We have recently celebrated one year since the transition from SkillsDMC to Sustainable Skills was completed and we have come a long way from where we began. Over the past 12 moths, our new Sustainable Skills brand has evolved and our organisation is now recognised as a reputable TVET consultancy able to develop, support, and assist effective vocational education and training (TVET) systems worldwide.
I would like to take this opportunity to share our video – presentation which gives an overview of our mission and vision, and includes a very interesting testimonial given by Fidelis Cheelo, who took part in the Capacity Building program we managed in 2015-16 at TEVETA in Zambia.
During the first stage of the Sustainable Skills project, we focussed entirely on exploring and developing new business opportunities across different areas including Ghana, Kenya, Ethiopia, South Africa, Uganda, the Philippines, Indonesia, and Myanmar. Alongside, we worked to build a team of highly qualified TVET consultants and recruit board directors able to reflect the new scope of our business across a broad range of industrial sectors worldwide.
The second phase saw us concentrating our resources on regions where Sustainable Skills expertise and background can effectively assist to implement a successful reform of the national TVET system, like Indonesia.
Sustainable Skills has now developed a strong position in Indonesia where an important reform of the vocational education system to support the needs of a rapidly emerging economy by improving the quality and competitiveness of his country’s human resources is a priority on the government agenda.
As part of the national TVET reform Indonesia is establishing a new national TVET Centre of Excellence. Last month, I was invited to review the plans and deliver a lecture in Bandung on the challenges and opportunities of establishing the Centre. Development of the Centre of Excellence for TVET in Indonesia will address the fundamental mismatch between training outcomes and industry needs. The objective is to influence the broader Indonesian TVET ecosystem to support students in finding the ‘right training’ at the ‘right time’ for the ‘right job’. It’s about having the right people in the right places.
In July 2017 a significant milestone was achieved as we have been officially awarded a consultancy contract sponsored by the World Bank to address skills imbalances and shortages in Uganda. Client of the contract is the Private Sector Foundation Uganda (PSFU) and this is the first non Australian government contract in the history of Sustainable Skills/SkillsDMC. The first quarter of the project has seen the Sustainable Skills team of TVET experts working on the due diligence and capacity assessment stages and conducting a number of site visits to ensure that applicants supposed to deliver the skills training are fully capable of executing their responsibilities, especially regarding their facility, experience, and expertise. In February 2018, I had the pleasure to visit our Kampala based team of exceptionally-qualified local consultants who are delivering the project. The team is currently formed by Mary Jo Kakinda and Simon Peter Nangabo and will increase to 3, based in Kampala, within the next few weeks.
In addition to Indonesia, Myanmar and East Africa, which are currently the most promising opportunities, we have a number of exciting projects in the pipeline. We believe we have built strong business foundation so far and we’ll continue to manage the organisation doing everything we possibly can to succeed and contribute to build effective TVET systems worldwide.