Closing the Talent Gap: Key to Unlocking Malawi’s Productivity and Profit Potential

Key Business Points

• Skills mismatch is a major challenge in Malawi, with a significant gap between the skills acquired through education and the demands of the labor market, affecting job prospects and earnings for young graduates.
• The education-to-employment pipeline has structural gaps, resulting in low economic value of skills acquired, delayed entry into formal employment, and slower lifetime earnings growth, with many graduates resorting to subsistence farming, informal work, or casual labor.
• To address these challenges, targeted reforms such as structured apprenticeships, employer-led skills councils, and short bridge-to-work programs are necessary, and the government has begun to review the curriculum to make learning more skills-oriented and responsive to labor-market needs, using terms like "kugwiritsa ntchito za zithandizo" (applying skills to work) to emphasize the importance of practical skills.

The warning about the weak alignment between education, skills training, and labor-market demand in Malawi has significant implications for the country’s business community. According to the United Nations-World Bank policy notes titled ‘No Time to Waste: Policy Priorities for Malawi’, the economy is failing to absorb new labor-market entrants into productive employment, with only around 30,000 formal jobs created annually for about 270,000 young people entering the labor market. This results in many graduates cycling through informal or short-term work, with delayed entry into formal employment, low starting wages, and slower lifetime earnings growth.

The report highlights that skills gaps are particularly evident in technical and vocational education and training, where outdated equipment and weak private-sector linkages limit job readiness, using terms like "maphunziro a sekondale" (secondary education) to emphasize the importance of vocational training. Employers in manufacturing, construction, and services report that poor skills outcomes increase onboarding and retraining costs, reduce productivity, and weaken competitiveness. The government has begun addressing these gaps through a curriculum review led by the Malawi Institute of Education, aiming to equip learners with relevant knowledge and skills, such as "kuchita kwa njira ya kuthandiza" (applying skills to work).

However, education analysts warn that curriculum reform alone will not address the jobs challenge without adequate funding and stronger links with employers. The Civil Society Education Coalition executive director, Benedicto Kondowe, emphasized that implementation remains a major risk, citing lack of infrastructure, including computers in public schools and universities. Kondowe also called for expansion of internship programmes to include technical college students, using terms like "programu za maphunziro" (training programs) to emphasize the importance of practical experience.

The policy notes suggest that targeted reforms, such as structured apprenticeships, employer-led skills councils, and short bridge-to-work programmes, could help reduce youth unemployment if effectively implemented. These reforms could help address the skills mismatch and improve the economic value of skills acquired through education, ultimately benefiting Malawi’s business community and contributing to the country’s economic growth and investment opportunities.

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