Rethinking training: the role of the informal sector in skills acquisition and development in Zimbabwe

ABSTRACT

Training and skills acquisition have received widespread approval as one of the most important steps towards achieving human, organisational and national development. They are largely regarded as tools to fight poverty, inequality and unemployment. In Zimbabwe, the post-independence government has been heavily investing in formal training: primary, secondary and tertiary education. However, despite the critical role that formal training plays, we discovered that the informal economy is also playing an equally important part in providing skills especially to the disadvantaged groups of society. We use data collected from Norton and Harare to demonstrate the importance of informal sector training in building skills. We also identify lack of recognition as one of the challenges that informal training programmes encounter. We conclude by arguing for the introduction of skills assessment and standardisation initiatives to improve the quality of the skills and products generated from the sector to boost its recognition and competitiveness.

KEYWORDS:

• Training
• skills
• informal training
• skills assessment

1. Introduction

Discussion around the subject of training and skills development have featured prominently in the development discourse. It has also attracted the attention of policymakers from both developing and developed economies as well as development agencies seeking ways of addressing poverty and its related challenges. Training and skills development have been widely applauded for playing a pivotal role in reducing poverty, inequality, unemployment and as empowerment tools for the disadvantaged groups which enhance capacity building, employability, income and livelihoods. As a result, this has witnessed governments, firms, development organisations, households and individuals paying attention to and investing a lot of resources in formal training.

In Zimbabwe, key discussions and efforts around training and skills largely focus on formal education and training. The country has since independence been investing in formal education and training. Many tertiary training institutions have also been established to spearhead this cause. While all attention and efforts seem to be directed towards formal training, in this study we sought to explore, understand and unpack the role played by the informal sector in developing skills. We argue that the while it plays an instrumental role in this regard, the informal sector itself as well as its contributions seem to be going unrecognised and unappreciated as national training efforts tend to continue channelling resources towards formal institutions. As such, the informal sector is largely left unsupported and to sustain its initiatives on its own with little or no budgetary support from the government. Both the public and private sectors tend to disregard informally acquired skills despite the irrefutable evidence that skills generated from the sector are equally good and important. In this article, we explore and popularise the role played by the informal sector in skills training. It argues for improvement and assessment of informal training as a strategy to enhance the sector’s competitiveness, professionalism and career development initiatives.

2. Conceptualising and theorising skills and training

A skill is defined as the basic ability to adjust to a given life situation or environment. Skills bridge the gap that exist between knowledge and performance and relate to expertise, aptitude or quality performance of a given task(s) (Skills Development Scotland, 2018). Skills acquisition and training play important socioeconomic roles like reducing unemployment, poverty and inequality and encouraging innovation (Adeyemo, 2009). The United Nations (UN) (2015) sustainable development goal (SDG) 4 also emphasises that skills enhance chances for employment, decent jobs and entrepreneurship especially among vulnerable citizenry.

Training refers to the process of obtaining or imparting knowledge, skills and abilities that are required to execute a specific task (Milhem et al., 2014). In an organisational setting, training benefits both the individual/trainee and organisation as it enhance both their ability to meet their current skills and better prepare them for their future aspirations and challenges (Niazi, 2011). Training is generally achieved through formal methods which include lectures, apprenticeship, programmed instruction, and internship among others (Martin et al., 2014). Skills are generally a product of training and hence the terms normally tend to be discussed together. In the context of this study, skills are the outcome of the training process hence this paper focuses on both the process and the outcome.

We grounded this study in the Human Capital Theory (HCT) (Schultz, 1961). The theory challenges the perception that physical capital are the most valuable of all assets needed for economic growth and success. It believes that formal education/training plays a crucial role and enhances the productive capacity of an individuals or a population (Almendarez, 2013). It suggests and emphasises the provision of formal education/training in developing human capital (Holden and Biddle, 2017). The influence of the HCT is evident in how stakeholders seem to agree that training/skills are important for socioeconomic growth. Some note that they empower and promote the well-being of economically vulnerable groups (Palmer, 2017). Others argue that they enhance household earning capacity, self-sufficiency and livelihood diversification (United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), 2009). Rincón et al. (2015) highlight that skills enhance productivity, while Palmer (2007) notes that they improve income and equitable access to employment and economic opportunities and thus a tool used to fight poverty.

