NN46, September 2011
Towards a New Global World of Skills Development? TVET's turn to Make its Mark
Mainstreaming Self-Sufficient Schools. A Critique
By Nik Kafka and Erica Bertolotto, Teach A Man To Fish, London
Email: Nik@teachamantofish.org.uk, Erica@teachamantofish.org.uk
Keywords: School-based enterprises; Income generation in schools; Market-oriented skills development; Financing vocational education.
Summary: Self-Sufficient Schools provide a possible answer to the challenges of quality, relevance, access & finance of vocational education. This market-oriented approach uses school-based businesses to provide an effective training platform for student learning, while profits from these enterprises over time can generate sufficient funding to pay for the full costs of the education provided.
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If education and training towards skills development is an important part of the solution to global poverty, two questions naturally arise.
Firstly, as governments, in line with Millennium Development Goals, direct their funding priorities towards primary education, where will the finance for improvements in quality and availability of post-primary and skills-based education come from?
Secondly, with labor markets in low-income developing countries typically characterized by a lack of formal sector jobs, self-employment remains an important means of earning a living. In this context, how can traditional secondary and vocational education institutions better prepare their students with the entrepreneurial skills needed to succeed?
Self-Sufficient Schools provide a possible answer to both questions. This innovative approach, combining entrepreneurship and vocational education, not only increases the relevancy of learning, but through school-based businesses provides both a training ground for students and a means of finance for the school.
Case studies from Paraguay, Benin and Nicaragua illustrate how secondary schools and post-primary training institutions have tackled the challenges of creating and implementing market-oriented skills programs to improve outcomes for students, while generating income to meet the costs of providing this education.
These examples also offer clues as to how the negative perceptions of vocational education can be transformed. It has certainly been argued that the low quality and unclear benefits offered by traditional skills development approaches has, in many countries, undermined the confidence of potential students and their families in its worth.
By basing skills training around creating products and services which are not only of a marketable quality, but also profitable, potential students and their families have the confidence that what is being taught will be of real value in the workplace. Combining this with hands-on entrepreneurship education covering business, finance and management, provides the additional reassurance that graduates will be ready for self-employment where this is the best or only option.
The extended version of this paper seeks i) to outline in further detail the Self-Sufficient School concept, ii) to draw together lessons learned from institutions currently using this approach, notably in the field of agricultural education, iii) to chart a path forward for this methodology, and finally iv) to suggest how its adoption might help plug the finance gap which currently limits the availability of sustainable post-primary education across much of the developing world.
This full length version will be available as part of the UKFIET 2011 conference documents.
Follow-up resources
Resource toolkit for planning and implementation of Self-Sufficient Schools www.teachamantofish.org.uk/school-box
Back catalogue of articles on Self-Sufficient Schools and related topics www.teachamantofish.org.uk/newsletters
Network of organizations involved and interested in Self-Sufficient Schools approaches www.teachamantofish.org.uk/about-the-network
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Cite article as: Kafka, N. and Bertolotto, E., (2011) ‘Mainstreaming Self-Sufficient Schools. A Critique’, in NORRAG NEWS, Towards a New Global World of Skills Development? TVET's turn to Make its Mark, No.46, September 2011, pp. 100-101, available: http://www.norrag.org
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