Zambia's ambassador to the U.S. calls for an urgent gaps analysis on the needs for human capital infrastructure development in higher education

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April 10, 2014 - Zambia's Ambassador to the United States, Palan Mulonda has called for an urgent gaps analysis on the needs for human capital infrastructure development in higher education.

Ambassador Mulonda says the gaps analysis would inform both public and private sector investors on the needs for infrastructure development in the area of higher education.

Ambassador Mulonda was speaking at the Zambian Mission in Washington DC when Academicians from Victoria Falls University of Technology in Zambia and the Virginia Tech College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences of the U.S called on him.

And Ambassador Mulonda said the gap analysis was critical because it would help to know the human capacity required in the universities being established in all the 10 provinces of Zambia.

He said the mission will endeavor to find linkages between institutions of higher learning in the US and Zambia under the framework of the America-Zambia Linkages which the Embassy is embarking on to facilitate linkages of Zambian and American institutions by sector.

And speaking at the function, Victoria Falls University of Technology Vice Chancellor Gertrude Akapelwa-Ehueni observed that Zambia requires to build infrastructure for human capacity for higher education if the country is to develop its potential.

Mrs. Akapelwa-Ehueni stated that in the University's quest to take advantage of its Livingstone location and tap into its potential to become a center of development, it was highly in need of human capacity development. She noted that it was in this regard that the possibilities of partnership were being explored with interested institutions in the U.S.

Mrs. Akapelwa-Ehueni said that the faculties currently established at the Victoria Falls University included those of education, information technology, tourism and hotel management and business and finance and that the University had 300 students.

Virginia Tech College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences Visiting Assistant professor, Dr. Joseph Mukuni, Associate Professor, School of Education Professor Bill Price and Professor Emeritus and Director, School of Education, Prof. Josiah S. Tlou met with Ambassador Mulonda to explore the possibilities of creating capacity building linkages between potential investors in the U.S and universities in Zambia including the Victoria Falls University in Livingstone.

Dr. Mukuni also said there are existing partnerships between Virginia Tech and the University of Zambia, as well as with the Ministry of Education, Science and Vocational Training and Early Education were memoranda of understanding have been signed.

Recently Virginia Tech had also trained three Zambians at PhD level in the area of technical education and these were now working at the University of Zambia.

Dr. Mukuni noted that the technical education program under Virginia Tech which the three Zambians trained in is ranked fourth in the U.S.

Issued by
Patricia Littiya
First Secretary (Press and Public Relations)
Embassy of the Republic of Zambia
Washington, DC