Poverty reduction strategies by most governments and development organisations in developing economies are modelled towards education and training/skills development. Almendarez (2013) notes that the commendable economic performance of European and North American economies is attributable to human capital investment – again in line with the HCT. Research has also shown that households whose members are skilled or highly trained are less affected by food shortages and related forms of poverty and vulnerabilities (Tawodzera, 2011). The International Labour Organisation (ILO) (1997:5) sums the importance of training by noting that ‘knowledge, skills and competencies [are] the cornerstone of personal growth and employability, enterprise competitiveness and society’s economic and social sustainability’.

In deploying the HCT, we deliberately adopt a much more liberal interpretation of the importance of skills development to include informal sector training. This is motivated by the acknowledgement that goods and services in developing economies are largely produced from the informal sector. This reality is applicable to Zimbabwe hence the need to widen the scope of this study. We thus argue that, the same way formal training regimes are important to national development, informal sector skills development is equally crucial.

2.1. Training in Zimbabwe

Formal training in Zimbabwe is administered by two government ministries – Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education (MPSE) and Ministry of Higher Education and Technology (MHET). The MPSE is responsible for primary to secondary education while MHET oversees tertiary training institutions: technical, vocational, teachers’ colleges and universities (Zimbabwe Statistical Agency (ZIMSTAT), 2018). Tertiary institutions offer pre-employment training and post-training for those who wish to advance their already existing skills (Kanyongo, 2005; Nuffic, 2019).

As the structure of education and training given above shows, the relationship between the two is so knotty that the two are generally bunched together or used interchangeably. Skills development in Zimbabwe is therefore engrained in the country’s formal education/training system. It is a long-term continuous process which starts with primary education to tertiary training through secondary education. To be regarded as ‘trained’, one thus must go through and attain passes in primary, secondary and tertiary education/training and get certificates of qualification, training or competence at the end of each stage. Without certification, one is generally not recognised as trained/skilled regardless how much expertise/competence s/he may have in that trade.

However, despite getting priority, formal education/training in Zimbabwe is not without its challenges. Hwami (2010) notes that it is expensive and beyond the reach of many from disadvantaged backgrounds. The government stopped subsidising tertiary education leaving and learners (parents) to shoulder all their expenses. In addition, it does not give room for academically untalented learners to further their education/training since tertiary institutions only enrol those who meet minimum passes. The Commission of Inquiry into the Zimbabwean Education system by Nziramasanga (1999) realised that the country ‘was graduating far too many students whose exam results were not good enough for university entrance’ (Barnes, 2003:4). This paper questions the future of those learners who cannot afford either the cost of college/university training or those who are not intelligent enough to meet the pre-requisite passes. Most of them end up in the informal sector acquiring some skills upon which their future employment, enterprises, careers and livelihoods would rely (Adams et al., 2013). However, as illustrated above, the country’s education/training system is silent about this form of training and the formal job market does not have room for informally acquired skills, mainly because it values certification, which informal training programmes unfortunately do not issue to their graduates. While the informal sector is an important stakeholder in skills training, informally acquired skills remain compromised and largely unrecognised by employers in both the private and public sectors. This, we argue, is because the training process lack standardisation and adequate quality assurance mechanisms. Adams et al. (2013) note that the strong association between formal education/training and formal employment marginalises informally-acquired skills. Consequently, those with poor formal educational backgrounds and informal training are constricted to the informal sector.

