Tanzania Private Sector Foundation (TPSF) has teamed up with the government and researchers to find mechanisms of supporting fashion designers and cosmetologists to formalize their business.
TPSF’s Coordinator for Skills Councils Ms Jane Gonsalves said in Dar es Salaam yesterday that the initiative aims at exporting skills and products to the regional markets.
He said fashion designers and cosmetologists have a great chance to create more jobs and increase production but lack of formal ways of attaining skills were dragging them back.
“TPSF has reached this decision because this sector needs qualified people with formal training which will support them participate in the government tendering process. This will also enable them to take part in international fashion, designs and cosmetology international competitions,” she said.
She was speaking during a sensitization workshop on the establishment of the creative skills council for the fashion design and cosmetology subsector.
She noted that the establishment of a skills council would support many people, especially youths, to get some professional training or certification which will make them recognised as professionals and therefore they may export such skills or products to regional markets and earn foreign currency.
Ms Gonsalves mentioned some target markets like the East African community, Southern Africa Development Community and even the Africa Continental Free Trade Area, which offers such huge potential for jobs and business in the said sectors.
“There is a need for setting standards and supervising this sector firmly so that players can take part in an international competition like the event scheduled for Namibia in March next year which will be followed by an international event in France later next year” she added.
The Assistant Manager of the Tanzania Cosmetologist Association (TCA) Ms Nancy Elihaki said that such initiative would help alleviate challenges facing her sector in the country.
She said that such a sector would also solve the knowledge gap and skills which are the stumbling blocks for flourishing.
“Tanzania is in a good position of producing quality and organic cosmological products, but limited skills and technical know-how was a boundary for earning such potential,” she said.