General Background

The Ministry of Education and the Regional Education Bureaus have shown their commitment to improving access to Technical Vocational Education and Training. After the introduction of the Education and Training policy in 1994, the number of formal and non-formal TVET provision centers has mushroomed. The Ethiopian government has recognized the importance and the need for establishing a large number of TVET institutions in the effort to promote economic and technological development in the country. Within a short period it has managed to increase the number of TVET centers from 15 in 1994n 10 388 in 2006/7. Realizing the importance of linking education and the world of work has finally bear fruit in Ethiopia, districts are requesting for the provision more and more TVET centers. Presently over the 200 districts don’t have TVET centers.

In the past, there have been attempts to investigate the status of TVET provisions in Ethiopia by different groups and individuals. Among the many others, the study made by Birhanu Dibaba (et al. 1992) came up with the major finding i.e. “there are no clear cut guidelines regarding plans, programs, and resources given to technical and vocational schools. Pior to 1992 TVET schools didn’t have the required qualified human power, in particular teaching staff. There was no planned or programmed contact between the training institutions and production/business enterprises. It has been more than two decades since these insight full findings were reported.

The need for more information on the link between TVET institutions and the world of work is required by policy makers, planners, employers, trainees and the research community. Recently another study was made on Non-Formal TVET mapping in Ethiopia whose findings have been incorporated in this study. This desk study is another attempt to cover the art of review of the status of formal and non-formal technical and vocational education and training in the country. It is initiated by the Educan foundation who works for the promotion of TVT provision based on market demand.  

Rationale for the mapping

Conducting the present TVET mapping is taken as a strategic activity to map the existing stakeholders and their interests in TVET; past experiences and good practices regarding demand and supply of TVET; and strong and weak elements of the TVET sector. The importance of the mapping exercise lies in the establishment of future relevant partnership and design activities with them to improve TVET provisions. The results of the mapping process will function as a guide for TVET further development and strengthening partnership and produce partnership proposals.

Curriculum Development

At the beginning of the launching of the TVET program, the Ministry of Education was in charge of identifying the vocational areas and the specific trades offered under each vocation. It was also responsible for developing training materials centrally. It could be said all training centers were using similar materials for the same training areas. It is envisaged that taking existing experiences of other countries could promote the country to the technological and economic development level that others have reached as much as possible within the shortest period. Thus, with the technical support of GTZ experts, the experiences of Australia and Philippines have been adapted and used as a bench mark.

Occupational standards were developed for all the trades being provided in formal TVET institutions with the involvement of stakeholders. The Ministry of Education has also facilitated the development of occupational standards for vocational trainings provided by the Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Ministry of Defense, Road Authority and a few others

TVET curriculum is no more centralized. Each training institution is accountable for developing its training materials based on the centralized occupational standards. It is facilitated, monitored and evaluated by regional TVET Bureaus or Commissions. Developing training materials has become a challenge for all TVET institutions. To curve the problem, model training materials have been developed and disseminated. However, training institutions are seen using old materials and the model materials without much change. The government expects all training institutions to develop materials that reflect local needs and environments.

The other major problem observed in curriculum development was the continuous change made in it. At the beginning, all training materials were prepared centrally and used by all institutions with similar in puts and processes. That was changed shortly by occupational standards which were prepared for 10+1, 10+2 and 10+3 program. Lately the development of the occupational standards has been re-categorized into five levels i.e. Level 1, Level 2, Level 3, Level 4 and Level 5 packages. This has created a feeling of discomfort on both developers and implementers and is seen as wastage of time and other resources.

The Level 1 and Level 2 training packages are developed for students who drop out before completing grade 10 and for those not entitled to enroll in the 10+1, 10+2 and 10+3 program. The Level 1 and Level 2 packages are short term programs for those who need to acquire specific skills and enter the world of work 

Training

As has been pointed out earlier, trainees are offered certificate, diploma or advanced diploma program that is provided for one, two and three years respectively. The program has career development opportunity for those who deserve it after giving service in the world of work. In this regard, one of the major challenges is trainers’ capacity. Many of the trainers are said to be old timers and lack the creativity and practical skills to competently give the desired training using the new equipments available in TVET centers.

A number of short term training has been organized to capacitate trainers. The government has made efforts to bring expatriate trainers who could bridge the gap. Yet many feel that care be taken in the selection and deployment of expatriates and more efforts be done to continually upgrade the capacity of local trainers.

The other challenge with regard to TVET training is the lack of opportunity for Practicum. There are no adequate number of factories, production units and other opportunities for attachment. The few that are available are not willing to provide attachment opportunities