As businesses race to automate, digitise and adopt artificial intelligence, Uganda may be overlooking one of the most important ingredients of economic growth: the people capable of making those investments work.
That is the central message from Moses Kasakya, Executive Director of Uganda’s Technical and Vocational Education and Training Council, who has argued that skills should be treated as a fundamental driver of business growth rather than an afterthought.
Speaking during a keynote address at the National Skills Champions Dinner organised by WorldSkills Federation Uganda, Kasakya challenged a familiar pattern in which organisations invest heavily in systems, technology and equipment while paying comparatively little attention to the abilities of the people expected to operate them.
“Even technology, even AI, a human being actually manages it.”
His point goes beyond vocational education. It raises a wider economic question for Uganda: what value can sophisticated equipment, digital platforms, factories and artificial intelligence create if businesses do not have enough workers with the practical skills to use, maintain and improve them?
The human factor behind technology
Technology can increase productivity, reduce costs and transform entire industries. But technology does not operate in isolation. Businesses still require technicians, operators, engineers, artisans, programmers, supervisors and entrepreneurs who understand both the tools and the problems those tools are supposed to solve.
Kasakya argues that this human factor is sometimes neglected when organisations attempt to improve performance.
Companies may upgrade equipment. Governments may introduce new systems. Institutions may buy computers or deploy digital platforms. Businesses may embrace artificial intelligence. Yet the effectiveness of those investments ultimately depends on whether workers have the competence to use them productively.
“Skills are so important when it comes to business growth.”
This is why the conversation around Technical and Vocational Education and Training, or TVET, increasingly extends beyond employment programmes for young people. It is also a conversation about productivity, industrialisation and the competitiveness of Ugandan businesses.
From certificates to competence
Uganda has been reforming its technical and vocational training system around a stronger emphasis on competence, practical learning and closer alignment between training institutions and the labour market.
The Technical and Vocational Education and Training Act, 2025 established a new institutional framework for coordinating, regulating and promoting TVET, reflecting a broader effort to make skills development more responsive to the needs of employers and the economy.
The challenge, however, is not simply to train more people. Training must produce abilities that employers can actually use.
Kasakya has stressed that skilled labour should not be understood only through academic qualifications. A productive worker must also be able to apply knowledge, solve problems, adapt to changing technology and continue learning as industries evolve.
A major youth challenge
The issue is particularly important in a country with a large young population and millions of young people outside employment, education or training.
Uganda Bureau of Statistics data indicate that about 4 million young Ugandans aged 15 to 24 are not in employment, education or training. Turning that population into a productive economic force will require more than simply creating vacancies. Young people also need pathways into skills that employers and markets actually demand.
That is where properly designed vocational training, apprenticeships, workplace learning and industry partnerships can become important.
Instead of businesses waiting for graduates and then complaining that they lack the required competencies, employers can play a greater role in defining occupational standards, supporting apprenticeships and helping training institutions understand how jobs themselves are changing.
AI makes skills more important, not less
The rapid spread of artificial intelligence makes Kasakya’s argument particularly timely.
AI may automate individual tasks, but it also increases the value of workers who can understand new systems, supervise technology, diagnose problems, interpret information and adapt when occupations change.
For Uganda, this means the skills debate should not be reduced to choosing between traditional vocational trades and advanced technology. The stronger approach is to combine practical competence with digital literacy, problem-solving, entrepreneurship and continuous learning.
A mechanic increasingly works with electronic diagnostic systems. A farmer may depend on digital information and modern equipment. A manufacturer needs technicians capable of operating automated machinery. A small business owner may use artificial intelligence for administration, marketing or customer service.
In each case, technology amplifies human capability when the required skills are present.
Uganda cannot industrialise without skilled people
Uganda’s ambitions in manufacturing, construction, energy, oil and gas, agriculture, infrastructure and the digital economy will ultimately require a workforce capable of converting investment into production.
That makes technical education not simply an education-sector concern, but an economic policy issue.
There is also a challenge for government. Parliament has raised concern about funding constraints affecting implementation of some reforms under the new TVET framework. Laws and policies can establish institutions, but producing a skilled workforce requires functioning training systems, instructors, equipment, assessment, industry participation and sustained financing.
For businesses, Kasakya’s message is equally important: investment in people should accompany investment in machines.
A modern production line without competent operators will underperform. An expensive information system without trained staff will remain underused. Artificial intelligence introduced into an organisation without people capable of applying it intelligently will not automatically produce innovation.
The bigger economic lesson
Kasakya’s argument ultimately reframes the national conversation about vocational education.
TVET should not be viewed merely as an alternative education pathway for people who do not enter university. At its strongest, it is part of the infrastructure of a productive economy: a system for creating technicians, artisans, entrepreneurs and adaptable workers whose competence allows businesses to grow.
Uganda can import machinery. It can purchase software. Companies can subscribe to artificial intelligence platforms. Investors can build factories and government can construct infrastructure.
But none of those investments can substitute for capable people.
That may be the most important lesson from Kasakya’s remarks: the future of business will certainly involve more technology, but Uganda’s ability to benefit from that technology will still depend on what its people know how to do.
