With a growing number of Zimbabweans returning home from South Africa amid mounting challenges faced by migrants there, the Bulawayo Project Centre has unveiled a fast-track skills recognition and business incubation programme to help returnees rebuild their lives.
The church-founded vocational training institution says it will assess and certify artisans who acquired skills informally while working in South Africa and provide incubation support for those wishing to establish businesses in Zimbabwe.
The intervention comes as government and civic organisations scramble to cushion returning Zimbabweans, many of whom are arriving traumatised after abandoning jobs, businesses and property in South Africa.
Bulawayo Minister of State for Provincial Affairs and Devolution Judith Ncube said authorities had established a multi-stakeholder committee led by churches to coordinate assistance for returnees arriving in the city.
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“We have a challenge,” Ncube said on Sunday during the 72th birthday celebration of business person Herbet Mutize.
“We have returnees from South Africa. Some left their properties there and we must provide a soft landing.”
The resident minister said returnees arriving in Bulawayo are first taken to a command centre where those arriving at night are accommodated before continuing with their journeys the following day.
“When returns arrive they go to the command centre. If they arrive at night they get a place to sleep because we cannot say they should go at night,” she said.
“The churches have arranged some help for them and the next morning they proceed. Those people are traumatised. They need our support.”
Ncube said the government had also stepped in to provide transport assistance.
“We have tickets, the government sorted that out, for them to proceed to their homes. Some places have no buses, so as Bulawayo we are trying to put our heads together through this committee to give that helping hand to the people affected.”
This is where organisations like the Bulawayo Project Centre come in, positioning itself to provide longer-term economic solutions by making sure skilled returnees can immediately transition into employment or entrepreneurship.
In an interview with CITE, Hub Manager for the centre’s Thorngrove branch, Edmore Moyo, said many Zimbabweans returning from South Africa possess valuable practical skills acquired through years of informal work but lack recognised qualifications.
“We have people who left Zimbabwe with skills and worked in South Africa. Others acquired those skills while they were there, and now they are coming back,” he said.
Instead of requiring them to undergo lengthy training programmes, BPC will assess their competencies through practical trade tests before awarding certificates to successful candidates.
“For those who need certification, we plan to assess their skills and then give them certification upon successfully meeting the requirements,” he said.
“We will take them through tailored and practical processes that will allow us to determine whether they are qualified or whether they need further training.”
Moyo said the assessments would cover trades commonly dominated by Zimbabwean migrants in South Africa, including construction, motor mechanics, welding, catering, hairdressing and other vocational occupations.
“When you produce a Bulawayo Project Centre certificate it is because you have been proven to be well-versed in that trade,” he said.
Those who require additional training will not be forced into standard programmes but will instead receive customised practical courses based on identified skills gaps.
“We recognise the returnees need a helping hand, so we will tailor a process that is considerate of their circumstances,” Moyo said.
“Our certification fee starts from US$10, while those going for industrial attachment pay an attachment fee of US$30. Our courses generally cost at least US$50 per month, with a US$10 registration fee.”
Moyo added: “For returnees from South Africa, we want them to know that when they ask themselves, ‘What am I going to do when I get home?’Bulawayo Project Centre is the point of reference for vocational skills training as well as business incubation.”
Beyond certification, Bulawayo Project Centre has also opened its business incubation facilities to returnees who already possess marketable skills or savings to start enterprises.
The organisation operates hubs in Thorngrove, Njube, Cowdray Park and the newly established Inkunzi hub in Donnington Industrial area, undergoing transformation into a modern business incubation and skills development centre.
Moyo said the facilities provide entrepreneurs with access to industrial machinery, digital skills training, business mentorship and assistance formalising enterprises through regulatory compliance.
“Our incubation model targets micro-enterprises so that they are able to compete in the market,” he said.
“The idea is to give them access to machinery, business training, digital skills and help them regularise their businesses so they comply with institutions such as ZIMRA.”
Recognising that many returnees have exhausted their savings while relocating home, the centre is reviewing its incubation terms to provide more generous support than is currently offered to local entrepreneurs.
“For locals we give them a one-month grace period, but maybe for the returnees that might not be enough…We are not going to ask of them the same kind of things we ask from locals because we understand they are vulnerable,” Moyo said.
For returnees without any vocational skills, Bulawayo Project Centre can offer flexible short courses tailored to individual needs rather than requiring everyone to complete conventional four to six-month programmes.
Programme Partnerships and Communications Officer, Tichafa Chiramba, said the organisation’s latest intervention reflects the same mission that inspired its establishment more than three decades ago.
“The centre was founded in the 1990s by churches in Bulawayo during the economic hardships triggered by the Economic Structural Adjustment Programme (ESAP), the centre initially coordinated food relief and shelter for families who had lost jobs and homes,” he said.
However, Chiramba said church leaders soon recognised that food aid alone could not permanently lift people out of poverty.
“The organisation therefore established vocational training programmes to equip unemployed people with practical skills for self-employment and sustainable livelihoods, eventually expanding into a registered institution specialising in technical skills development and micro-enterprise support,” he said.
Chiramba said the current challenges facing Zimbabweans returning from South Africa closely mirror the circumstances that led to the centre’s formation.
“This comes as part of solutions that will alleviate the difficult circumstances fellow Zimbabweans are going through,” he said.
He also appealed to churches, corporate organisations, development partners and other civil society organisations to collaborate with BPC in expanding support for returnees.
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