We argue that informal skills improvement and assessment could be one way to promote informal skills. Lange et al. (2015) note that there have been some attempts to improve skills in African countries like Kenya, Cameroon, Ghana and Nigeria through assessments and evaluations done by trade associations. However, together with Walther (2012), they discover that the system is biased towards formal training centres and marginalises informal training. National technical and vocational education and training (TVET) policies in most countries are pre-occupied with formal TVET courses, side-lining informal skills in doing so. They further observe that there is a lack of systematic assessment in African countries, and Zimbabwe is not an exception. This is despite the fact that the informal sector in the continent produces the bulk of skills among the economically-active age groups (Walther, 2012). Global Consult (2012) notes that there are people who can demonstrate knowledge and competences in skills that cannot be and/or were not acquired through formal training and that more should be done to improve such skills so that they can be recognised across all sectors of the economy. This forms the bedrock of our argument in this paper in which we demonstrate how the informal economy is playing a role in pro-poor training and the importance of such skills to the recipients. We also propose for the need to promote skills improvement and skills assessment in the sector for recipients to enjoy maximum benefits from this type of training.

3. Research objectives

The following were the objectives of the study:

1. To explore the nature of skills that are acquired through the informal training system.

2. To describe different forms of skills acquisition in the informal sector.

3. To analyse skills assessment and improvement as a way of improving informal sector skills and their recognition in the country.

4. Methodology

We employed the critical ethnography approach in this study. Critical ethnography is a qualitative method in which a researcher seeks to challenge the status quo and probe for alternative ways and possibilities of changing or influencing institutions, knowledge regimes and practices that limit choices (Madison, 2011). This research sought to challenge current modernist approach to training in Zimbabwe by arguing that informal training plays an equally critical role and that measures should be implemented to improve informal sector-based training to enhance recognition and acceptability of these skills in all sectors of the economy. It is this progressive objective that influenced our choice of critical ethnography as the method of investigation in this study.

We collected data in Norton and Harare from December 2016 to October 2017 using in-depth interviews and ethnographic observation techniques. Narratives generated were analysed thematically. We conducted a total of eighteen semi-structured interviews with informal entrepreneurs who work in various trades such as woodwork, metalwork, garment making, construction, beauty therapy and catering among others. We also interviewed six organisations with interests in the informal sector. These included the Ministry of Small and Medium Enterprises, Norton Town Council, Zimbabwe Chamber of Informal Economies Association, Harare Chamber of Small to Medium Enterprises (SMEs), Norton SMEs Association and NdaiZiva Capacity Development Trust. We selected our participants through snowballing sampling in which participants would basically refer us to other entrepreneurs and/or organisations that were of interest to our study. Ethically, the research was cleared by our institution’s ethics board. We were guided by the informed consent and confidentiality principles where we gave our potential participants a right choose to or not to participate and assured protection of their identity through the use of pseudonyms. We also used observations to corroborate information that our respondents gave by informally observing their activities.

5. Findings and discussion

This section presents and discusses study findings under three main categories as shown in subsequent subsections.

5.1. Nature of skills acquired through informal training

5.1.1. Vocational skills

We noted that the informal sector plays a crucial role in the acquisition of a range of vocational skills. These include trades like carpentry, metal fabrication, plumbing, construction, domestic electrical installation; bicycle, radio, television, laptop, cell phone and refrigerator repairs; garment manufacturing and repair; shoemaking, cosmetology and repair, motor mechanics, panel-beating and spray-painting, the arts and catering among others. We chose four outstanding examples out of the many that we encountered to demonstrate this finding.

