BY MENGISTEAB TESHOME
According to various reports, over the last two decades, Sub-Saharan African countries experienced significant growth as a result of the rapid transformations and foreign investments which helped boost the demand for greater technological skills.
However, it seems that the greatest challenge remains ahead as if not all most of the countries continue to observe a large gap in the demand and supply of technical and vocational skills, as a result, industries often identify the shortage of an adequately educated workforce as a major constraint to further advance growth and development.
As several studies and data indicate, Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) in African countries has been underinvested and encountered considerable challenges, with little enrollment rates, low quality and relevance across most countries. To this end, and produce the workforces that the market demands, countries are working productively by setting priority and joining hands with partners and stakeholders. As part of the Partnership for skills in Applied Science, Engineering and Technology (PASET), African countries aim to revitalize the TVET systems with support from the World Bank (WB).
During the last couple of decades, the World Bank’s (WB) advice to developing countries seems to have been that basic education should be the top priority, and that public expenditure on Vocational Education and Trainin (VET) should be reduced. Such advice is based on the proposition that provision and funding of VET is best left to the individuals, private enterprises and private institutions. This is justified by the fact that the demand-driven training systems have outperformed supply-driven systems. During the last couple decades, The interest in TVET was also low within the donor community, partly as a result of the increased focus towards the sectorial work.
By its nature, TVET is multi-sectorial and it was relatively neglected as a result. However, TVET has recently returned to the international development policy agenda.
Recently, the first World Vocational and Technical Education Development Conference, (WVTEDC) that gathered professionals from various parts of the globe both in person and online interactions was held in the northern coastal city of Tianjin, China.
Ethiopia has also taken part in the conference organized under the theme “Vocational and Technical Education Development in the Post Pandemic Era – New Changes, New Ways and New Skills.”
At his congratulatory letter to participants of the conference, Chinese President, Xi Jinping said that Technical and Vocational Education and Trainings (TVET) are closely associated with the socio-economic development of a country. As the message read out by Chinese Vice Premier Sun Chunlan, TVET has considerable significance in boosting entrepreneurship and improving people’s livelihood is multitudinous.
Minister of Labor and Skills, Muferiat Kamil also said that the Ethiopian Government, recognizing the irreplaceable contribution of technical and vocational education and training area for the country’s overall socioeconomic development, has developed institutional and legal policy frameworks and is working untiringly making the sector a priority.
As she stated on online platform, Luban Workshop Ethiopia, which was launched in 2021 in partnership with Tianjin University of Technology and Education; and the Ethiopian Federal Technical and Vocational Education and Training Institute (TVTI), is serving the country as a center of excellence in the sector. All the training modules are developed in a manner meet the levels of international standards.
Director General of the Federal Technical and Vocational Education and Training Institute, Dr. Teshale Berecha, on his part highlighted the importance of technical and vocational education and training field with regard to creating job opportunities for citizens and poverty reduction.
At his virtual presentation, the Director General has also reassured participants Institute’s commitment and keenness in terms of helping transform technical and vocational education and training sector; and developing the required human capital in the country with the support and collaboration of partners.
“TVTI will continue further strengthening its partnership with the Tianjin University of Technology and Education,” he remarked.
Representing the Embassy of Ethiopia at the conference, Ethiopian Ambassador to China Teshome Toga held sideline talks with high-level Tianjin City officials and media personalities. Ambassador Teshome said that Luban Workshop Ethiopia is providing high-end technical skills training to young Ethiopians and is assisting them in meeting the skills requirements of the country’s market demand.
Chinese Vice Premier Sun Chunlan, also delivered remarks via video link. According to her, the Chinese Government attaches great importance to vocational education and has built the world’s largest vocational education system, which not only provides important support for high-quality development, but also meets the growth needs of different students.
China is ready to work with the international community to build a multi-tiered and wide-ranging cooperation platform, increase support for vocational education in developing countries, and enable people around the world to share the fruits of vocational education development, Sun added.
The launching of the International Vocational Education Award, the establishing of the World Technical and Vocational Education Training League, and the launching of The Tianjin Initiative proposals were also announced during the conference, where 700 government and non-governmental participants attended the event both offline and online.
The conference, including Ethiopia, was attended both online and offline platforms by heads of international organizations, representatives from government, industry, education ministers of different countries, and foreign diplomatic envoys to China and exchanged view.
Based on the attendees’ discussion and suggestions, the Tianjin Initiative was formulated at the conference, it was learnt.
The Ethiopian herald September 1/2022
