Asteria Pirola
I was 23 when I signed my first governmental contract, through the University of Namibia’s Centre for Continuous Professional Development Unit (CPD). I had no business degree, no mentors, no “real skills” other than sheer grit and determination to exceed my client’s expectations. So, I learned by doing: technical proposal and financial writing, briefing and paying consultants, running the operational side of a contract with no formal training behind me. My first degree, in human resources management from the Polytechnic of Namibia came later. By then, it wasn’t teaching me from scratch, it was formalising skills I’d already built under pressure.
I raise this because my context is one that is local, and one can hope that it would aid Namibia in properly framing the dilemma around youth unemployment.
The gap isn’t qualifications
Every unemployment conversation here lands on “we need more training.” But Namibia isn’t short on credentials. Data from Afro barometer suggests that, nearly a quarter of Namibians aged 18–35 hold post-secondary qualifications, yet only 18% are in full-time employment. Further to that, a World Bank policy note goes further, highlighting that 35% of youth are not in employment, education, or training and that figure barely improves once someone completes a TVET qualification, which about a third of TVET graduates still can’t find work.
That’s a readiness gap, the distance between what a curriculum certifies and what a workplace actually demands. My own path worked because a live contract forced those skills into place in real sequence.
The policy groundwork already exists
Namibia hasn’t been idle here. The Vocational Education and Training Act created the Namibia Training Authority and a training-levy system to link industry directly to skills financing. The 2021 National TVET Policy and the Namibia Qualifications Framework were built to make skills portable and demand-led rather than institution-bound. Vision 2030 and NDP6 both name skills development as a growth engine.
More recently, a new work-integrated learning policy launched this year under Prime Minister Dr Elijah Ngurare pushes graduates toward internships and apprenticeships before they job-hunt, with the National Council for Higher Education, NQA, and NTA all named as accountability partners. On the ground, the Capricorn Foundation’s Vocational Graduate Entrepreneurship Programme in Erongo is already converting TVET graduates into business owners instead of job seekers.
The architecture is largely in place. What’s missing is the audit layer: an honest, systemic read of where a young person’s actual readiness sits against what an employer needs, and whether the gap is technical, financial, relational, or operational.
What a real skills audit would measure
A national readiness audit shouldn’t just ask what qualification someone holds. It should ask what one can actually do under pressure, such as: developing proposals that survives scrutiny, pricing a service correctly, holding a difficult client relationship, solving real problems through tech savviness, and remaining at the core of all of these, should be the mindset of remaining curious enough to individually upskill.
In formalizing this, I am of the opinion that at-least three key pieces would be foundational: curricula that treat work-integrated learning as core, not optional; financing and mentorship that let young people fail cheaply on small projects; and a feedback loop where industry data on actual gaps shapes what NTA and universities teach next in academic terms.
The better question isn’t how to get more young people qualified. It’s how to get them skill-tested and trusted with real responsibility before the stakes are highest.
Asteria Pirola is the Founder & CEO of Net-0 Network (www.netzeron.com), a founder-investor matching platform operating between Windhoek and Milan. Her team is reachable via info@netzeron.com