We caught up with ‘Jona’¹ – a builder – during the course of the research. He confessed that he never received any formal construction training when he started life in this trade. Instead, he acquired his skills through working as an ‘assistant’ to his uncle who was a qualified builder. Over the years, he mastered the art of construction and today he is a builder of note. He is now able to do site preparations, foundations, masonry, bricklaying, stonework, decorations, plastering, skimming, painting, renovations and tiling. He started small but is now into big projects like school and church buildings, storey and concrete building. He also employs up to ten employees, most of whom, are normally totally unskilled by the time of joining the trade, trains them and ‘they master the skills as they go’. Two of his assistants were already graduates from vocational colleges and they wanted to sharpen their skills and gain industrial exposure, preparing to enter the formal job market or venture into their own enterprises. He highlighted that there are several builders who ‘graduated’ from working as his ‘assistants’ and are now working on their own, who in his words, ‘did not even know how to mix mortar or concrete, or lay a brick but today they identify themselves as skilled builders’. It was also fascinating that he himself also did not complete secondary education and hence does not have any educational qualifications. That, however, did not stop him from becoming the builder that he is today. We also noted other builders like him in his trade who had managed to do it his way. Had they taken the formal training route, they would not have managed to acquire the many building skills that they possess today because of poor high school results.

We also engaged ‘Mai Machisa’² – a garment marker at a shopping centre in Norton. She makes virtually all types of clothes ranging from school uniforms, wedding garments, décor material to bed linen. She works with at least five others, four of whom she described as her assistants who were at different stages of training while the fifth one was already skilled and fully employed. She teaches them a range of skills from basic garment repairing and adjusting to technical tasks like cutting, designing, styling, patterning and actual garment making. She also trains them manual sewing using needles and thread as well as machine sewing. Just like ‘Jona’, she never received any formal tailoring/designing training but learnt from her mother who was into the trade, after failing her secondary school examinations. As a result, she does not consider one’s educational background when looking for people to train.

I failed my high school exams but I still managed to acquire the skills that I have today so I don’t discriminate my assistants based on education. As long as one is kin to learn, then we are good to go

she recounted. Without formal qualifications, she still successfully trains others to make garments using her informally-acquired skills and expertise. Like ‘Jona’, she is also proud that there is a number of fashion designers who ‘graduated’ from her workshop.

‘Baba Tinei’³ is both a carpenter and a welder who operates at an abandoned industrial building in Norton and at his home. He was formally trained in both trades. After twenty years of formal employment, he decided to quit following the economic downturn and kickstarted his own enterprise. He works with at least ten other personnel – most of which are his ‘apprentices’ who he calls his assistants. He estimated that he had trained over fifty carpenters and welders combined in the past five years at his workshop. Just like Jona and Mai Machisa, he does not consider one’s educational background when enrolling his apprentices/trainees. Instead, he believes that no person is untrainable; ‘as long as they are truly committed', they will master whatever they are taught. Some of his graduates who are now skilled carpenters or welders working on their own projects failed in high school but they still managed to master the skills that he taught them. He has also encountered cases where those who did not do well at school outperformed those who passed secondary school examinations. This demonstrated that formal secondary education had little/no bearing on one’s capacity to acquire some skills. A number of other entrepreneurs in this trade disclosed that they never attended formal training for the skills that they possess now. As carpenters, they are now capable of making a range of products which include domestic, office and school furniture as well as doing ceilings, roofing and door fitting while welders can also make furniture, doorframes, window frames, gates, shades among other metal structures.

Lastly, at Pakare Paye Arts Centre (PPAC) and at Mbira dzeNharira Centre in Norton, aspiring musicians are taught to play different musical instruments like drums, mbira, marimba, gongs and the guitar among others as well as how to sing and manage a band. A respondent from PPAC disclosed that there is a number of upcoming artists who were nurtured at the centre who have since made names on the local musical scene. Like examples given earlier, receiving training at PPAC or Mbira dzeNharira does not require any educational prerequisites and unlike at formal music colleges, learners do not pay any money to receive training. All what is considered is one’s commitment to learn and also one’s talent.

5.1.2. Soft skills

We discovered that the informal sector is instrumental in acquisition of soft skills. Soft skills refer to ‘competences that are not directly connected to a specific task [but] are necessary in any position as they mainly refer to the relationships with other people involved in the organisation’ (Cimatti, 2016:98). They include such skills as cognitive competences like knowledge and thinking skills, ability to plan, set and achieve goals. They also incorporate basic numeracy and literacy, computer skills, interpersonal relationships, communication, listening, negotiating, networking, team working, problem solving and decision making among others (Engelberg, 2015). While these are important skills on their own, they also complement technical/vocational skills such that is difficult for one to thrive on vocational skills alone without soft skills.

