The Chief Skills Office was established under the Rwanda Development Board in September 2018 to align skills development with labour market demands.
It is mandated to provide effective oversight and coordination in the skills development and employment promotion ecosystem. Our vision is skilling Rwanda for economic transformation.

Skilling Rwanda for Economic Transformation.

To be the Apex Body that coordinates relevant stakeholders and initiates innovative ways in skills development and employment promotion.

• Promote and coordinate sector skills, capacity development strategies and actions to respond to private sector needs.
• Conduct Labour Market Analysis to identify current and future skills needs in priority sectors and for key investment projects.
• Facilitate labour market integration through innovative partnerships and interventions.

The Skills Office promotes and coordinates sector skills, capacity development strategies and actions to respond to private and public sector needs.

Implementation of Capacity Building Fund

The Strategic Capacity Development Department under CSO is in charge of coordinating all public sector related trainings. These trainings are financed by the Government’s Capacity Building Fund (CBF) in partnership with our development partners.

It follows a two-step approach for effective planning, coordination and oversight of implementation of trainings.

Step One: Planning

• Capacity Needs Assessments (CNA) for each institution
• Institutions develop capacity building plan;

Step Two: Execution

• Budget request to CSO by institutions;
• Request analyzed by capacity building technical committee
• Feedback to institutions for implementation in case of approval (ToRs, procurement, etc)
• Invoices and CB reports submitted to RDB

Under its support to private sector development, the Strategic Capacity Development Department is working with the Chambers in Priority Sectors (currently ICT, Tourism, Manufacturing) to support their member companies in addressing constraints to firm growth. RDB is also partnering with companies to avail skills to strategic investment projects.

The Skills Office facilitates labour market integration through innovative partnerships and interventions through professional internships and the coordination of employment programmes.

The Skills Office mobilises companies to partner in the internship programmes. Today, over 3,500 fresh graduates apply online every year and around 1,500 interns are placed.
RDB conducts monthly monitoring and evaluation and ensures the payment of stipends to interns.

The Skills Office coordinates the planning of the NEP (National Employment Program)
central implementing institutions and district, ensures the monitoring and evaluation of the different NEP programmes such as skills development, business development and access to finance interventions and organises coordination forums.

RDB/CSO coordinate employability skills development in partnership with WDA and RP to support companies to acquire skilled labour. For more details, download the Employability Guidelines here or visit www.sdfrwanda.rw

The Skills Office coordinates interventions to support SMEs with special focus to youth and women SMEs to access business development and access to capital through BDF. For more details on different products and accessibility criteria, please visit www.bdf.rw

The Skills Office collaborates with National Institute of Statistics Rwanda (NSIR) to conduct and analyse data of the Labour Force Survey. Among others the Skills Office conducts employment intensity studies, supports the monitoring of employment dimension of investment registered with RDB, produces thematic Labour Market analytical report and ensures regular upgrading and maintenance of the Labour Market Information System, the Kora Job Portal, NEP M&E systems.

The Skills Office has established and strengthened employment service Centres in Kigali, Musanze and Huye. In addition, it has promoted employment services outreach programmes to smooth job matching (e.g mobile buses, Job Portal-KORA, conducted employment service tracer studies and audits to ensure the compliance of private employment services agencies.

Major, long term investment is needed to right-fit Rwanda’s skills base for middle income status. As a middle-income country the economy will have shifted towards services and industry, and a more capable workforce will be needed across all sub-sectors.

Skills development and employment promotion are central to Rwanda ́s transformative vision, aiming to become an upper-middle income country by 2035, and ultimately a high-income country by 2050.

Today, Rwanda’s skills base is a constraint to growth of existing businesses, limits investment, and is not enabling a rapid transition to a middle-income economy
The Chief Skills Office together with key stakeholders in the skills development and employment promotion Ecosystem developed the National Skills Development and Employment Promotion Strategy (NSDEPS), which will provide skills for employment, match skills supply and demand and promote employment through targeted interventions.

The NSDEPS comes as a follow-on to the National Employment Programme and defines a vision of an optimised skills and employment ecosystem, to foster long-term economic transformation. This strategy is built on 3 pillars, covering skills development, employment promotion, and matching.

This strategy is both ambitious and actionable. It focuses on the next five years, with long-term aims, It is rooted in facts and past work and is also innovative: It is informed by international experiences, to become distinctly Rwandan: It is RDB led, and jointly owned:

The Kora Job Portal is a matching platform established by the Rwanda Development Board with the aim of linking jobseekers with potential employers. On this portal, you will find different jobs, internships and training opportunities as well as information on Career Guidance and the National Employment Programme (NEP Kora-Wigire). The Kora Job Portal is also a client management tool for the Public Employment Service Centres.