History of TVET

Traditionally, Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) has been fragmented and delivered by different providers at various qualification levels. Public TVET institutions under the education sector were concentrating on producing middle level technical graduates at post Grade 10 level. In parallel with this, public and private companies have had their own TVET programmes, as have NGOs and private TVET providers.

 

 Meanwhile, in non-formal TVET programmes, public institutions, NGOs, and private schools offer employment-oriented TVET programmes to various target groups, including school leavers, people in employment, school drop outs and marginalized groups in the labour market. Unlike formal TVET, these programmes are not yet systematically delivered. Informal (on the-job) training is widespread, but due to the absence of a systematic assessment and certification system there are currently no mechanisms to recognize informal occupational learning. Traditional apprenticeships in the small and micro enterprise sector constitute another presumably important, yet entirely un-researched, training environment. Public and private training schemes planned to produce administrative and health personnel to the market in sufficient quantity. Agriculture TVET programmes, which have been massively expanded during recent years, are disconnected structurally with non-agriculture TVET programmes.

 In order to provide options for the increasing number of school leavers, the Government embarked upon a massive expansion of formal TVET some years ago. Between 1996/7 and 2004/5, the number of TVET institutions providing formal non-agriculture. TVET increased from 17 to 199, and enrolment from 3,000 to 106,305. Of these, 31% were trained in non-government TVET institutions. Around 60% of formal TVET is provided in the form of regular programmes and 40% in evening classes.

However, despite the enormous expansion, formal TVET only caters for less than 3% of the relevant age group. Enrolment figures in formal TVET programmes show a fair gender balance with 51% female students. However, girls are over proportionately represented in commerce and typical female occupations such as textiles and hospitality, and underrepresented in traditional technical occupations. In 2004/05,
another 42,000 trainees were enrolled in agriculture TVET programmes and some
10,000 in teacher training institutes and colleges.

Overall it is unknown how many Ethiopians in total have access to relevant TVET (including formal, non- and informal TVET). It is assumed, however, that demand by far exceeds the current supply and that the majority of the population is not reached by TVET offers at the moment. In particular, TVET accessible to schooldrop outs, unemployed, workers in industry and the MSE sector, prospective entrepreneurs, people living in rural areas and women is in very short supply.

Since late 1990s, the government has committed itself to overhauling and reforming the basic framework conditions of the TVET system. This measure recognized the fact that while the country was in dire need of craftsperson and technician, training programmes lacked relevance to the workplace reality. Nevertheless, this reform process was slow and limited by the fact that all efforts and resources were directed towards the massive quantitative expansion of the public TVET supply. As a consequence, the programmes, by-and-large, do not address actual competence needs in the economy, with most programmes of low quality and theory-driven due to resource constraints and lack of skilled TVET teachers. A systematic integration of TVET with the world of work has not yet been achieved.bMost curricula used in formal TVET were not developed based on occupational
standards.

With the introduction of the new middle level TVET programmes, an industrial attachment period has been introduced to formal TVET. However, its implementation has faced a number of problems, mainly due to the lack of cooperation of the employers as they were not consulted during the planning process. An internship and cooperative training system based on profound cooperation between TVET institutions and employers and a joint training delivery still needs to be developed in order to increase the quality of TVET and hence the employability of graduates.

There are also indications that TVET lacks effectiveness and efficiency. Studies have shown that many TVET graduates remain unemployed even in those occupational fields that show a high demand for skilled manpower. Furthermore,substantial resource wastages occurred as a result of underutilization of equipment in public TVET institutions.

The shortage of a sufficient corps of TVET teachers/instructors represents one of the obstacles to TVET development in Ethiopia. The quality of TVET teachers/instructors has suffered as a result of the low reputation of their profession. Most TVET teachers/instructors have relatively low formal qualifications, severely affecting TVET delivery at higher qualification levels. Furthermore, technical teachers, more often than not, have been unmotivated. They did not choose to
become technical teachers, but were placed in technical teacher colleges because there were no other options available to them. Finally, existing TVET teachers/instructors are (mostly) inappropriately practically skilled, i.e. not competent to provide TVET in accordance with the occupational standards. This is a result of a training system that long emphasised theoretical knowledge (though often not aligned with modern technology requirements), disregarding the importance of practical skills and appreciation of the world of work.

Finally, under-funding is a structural problem in the TVET sector, particularly in the public system. Costs of TVET will remain high, if it is to be provided as centrebased training, which is still the predominant mode of TVET delivery in Ethiopia. As
with most other countries, public TVET programmes in Ethiopia are usually more expensive than general education, requiring lower than average teacher/student ratio and substantial capital and recurrent expenses incurred through practical training. As
a consequence of budgetary constraints, most urban public TVET programmes are under-funded while rural public TVET programmes suffered from poor facilities and shortages of training materials.

Despite these immense structural problems, important reform measures have been introduced after the adoption of the National TVET Strategy of 2002 and the TVET Proclamation of 2004. A significant step was the broadened governance
structure for TVET through the establishment of a National TVET Council comprising representatives from different government sectors including: State representatives, public and private TVET providers and the business community. This represented a step towards institutionalized stakeholder involvement and helped stimulate deeper integration and understanding of TVET within the broader Ethiopian development environment. A further strengthening measure of this governance set-up, however, will be necessary while the TVET reform is unfolding.

Another important measure was to conceptualize and start implementing a new quality management system within the TVET sector. In line with international best practices, it was decided to move towards an occupational standard-based TVET system to replace the current curriculum-centred approach and to establish an occupational assessment system open to graduates and candidates from all formal, non-formal or informal TVET schemes. The system of occupational standards together with standard-based assessment and certification has to be considered the centrepiece of a TVET reform towards relevance, demand-orientation and accessibility. It requires further conceptualization and accelerated implementation.