One such critical soft skill acquired through participating in the informal economy is the art negotiating/bargaining. The informal sector is a much contested space which is often criminalised by central and local governments. Through operating in such a precarious environment, actors learn how to negotiate since negotiating is a critical necessary for business survival and growth. They become strong negotiators as they interact with police and local council officials who normally seek to disrupt their work. Moreover, through always interfacing with customers or other business, actors learn how to bargain for better deals without losing their customers and/or suppliers. The competitive nature of the sector also makes conflicts very inevitable. Actors who work in the same trade or operate close to each other frequently clash as they compete for clients and deals. However, because they know that they need each other for their collective success and sustainability of their businesses, they reach out to each other and resolve their differences amicably to continue working together. Conflict resolution is thus an example of an important that informal entrepreneurs learn from participating in the informal sector.

5.1.3. Entrepreneurial skills

We also uncovered that the informal sector is playing a part in acquisition and development of entrepreneurial skills. Entrepreneurial skills, also called business skills in this context, refer to an individual or group’s ability to come up with and exploit an idea to create a business (Olagunju, 2004). These include innovative and inventive abilities, creativity, leadership, risk-taking and ability to raise, invest and manage money. They also include the ability to be productive, hire effective people, manage people, spot new trends and deal with stress and failure. Taking part in informal sector activities exposes actors to complex situations which require them to learn project planning and management skills, delegation of work and tasks, building relationships through networking, time management, budgeting, costing/pricing, marketing/advertising, leadership and decision making, sales and customer care as well as work ethics. For them to promote their businesses and products to increase sales, they are pushed into acquiring some marketing skills. Applying good customer relations by informal sector actors further helps them to sell their brand as they keep their clients and even attract new ones.

Since all businesses involve transactions, handling money and at times employ people, informal entrepreneurs are also pushed into learning how to manage these for their enterprises to continue operating. How Jona and Mai Machisa and others as exemplified earlier learnt to manage, prepare budgets, calculate and estimate quantities of materials for their projects and how they became conversant with occupational risks associated with their trades demonstrated how the informal sector is doing justice in acquisition of these skills. The following section unpacks the different ways through which skills are transferred/acquired in informal training.

5.2. How skills are acquired in the informal sector training

5.2.1. Informal on-the-job-training

We discovered that informal sector was equipping people with skills through some form of on-the-job-training or informal apprenticeship. This system involves one or more trainees working under a mentor who has expertise in the trade. Trainees acquire skills through learning by doing the actual task as the mentor directs and show them the way. The emphasis here is not on understanding the theoretical or conceptual issues around the trade but teaching them the actual skills and what it takes to achieve the task. This entails that there are no formal classroom lessons in this form of training. While trainees may occasionally learn some basic theoretical issues of the trade, the setting remains informal and training is largely in the workshop and not the classroom. Just like formal training, informal sector training is done systematically and procedurally. The mentor assesses their trainees to identify their individual strengths and weaknesses to determine how to take them through the training process.

Training starts with simple and basic activities, and once adequately mastered, it proceeds to more challenging aspects. We discovered that the progress of the training is determined by the trainees’ learning pace. It does not follow the formal training way which respects time more than the learners’ rate of uptake. Informal on-the-job-training is therefore not time-bound as in formal training but is dependent upon whether the trainees have fully mastered the objectives of the course. It defies the principles of formal training where in some cases some trainees are prematurely rushed into writing examinations just because the training period is over, only to fail. Because the training invests more into the actual doing of the job, trainees are likely to come out more skilled and prepared for the actual job than those coming from the formal classroom training setting which is more theoretical and time-bound.

