The objectives of the project are to improve the living and socio-economic conditions of marginalized and vulnerable youth in Zimbabwe, including drop-out students. In particular to offer at-risk youth tertiary education skills to improve their lives and hope for a better future.
One of the main challenges in Zimbabwe is the lack of financial resources to adequately fund the educational system. Zimbabwe, just like many developing countries, relies on donor funding for many of its educational projects. According to the Ministry of Education Sport and Culture, about 94% of the government's allocation to the education systems goes towards paying salaries.
Only 4% remains to fund development projects. These financial constraints result in a shortage of resources compromising the quality of education. Lack of funding makes it is impossible to implement reforms that improve academic achievement and proficiency further undermining the quality of education delivered.
In the past 20 years, Zimbabwe experienced a sharp decline in the overall socio-economic status of the population due to a number of factors including politically motivated violence and an economic meltdown resulting in loss of income and livelihood. The economic situation for the average Zimbabwean family has worsened during this period.
It has been during the last decade of the political and economic crisis that resulted in a spike in youth unemployment. The unstable economic environment
led to the proliferation of the informal sector and parallel (black) market, which absorbed most young people as informal workers.

PROJECT'S IMPACT AND EFFECTIVENESS

Beneficiaries
The beneficiaries of the project are the young unemployed, aged between 15 and 25 years of Matabeleland North, Zimbabwe, who live in conditions of poverty and social exclusion, especially in the rural areas of the region. Indirectly, the project will benefit the local micro-economy and the people with the highest risk of poverty, guaranteeing quality and oriented education, favoring their integration, and consequently increasing the ability to earn income. 

Direct effects
-Increase in the school attendance rate is measured by the relationship between the time series and the future statistical data (UNICEF).
-Improvement of the quality of teaching is measurable by analyzing the percentage of students who will obtain the national diploma.
- Lowering the youth unemployment rate by means of a regional survey (ZimStat Institute).

Local Synergies and Impact
While adding direct value to the local community of Hwange, the new college will also reach Gowke and Bulawayo and provide opportunities for youth in all 10 Provinces in Zimbabwe. The Hwange Community is knowledgeable and supportive of the program and
has the capacity to successfully implement this intervention. Balancing the needs of the institution
with the needs of the overall community will be crucial for achieving the most impactful outcome.
The presence of local companies in the continuous search for skilled labor, and the nearby located Lupane State University are able to offer continuity in the training course after obtaining the school diploma.

There are many key players who are helping to implement the college program, in particular:
-Salesians of Don Bosco of Hwange, delegates of the congregation responsible for the entire project, from the realization of the campus to the education and training.
The congregation owns the land where the project is going to be developed, which has been given through a grant from the Government of Zimbabwe.
-Young Africa, legal consultant of the project from 2016, is a skills training organization operating in Southern Africa.
Founded in the Netherlands in 1998, the mission of YA is to empower young people through vocational and technical skills training combined with life skills and entrepreneurship training.
The uniqueness of YA’s employability programming is in its highly innovative and sustainable franchise business
model. Every YA center is set up as a social enterprise that provides skills training through local entrepreneurs,
who assume the responsibility to train young people to be entrepreneurs or to be skilled enough to be employed by entrepreneurs.
-The Hwange-Gokwe Diocese, born in 1985 follows the difficult situation of young people, in terms of poverty,
hunger, and lack of occupation in the region.
-The Government of Zimbabwe, which acts through the Local Board of Hwange in the area from 1987, donated 29 hectares of land to be used to build a College with boarding facilities.
-Several local institutions and private companies are called to contribute to the college growth in different ways, such as the Hwange Colliery, the Local Board of Hwange, the Polytechnic of Bulawayo, the Lupane State University, the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education, Science
and Technology Development, and the friends’ community of the Mpumalanga neighborhood.

Hwange Technical College Visioning Document
Local Partnership