development and Training to conduct career talks in secondary schools.

The main objective is to create awareness among students on the importance of thinking career and provide information on jobs and skills needs of the industry. These talks are meant to trigger the thinking process of students about career management. This initiative complements the activities of the CGS and has three components, namely:

• Thinking career and learning to manage careers
• Jobs and skills needs based on HRDC’s skills studies
• Schemes at the HRDC

In this vein, the HRDC conducted career talks for more than 300 students (Grades 9 – 13) in five different schools in June 2023. An innovative element of these talks is the intervention of resource persons from different sectors to share their exposure and experience to students.

A career cube, designed to disseminate information about career through an attractive and practical way, was distributed to students. An evaluation was also carried out on the use of the career toolkits distributed in 2021.

The Human Resource Development Council (HRDC) with Business Mauritius and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) are conducting a National Study on Employee Engagement (NEES).

Employee Engagement is the degree to which employees invest their cognitive, emotional, and behavioural energies toward positive organizational outcomes. It is a function of the relationship between an organization and its employees and aims at improving the workplace and culture such that employees feel more connected and dedicated to the enterprise.

At micro level, Employee Engagement studies help to identify the most important issues affecting the company's internal environment, find appropriate solutions to eliminate the hurdles and challenges and identify development opportunities that benefit most people in the company, thus being aware of potential growth opportunities within the company. Employee engagement survey results help put in place effective strategies to create a better work culture, increase productivity, build better work and customer relationships, and impact on profitability. Organization responsiveness to employee feedback and suggestions also leads to higher retention rates and reduce staff turnover.

While these types of surveys are imperative to gain insights to improve work environment and benchmark with other countries, it also helps uncover issues that impact productivity and engagement of employees at national level. Critical insights can be obtained through these surveys upon which policies and strategies can be developed for the economy and different sectors of activities.

The world of work is changing rapidly, with technology continuing to increasingly shape many different aspects of work. As a result, many organisations have had to make provision for their workforce to operate in a more agile and flexible manner.  Today, it is more than ever necessary to survey Employee Engagement for enterprises to adequately manage social capital in order to retain talent, build capacity & resilience.

This survey will help to gather key Human Resource Management (HRM) information to supplement Human Resource Development (HRD) policies and strategies at a national level. The duration of the project is 6-9 months.

The project will be implemented in five phases as follows:

Phase 1: Launching of the project

Phase 2: Survey Design

Phase 3: Survey Administration

Phase 4: Results Analysis

Phase 5: Results Roll out and report preparation

About Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL)

RPL provides an alternative route for industry practitioners to obtain formal recognition of the knowledge, skills and experience they acquired at the workplace. It helps them attain a recognised qualification which can be used as a basis for furthering training and career progression. This mechanism disrupts the conventional way of certification and creates more opportunities in the current education and training landscape by charting out new learning pathways for employees. RPL allows experienced people to match their skills to a qualification and then submit evidence to show why they should be certified. In a nutshell, RPL facilitates the processes of skills development and promotes lifelong learning. 

The RPL process is a process of identifying, documenting, assessing and certifying formal, non-formal and informal learning outcomes against standards used in formal education and training. It is a process, which, in short, relies on an assessment of learning outcomes to formally recognize competencies.

About the scheme

The RPL Support Scheme was introduced by the Human Resource Development Council (HRDC) in collaboration with the Mauritius Qualifications Authority (MQA) as from 2019 for a first cohort of 99 applicants.

Under this scheme, the HRDC funds a Facilitation Fee of Rs 5,000 and an Assessment Fee of Rs 6,000 per candidate. The MQA sponsors 75% of the processing fee, resulting in the candidates paying a symbolic fee of Rs500 for entry into the RPL process.

This scheme is in line with one of the objects of the HRDC as stipulated in its act is to ‘stimulate a culture of training and lifelong learning at the individual, organisational and national levels for employability and increasing productivity.’

Objectives of the RPL Support Scheme

• To reach out to individuals and employees applying for RPL with a view to promote Lifelong Learning.
• To support the enhancement of the career/employability opportunities of individuals and employees as well as provide alternative routes to further education

After completion of the first cohort, the RPL Support Scheme has been renewed for an additional 100 candidates. The second cohort started with a Portfolio Development Workshop for RPL to be held on Thursday 23 March 2023.  A Project Collaboration Agreement was also signed between the HRDC and MQA to formalise this collaboration.

For additional information on the RPL Support Scheme, kindly contact the MQA or visit the MQA website: http://www.mqa.mu

The HRDC and the MITD with the collaboration of Business Mauritius and the Ministry of Labour, Human Resource Development and Training are conducting a joint study to assess the implementation of the National Apprenticeship Programme (NAP) with a view to enhancing its efficiency. 

The main objectives of the study are to:

1. learn from international experiences of the dual training system in supporting the achievement of the aims and objectives of NAP;
2. assess the implementation of NAP from the national and sectoral perspectives, and by type of qualifications;
3. understand the multiple perspectives of varied key stakeholders involved in NAP as to what they expect to achieve from this programme, any hindrance they experience and seek their contribution in its enhancement; and
4. come up with pointers and make proposals to enhance NAP based on co-designed, co-produced evidence generated.

The study comprises a series of surveys for different target groups, namely:

• Apprentices/ unemployed individuals (both current and past);
• Heads of enterprises and mentors;
• MITD management/trainers/curriculum developers;
• HRDC;
• Ministry of Labour, Human Resource Development and Training;
• Industry associations.

Data will be generated through multiple methods.

Data collection for ‘Apprentices in training’ began on 07 November 2022. The link for the survey is at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/ZG7T2BS