5.2.2. Training workshops

We also discovered that informal sector actors and stakeholders are coming up with some training initiatives meant to benefit the sector. The growth of the informal sector has seen formation of various associations that represent the actors in the sector. These include Zimbabwe Chamber of Informal Economy Associations, Harare Chamber of SMEs, Norton SMEs Association, Norton Vendors Union, Norton Residents and Development Association. These organisations seek to improve the welfare of the sector and one way of doing that is facilitating skills training among members. They thus run some workshops during which members are trained in areas critical to their trade. They identify skill gaps and run workshops to address the deficit. The informal sector has also attracted non-governmental organisations (NGOs) like Help German, Tamiranashe Women’s Trust, Tsungirirai Orphanage and Skills Centre and NdaiZiva Capacity Development Trust among others to support and promote it. These NGOs are funding training programmes aimed at actors in different sectors. This is a form of capacity development which empowers the sector through equipping actors with essential and up-to date skills to boost their trade. This method is used both in acquiring new skills and to refresh/update or sharpen already existing skills.

5.2.3. Self-training and learning through hobbies

We discovered that some of the actors in the informal sector are self-trained. They did not get any formal training to acquire the skills that they currently possess. Instead, they learnt to do it on their own through a combination of strategies like self-reading/studying and the trial and error method. Self-training in this context is a form of experimental learning where one learns by repeating the same thing many times, getting it wrong several times, starting all over again until they finally master the skill. One can also consult someone with the knowhow whenever they are lost. Through this method, one goes beyond the conventional/prescribed ways of acquiring the skill, but discovers their own ways of doing it as they go. We noted how the method can be successful after encountering several entrepreneurs who disclosed that they taught themselves to do what they were doing and are running their own enterprises, and successfully teaching the unskilled people that they work with on how to do it. We engaged ‘Nyasha’⁴ who runs a beauty therapy venture at Katanga shops and works with seven other people who she trained. She runs one of the best beauty therapy shops at the shopping centre as evidenced by the many clients who frequent her place. Her workplace is always characterised by queues and opens every day for long hours to cater for the high demand. Asked by this research how she became an talented beauty therapist that she is, she disclosed that she learnt everything by herself,

I started this as a hobby during high school days. After school, I started doing it at home and my clients multiplied. My mother wanted me to enrol for a college diploma but I declined. I believed I could master a lot on my own. Sometimes I would read to get information, sometimes consulting others but I learnt most of it on my own.

Her skillset includes body and facial massaging, haircutting and styling, skincare and nail care among others. She also mastered managing her saloon and employees, recordkeeping, stocktaking and range of other soft and entrepreneurial skills. The idea of self-training resonates with one of De Soto’s (1989: xix) who argues that informal sector actors normally learn about their trade on their own, noting that ‘ … where there are no jobs, they invent jobs, “learning in the process all they were never taught” … ’ Several other informal entrepreneurs confirmed to self-training as the way through which they learnt their skills.

We however gathered that regardless of all the skills, knowledge, expertise and experience that they might have, informally-trained graduates often find it difficult to make it in the formal job market where paper qualifications from formal training institutions matter most. They struggle to get contracts or formal tenders because of their lack of training certificates which act as evidence that they are trained, competent and skilled and this brings to fore the central argument of this study, which is to urge for the recognition and acceptability of informally acquired skills. The following section explores the need for informal training/skills improvement and assessment as a way of enhancing recognition and acceptability by employers and clients from across all sectors.

5.3. The need for informal skills improvement and assessment

We kick off the discussion in this section with a recap of the reasons why informally trained entrepreneurs and workers struggle to access contracts and employment in the formal sector. As noted earlier, entrepreneurs like Jona and Mai Machisa among others, despite being highly skilled, still find it difficult to secure contracts with large formal organisations. Similarly, it is difficult for informally trained personnel to secure formal jobs in both private and public sectors, limiting them to informal sector opportunities. Whenever they look for such opportunities, they are treated as unskilled labour as they do not have documented evidence to support that they have the skills.

