Manpower Planning and Development (Information Communication Technology Industry) Regulations, 2024

The Minister of Higher and Tertiary Education has made regulations putting the ICT industry on a formal apprenticeship footing. Occupations listed in the First Schedule become designated trades requiring apprenticeship training before someone can be certified as a skilled worker.

Entry requirements: minimum age sixteen. For a technician trade an applicant needs a Grade B or better in Mathematics, a relevant Science subject, a Grade C or better in English Language, and two other O level subjects or a relevant national foundation certificate from an approved board. A technical subject is an advantage but not required.

Apprenticeship runs four years in all trades. It can be shortened for prior apprenticeship training, for national service, Defence Forces or Regular Police Force service (remitted in the final year), or by passing a competency test — after which the remainder of the apprenticeship is remitted from the day after the test. Training starts with an induction of up to six months during which the Authority may cancel the contract if the apprentice is unsuitable, followed by full-time technical training over two consecutive semesters at an approved institution.

Money: tuition and examination fees are paid on the apprentice's behalf from the Zimbabwe Manpower Development Fund (ZIMDEF). But if an apprentice fails exams, has poor attendance, gets a bad report, is withdrawn, or has the contract rescinded, the Authority can order repayment of those fees in whole or part — unless the rescission was outside the apprentice's control and not their fault. Wages are set as a percentage of the skilled worker rate under the applicable industrial agreement, with the percentages in the Third Schedule. Passing the National Certificate earns an extra four cents per hour, and the National Diploma eight cents per hour, backdated to the last day of the exam. Deductions from wages are capped at ten per cent of gross wages.

Conditions of service: every apprentice must be on a medical aid scheme, and the employer pays at least half the contribution. Overtime is capped at ten hours a week, with at least one hour's notice, and after a sixteen-hour stretch in twenty-four hours the apprentice cannot resume work for twelve hours. Where no industrial agreement applies, a five-day-week apprentice gets 22 working days annual leave and 22 days sick leave on full pay plus 22 on half pay; a six-day-week apprentice gets 30 calendar days leave and 30 plus 30 days sick leave. Leave accumulates to a maximum of 66 or 90 days. One paid maternity leave is allowed during the apprenticeship, with training suspended for that period. No employer may have more apprentices than skilled workers without the Authority's approval.

Caveat on completeness: this is a long instrument and the text available here stops partway through the outside-work provisions in section 18. The four schedules — the list of designated ICT trades, the practical training requirements, the apprentice wage percentages and the fees — are not in this extract, and neither are the provisions on personal protective equipment, completion of technician trades, the practical trade test or compliance. Anyone who needs the actual trade list, wage percentages or fee amounts must read the instrument itself. The cross-references to schedules in the body are also inconsistent (competency test fees are pointed at the Second Schedule while the Fourth Schedule is the fees schedule), which is a further reason to check against the printed schedules.