NN46, September 2011
Towards a New Global World of Skills Development? TVET's turn to Make its Mark
Lessons from TVET reforms in Africa and Asia
By Christian Kingombe, Overseas Development Institute, UK
E-mail: c.kingombe@odi.org.uk
Keywords: Returns to TVET; TVET reform; sources for financing TVET; Sierra Leone.
Summary: The paper makes suggestions for how to address future challenges and opportunities to ensure that the good performance of TVET reforms elsewhere contribute to the promotion of sustainable growth through private sector development in Sierra Leone.
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A recent paper by Kingombe (2011) examines the lessons learned from the experience in developing countries in the design and implementation of strategies for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET). It is generally argued that the best TVET strategy should ensure that the youth gets an education. This is considered the best vaccination against the rapidly spreading youth unemployment. Hence, to counter the adverse effects of this on-going crisis TVET has returned to the international policy agenda as a major policy instruments. For example, the African Union’s Plan of Action for the Second Decade of Education (2006–2015) recognises the importance of TVET as a means of empowering individuals to take control of their lives and suggests the integration of TVET into the general education system. However, the integration of TVET strategies into comprehensive employment policies still remains a challenge in most African countries.
When planning for TVET, policy-makers and decision-makers should be able to make informed decisions that are supported by evidence-based information. There is, unfortunately, a paucity of TVET statistics. The scarce data that does exist may meet some national information needs, however they can rarely be used for cross-country/regional comparisons. Kingombe (2011) provides a table on “Enrolment in Secondary education, 1999 and 2007(latest regional data)” based on UNESCO’s Institute for Statistics database. The evidence shows that globally, the number of secondary students at the age group from 10 to 18 years enrolled in TVET increased from 46.6 million in 1999 to around 54 million in 2007. During the same period the World’s youth unemployment fell slightly from 73.5 million in 1999 to 72.5 millions in 2007, after which it rebounded due to the global crisis (ILO, 2011).
However, the enrolment rates and TVET’s percentage share of total secondary enrolment vary widely among regions. Although the 2007 shares in Central Asia(6%) and Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) (12%) were lower than in East Asia (17%), these two sub-regions, on the other hand, experienced the highest growth rates between 1999 and 2007 of respectively 129% and 93% (UIS, 2011).
In 2007 DRC (20%), Rwanda(16%) and Cameroun(17%) had the highest TVET shares of total secondary enrolment. On the other hand, a number of other countries had seen their total number of secondary students enrolled in TVET programmes grow at more than 100% in the same period, albeit from low levels. These countries were: Ethiopia; Zambia; Ghana; Kenya; Benin; Togo and Mali. Surprisingly, Niger was the worst performer with a significant fall in the total number enrolled in TVET despite the Government of Niger’s reform of the TVET system in 2006 (ibid.).
In East Asia although the total number had increased by 27%, the share had stagnated at 14%. Three countries had seen a more than 100% increase in the total number of enrolled TVET students. These were: Vietnam (189%); Bangladesh (140%) and Cambodia (131%). But in the both the case of Cambodia and Bangladesh the TVET share remained very low at just 2%, whereas in Vietnam the share was only slightly higher at 5%. China (17%) and Thailand (16%) were the only Asian countries with TVET shares above 15%, closely followed by Indonesia and Republic of Korea both at 13% as well as Singapore at 12% (ibid.).
Johanson and Adams (2004) rightly points out that getting the macroeconomic context right remains the essential first step in focusing on TVET. TVET does not create jobs. Skills are a derived demand and that demand depends on policies for growth and employment creation. A TVET reform generally consists of a broad range of TVET programme activities that focus on: Development of new national TVET Strategy and policy; Implementation of competency based training; New teacher training arrangements; A greater role for the private sector and more decentralised management of the formal TVET institutions.
Examples of good TVET reform practice in Asia includes: Republic of Korea; China and Singapore. Examples of good TVET reform practice in Africa includes: Benin, Togo, Senegal and Mali all of which are restructuring their TVET systems to incorporate traditional apprenticeships as well as Ethiopia. Experience in South Africa and experiments in Morocco, Benin and Cameroon underscore the need to associate social partners in TVET systems for the identification of jobs and the development of appropriate demand-driven TVET strategies. For example, in 2001, South Africa revamped its entire training policy around its National Skills Development Strategy for young people seeking to enter the labour market.
Kingombe(2011) looks at the organisation as well as the development and implementation of a forthcoming national TVET policy in Sierra Leone based upon the lessons learnt in both Asia and SSA. In his review paper he e.g. looks at some of the major elements that such a national TVET policy should contain by highlighting recent cases of good practice e.g. in Ethiopia, Zambia, and Singapore. He also presents recent examples of cooperation with donors in the design and implementation of TVET policies, including initiatives derived from the DANIDA sponsored Africa Commission; the Mano River Union Youth Peace and Development Initiative etc.
References
ILO. 2011. Global Employment Trends 2011: The challenge of a jobs recovery.
Kingombe, C. 2011. Lessons for Developing Countries from Experience with Technical and Vocational Education and Training. Working Paper for the International Growth Centre – Sierra Leone country programme.
UNESCO’s Institute for Statistics (UIS). UIS database.
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Cite article as: Kingombe, C., (2011) ‘Lessons from TVET reforms in Africa and Asia’, in NORRAG NEWS, Towards a New Global World of Skills Development? TVET's turn to Make its Mark, No.46, September 2011, pp. 104-105, available: http://www.norrag.org
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