We gathered that employers and clients, both in the informal and informal sector are normally worried about ‘what qualifications you have’ and ‘where did you train’ when hiring someone for a job or giving a project contract. In this regard, they want to see one’s academic/training certificates for them to be satisfied that whoever they are hiring is ‘qualified, properly trained and possess the required skills’ to execute that task. By enquiring where one was trained, they also expect graduates from recognised/known training institutions that offer qualifying certificates. Since informal training graduates do not get any certification upon completion, it becomes difficult for many of them to get such formal sector offers. The few who make it normally do so upon recommendation from people who already know their work, otherwise without such networks it is not an easy market to break into for the informally trained people.

In order to improve informally-acquired skills and make them more recognisable/acceptable by private and public sector clients/employers, we suggest that there is need to put in place some measures to improve these skills. We propose skills assessment and evaluation in the sector as one such way that can be used to develop and further improve training and skills acquisition in this sector. We argue that improving these skills will not only be beneficial to the entrepreneurs, but to a wide range of other interested parties like clients, private and public sectors as well as the economy at large. For entrepreneurs and trainee graduates, skills assessment and evaluation will improve the quality of their skills. This in turn enhances the quality of their products and make them more competitive. Employment-seeking graduates will become more appealing on the job market and thus more employable. To the sector, once it is identified with high quality skill employees, goods and services, it stands to receive high rating and approval from clients from across all sectors of the economy. This way, it can grow and increase its socioeconomic contribution.

Similarly, this enables clients to enjoy high quality goods and services. Employers also stand to get highly skilled employees. Once these groups of stakeholders get the value for their money, chances are high that they can approve and even recommend informal sector trained entrepreneurs and employees. Mai Machisa, despite being voted the best and most hardworking employee of the year at a clothing firm that she once worked for, remained a shop floor employee and among the least remunerated merely because her skills were not backed by any certification as evidence of training/qualification. Her skills remained unappreciated and lowly valued because of her informal training background.

To address this challenge of lack of recognition of informally acquired skills, we argue that public training institutions be involved in informal training programmes. Such an intervention should come up with set of minimum requirements for one to qualify as trainer. This may take into account factors like prospective trainers’ skills level, experience in the trade, availability of required equipment and adequate space. This should also involve training informal trainers how best to transfer their skills to others and ensure that they remain informed of any latest technology and developments in their respective trades. This suggestion comes on the background of the fact that presently, the sector operates without any definition of who is an eligible trainer. Anyone, including those with minimal skills and experience or without adequate equipment can choose to start training others and this is one reason which lead to clients and employers doubting goods, services and employees who went through this form of training. While some like Baba Tinei, for example, proved to be highly skilled basing on the nature of their training and experience in formal employment, other trainers in the sector are not adequately skilled and hence the need for a trainer’s defining criterion and upgrading skills among trainers.

We also propose that informal training programmes should be done with supervision and guidance from recognised training institution like technical colleges/universities, responsible government departments like the Ministries responsible for training, SMEs (including the informal sector) or labour. While these may not be involved in the day to day training in the sector, their experts can come in at different training stages to monitor, assess and evaluate if the process is being handled well. Assessment and evaluation also help to identify any gap that may be present in the process and apply remedies before it is too late. Assessment may also include continuous testing of skills by experts. This can see trainees getting approved by experts at the critical stages of their training so that one can only proceed to the next stage/level of training after convincing assessors that they have mastered lower level skills enough, something that we equate to continuous assessment in formal education/training. Upon completion of the training programme, assessors can also come in to test and evaluate to determine whether or not trainees have fully mastered the required skills before they can join the trade as appropriately qualified professionals. Stakeholder training institutions or government departments can also provide graduates with certification. Certificates need to highlight the level of training, skills of competence and its formal training equivalent can also be established. This entails coming up with a skills ranking criterion which can ranks informal skills and assign the equivalent level in formal training.

