China’s Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Zhou Ding, says more than 6,000 Zimbabwean professionals have been trained in China over the past decade, highlighting the scale of a long-running skills pipeline between the two countries.
Speaking at the Presidential Programme for Professionals Convention in Harare this Thursday, Amb Zhou said the training spans technical and management fields, forming part of broader cooperation aimed at supporting Zimbabwe’s industrialisation drive. 
PP4P is a government-backed platform to mobilise Zimbabwe’s professionals, both local and diaspora, to support national development goals under NDS2.
Beyond overseas training, Amb Zhou said “tens of thousands” of Zimbabweans have received on-the-job skills through Chinese-funded infrastructure projects and investments, including in energy, transport, ICT and construction. 
These include landmark developments such as Hwange Units 7 and 8, the Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport expansion and the New Parliament Building, which have doubled as training grounds for local engineers, technicians and project managers.
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Chinese companies operating in Zimbabwe are also contributing to skills transfer, with projects like the Dinson Steel Plant creating thousands of jobs while introducing new industrial processes.
The training pipeline is further supported by scholarships, vocational education programmes and partnerships between Zimbabwean and Chinese institutions, with students currently studying in China under technical training initiatives. 
Zimbabwe has, over time, built one of its largest external skills pipelines through China, training thousands of professionals across sectors that matter for industrial growth.
This means Zimbabwe now has a size-able pool of people exposed to modern industrial systems, from power generation to telecoms to heavy manufacturing.
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