Budget 2026–2027: Bold Reforms to bridge Skills Gaps and Labour Shortages

Budget 2026-2027 provides for a series of labour market reforms aimed at addressing workforce gaps, increasing labour supply and ensuring better alignment between skills development and market demand.

To this end, Government will formulate a comprehensive migration policy to attract foreign talents, address labour shortage and skills mismatch. A National E-Diaspora Platform will also be established by the Economic Development Board to harness diaspora expertise in support of national development priorities.

The Public Procurement Act will be amended to allow public bodies to directly engage qualified diaspora experts for specialised services on mutually agreed terms and conditions.

To further address skills mismatch, the Mauritius Qualifications Authority Act will be amended to make it mandatory for the registration of all trainers at the Technical and Vocational Education and Training to be based on competency, teaching skills and industry experience. Moreover, micro-credentials will be integrated into the National Qualifications Framework to enable rapid, just-in-time upskilling, reskilling while ensuring training programmes are more responsive to labour market needs.

Additionally, the Human Resources Development Council will launch a Skills-Interface platform to coordinate employers, training providers and Government in priority sectors. It will also commission sectoral and national skills intelligence for these same sectors.

To encourage enrolment in training programmes, trainee monthly stipends will be increased for the National Skills Development Programme from Rs 8,000 to Rs 10,000 for unemployed trainees up to Diploma level. As for the Graduate Training for Employment Skills, the total support will be raised from Rs 100,000 to Rs 120,000 with a cap on the monthly stipend raised from Rs 10,000 to Rs 12,000.

23 June 2026

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Topics: Employment