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Myanmar National Education Strategic Plan 2016-2021

Myanmar National Education Strategic Plan 2016-2021: enabling greater access, quality and equity in the TVET system

The Ministry of Education of Myanmar has recently launched a new National Education Strategic Plan (NESP) aiming to establish an accessible, equitable and effective national education system over the next five years. The ultimate goal of this plan is to equip local youth and adult students with the skills they need to succeed in the 21st century and to enable them to fulfil their career and lifelong learning aspirations.

The NESP roadmap clearly recognises the vital importance of developing an industry-led and competency-based TVET system able to train a skilled and competitive local workforce to support Myanmar’s long-term social and economic growth. In the coming years, Myanmar will need a large number of skilled employees, particularly for the agricultural, energy, manufacturing, infrastructure, livestock, fisheries and tourism sectors.

How Sustainable Skills can help

As a key stakeholder in the Australian TVET sector, and as a consultant to the TVET authorities of a number of African and Asian nations, Sustainable Skills has extensive and niche experience in helping Governments and Industry to reform their TVET system and can assist Myanmar to design a program that will realise its educational goals.

This article summarises a number of ideas about what the reform program could look like while specifying how Sustainable Skills could be involved in the process.

Allocate funding to enable grater access to TVET

Greater access to TVET requires expansion in the number of training places as well as the removal of barriers to enrolling in a training course or having one’s skills recognised.  Increasing the number of training places available is fairly simple, but can be done only after building the capacity of the system through substantial investment in facilities and skills of TVET educators. There are a number of models for how to manage this process, and Sustainable Skills can assist the Government of Myanmar in formulating an appropriate model and in designing a program, or in procuring the right implementation partner for a funding program.

Ensuring greater quality and alignment to labour market requirements

The adoption of industry-defined competency standards that can be packaged into skill sets and qualifications can help the Government of Myanmar to achieve its dual goals of graduates equipped with  skill sets required by industries and TVET curricula that meet local needs.

The use of standards allows for curricula to be regionally specific while maintaining consistency across training providers and aligning to the needs of industry. As the Australian Industry Skills Council for the Resources and Infrastructure Industries, these have been the core business for Sustainable Skills (as SkillsDMC) for nearly twenty years and our support can be instrumental to develop and implement these critical TVET components.

A mistake that is often made in determining the qualifications required for TVET trainers is to ignore the importance of industry experience. Questions need to be asked about whether TVET trainers and assessors require university qualifications, or whether competency in the disciplines that they are training is more important. Sustainable Skills can help the Government of Myanmar to find the right balance of education, competency and industry experience for its TVET workforce.

Creating a more effective TVET management system

As an independent and honest third party mediating between the needs of industry and the realities of Government, Sustainable Skills has developed a unique understanding of how TVET systems can be managed. When it comes to the cooperation of Government ministries with the private sector, Sustainable Skills has helped to develop industry representation with Government in Australia, as well as throughout Africa and Asia. A TVET Council model, such as the one aspired to in the NESP, should be industry-led without marginalising the needs of training sector and individuals.

Sustainable Skills has experience doing this both in Australia and in Africa (Mozambique and Zambia) and can assist the Government of Myanmar in conducting the stakeholder analysis, in approaching stakeholders to participate and in forming the structures that the Council will work within.  We’ve also provided advice and support to The Philippines and Vietnam in their efforts to implement a similar system.

Implementing a pilot program

The benefit of a pilot program is that it is contained and can have a specified end date, at which time the TVET Council, the Government and the consultants can evaluate the success of the programs and make changes to those programs before they are implemented more widely across the TVET system.  It will also be worthwhile to evaluate the extent to which capacity within the system has been developed at a Government, employer and training provider level, and determine whether additional capacity building is required or whether the market is ready to function and grow independent of external support.

We take great pride in assisting our partners to make the connection between international best practice and their local needs. Contact us for further information about how Sustainable Skills can deliver positive outcomes in your market or for your organisation.