We concur with Adams et al. (2013) who note the need to involve public education providers to improve the literacy levels of those in the sector who did not have a chance to further their education. Other than that, Lange et al. (2015) argue that certification results in a sense of accomplishment by the trainees, boosts their self-confidence and professional pride. This is particularly necessary in that, as noted earlier, the informal sector training host a lot of trainees who fail to pursue formal training route either because they could not afford the tuition fees or failed in basic school education. Armed with a certificate issued by a known and recognised training entity or government department, and endorsed by experts in the trade, we argue that informally trained graduates have better chances to be recognised by employers and clients from across all sectors. They are likely to be better placed to compete for contracts and tenders even with established formal sector firms. Lange et al. (2015) further reason that this will see informal entrepreneurs expanding their trade to penetrate new markets and serve people beyond their immediate social class. Adams et al. (2013) encourage the formation of what they call trade associations which are then mandated to facilitate training and promote innovation in the informal sector while the public service can also come in to provide a market for these skills.

Skills assessment will also benefit informal sector training programmes through improving the quality of skills that these programmes will offer to trainees (Adam et al., 2013). Assessment and evaluation in this case thus equate to quality assurance, and hence enhancing the competitive chances of the entrepreneurs and graduates from the sector. As Lange et al. (2015) assert, assessing informal training programmes and skills can also lead to setting up of standards to ensure that trainees in one trade receive the same type of training and attain the same level of skills. Assessing and evaluating of skills as well as setting of standards give room for regularisation of informally acquired skills and this in turn enhances competitiveness of skill holders as well as employability (Walther, 2012). With recognised skills, informal sector graduates also stand to receive some form of respect from their employers, negotiate for better working conditions and remuneration than when their skills and expertise are unrecognised (Lange et al., 2015). With high quality skills, and enjoying a competitive advantage, capacity to penetrate new markets and attract new clients, accompanied by high levels of self-confidence and professional pride, we argue that it is possible for informal sector training to become a force to reckon with when it comes to skills acquisition and development. Beneficiaries stand a good chance to make it in life even without receiving any formal training. Such competitive skills and high employability will take them a long way in building their capacity to fight against poverty and vulnerability, as well as economically empowering themselves as suggested by the HCT discussed earlier (Almendarez, 2013).

6. Conclusions

We conclude by restressing the role played by the informal sector training in building skills. The study noted that the sector is playing an important role in equipping people with vocational, entrepreneurial and soft skills through informal on-the-job-training, training workshops and self-training which they can use to improve their welfare. The sector is home to those who fail to meet the stringent formal educational and financial requirements that are required for one to pursue the formal education and training route. The majority of the informal entrepreneurs who we engaged are living very decent lives during the difficult economic environment that is currently obtaining in Zimbabwe through utilising skills that they acquired through informal sector training. Some managed to acquire assets like immovable properties and vehicles and are sufficiently providing for their families. They create employment and transfer their skills to others despite their lack of formal training and paper qualifications. In short, the informal sector is producing highly skilled personnel and the skills acquired from the sector are playing a critical role in empowering the poor, fighting poverty and building livelihoods. We argue that the sector is a platform for pro-poor training where those who cannot afford the high fees of formal training, or are not academically-talented can capitalise on and learn some important skills. We however noted that informal sector training, despite producing commendably skilled personnel and entrepreneurs, it faces the challenge of lack of recognition from stakeholders in other sectors. To counter this, we call for the involvement of public training institutions or government departments to supervise, assess, evaluate training in the sector and finally provide certification as a way of enhancing quality, setting standards and competitiveness of both the sector and its products. We end by suggesting that the government should come up with a national skills ranking framework that recognise informally acquired skills and allow informal training graduates to upgrade their skills and get formal qualification to end their discrimination and place them in a position where they can better enjoy the returns of their skills. The formal sector also need to go beyond looking for paper qualifications and theoretical knowledge but also give a chance to some of the informally trained personnel who proved to this study that despite poor educational background, they still managed to master their taught skills and can be equally good.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Pseudonym 1.

2 Pseudonym 2.

3 Pseudonym 3.

4 Pseudonym 6.