← Botswana · Institute of Health Sciences (IHS)
Diploma in Midwifery
Institute of Health Sciences (IHS) · Gaborone, Francistown, Serowe, Molepolole, Kanye & Lobatse
About this programme
Prepares students for professional midwifery practice covering antenatal care, labour management, postnatal care and newborn health.
Entry requirement
Entry requirement: at least 34 points.
Programme facts
| Qualification | Diploma |
| Institution | Institute of Health Sciences (IHS) |
| Faculty / school | Midwifery Department |
| Duration | 3 years |
| Location | Gaborone |
| Minimum points | 34 |
| Accreditation | BQA Accredited |
| Funding / sponsorship | Government sponsorship available through the Department of Tertiary Education Financing (DTEF) for qualifying students at 36 BGCSE points and above. |
| Demand outlook | HRDC forecasts about 2,290 openings a year in HEALTH (2025). 9,565 graduates in this field were recorded unemployed at 2024Q1, which at that rate is about 4.2 years of hiring to absorb the people already waiting — ACRON’s calculation from two HRDC figures, not an HRDC finding, and it counts only the existing pool. Graduates per opening: 0.84. Fewer graduates a year than forecast openings, despite the large existing pool of unemployed health graduates. HRDC's 2026 report adds that unemployment among health graduates "more than doubled, rising from 8.9% to 13.6%" between 2019 and 2024, and that "enrolment is not yet aligned to demand" — so a high forecast of need is not the same as posts being filled. These openings are a forecast of need, not posts that are currently being filled. In July 2026 the Directorate of Public Service Management told Parliament's Public Accounts Committee that government "currently do not have the financial capacity to create new vacancies", and that more than 8,000 students now graduate each year while the economy is no longer creating jobs at the same pace. Government policy reserves 80% of entry-level vacancies for new graduates and is achieving about 70%. (Directorate of Public Service Management, evidence to the 62nd sitting of the Public Accounts Committee, reported by Mmegi (July 2026).) This describes the whole field, not this programme alone, and it is not a government waiting list — Botswana publishes no such figure. Source: HRDC Priority Skills Report, March 2025, Table 31 p.41 and Appendix 3 pp.66-76; HRDC Tertiary Education Statistics Report 2024, Table 22. |
Careers this programme leads to
Midwife Maternal Health Specialist Community Midwife Hospital Midwife Childbirth Educator Antenatal Care Provider Postnatal Care Provider Reproductive Health Specialist Birth Attendant Maternal-Fetal Specialist
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