 

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Guide to anticipating and matching skills and jobs

Guide to anticipating and matching skills and jobs

The International Labour Organisation (ILO), the UN agency specialised in promoting rights at work, encouraging decent employment opportunities, enhancing social protection and strengthen dialogue on work-related issues, has recently released a new volume of the series “Guides to anticipating and matching skills and jobs”.  The volume forms part of a compendium of methodological guides on anticipation and matching of skills supply and demand developed by the combined expertise of the European Training Foundation (ETF), the European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training (Cedefop) and the International Labour Office. This project aims to supply proper methodological tools particularly to developing countries, whose access to labour market information is often quite limited.

In a context of dynamic and complex labour markets, gathering intelligence on current and future skill needs can support better matching of training and jobs, which is of paramount importance for every country in the world. Skills matching can also help reduce unemployment, particularly among young people, build a better life for individuals by improving employability, social mobility and inclusion.

Accurate information and analyses are keys to effective education and employment strategies and to productive investments. Instead, the lack of intelligence can often result in the creation of structural problems in the labour market, problems for individuals in finding work, and problems for employers in finding appropriately skilled workers.

As the Australian Industry Skills Council for the Resources and Infrastructure Industries (RII), between 2003 and 2016, Sustainable Skills (formerly SkillsDMC) played a pivotal role to ensure that vocational education and training outcomes match the actual job market requirements. Sustainable Skills activity was focused on connecting industry, government, and training organisations to shape and maintain an effective TVET systems and frameworks through the development of the RII Training Package, which specifies the skills and knowledge required for workers to perform safely and effectively in the civil infrastructure, coal mining, construction materials (quarrying), drilling and metalliferous mining industry sectors.

In this role, Sustainable Skills activity  consisted of:

  • building Industry-led TVET,
  • providing updated and accurate intelligence to underpin the development of TVET systems and policy,
  • establishing industry committees able to identify the right skills needed by the labour market, and
  • setting up effective training programs able to form highly skilled workforces.

A tangible example of the intelligence provided by our organisation to the Australian RII Industry can be found in the  Resources and Infrastructure Industry Workforce Analysis and Forecast developed in 2016 with the aim to provide information and reasoned forecasts regarding the Australian Resources and Infrastructure Industry’s skilling needs, challenges and opportunities. In effect, this report serves as a long-term planning document for the rapidly transitioning Resources and Infrastructure Industry, and to prepare Industry participants for both the challenges and opportunities ahead.

Anticipating and matching skills with jobs is a core part of the solutions that Sustainable Skills offers to every country in the world to ensure that effective TVET systems are implemented across multiple industrial sectors. We applaud the ILO for producing such comprehensive resources but we also recognise that often access to information is only part of the solution. We know from our work that quality information coupled with mentoring, capacity building and support from experienced practitioners is critical to the short-term success of TVET reform, but also to the long-term sustainability of that reform.

Click here for further information about the compedium “Guide to anticipating and matching skills and jobs” release by ILO.

We take great pride in assisting our partners to make the connection between international best practice and their local needs. Contact us for further information about how Sustainable Skills can deliver positive outcomes in your market or for your organisation.

 

 

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Technical and Vocational Education and training system in Ghana
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Ghana: challenges and opportunities of technical vocational education and training (TVET) system

Challenges and opportunities of the Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) system in Ghana

Ghana is currently in the process to reform the national Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) system with the aim to form highly skilled local workforces able to support the development of local industry sectors and contribute to a sustainable growth of the Country.

With a population of over 26 million people and a GDP of 1,550USD per capita,  Ghana has a 56.6% unemployment rate among the youth population. This situation is partially due to a difficult transition for young people from the school to the job market. At the same time, the Country urgently needs to form a local skilled workforce, able to respond to the increasing demand of new infrastructures, including an efficient public transport system, affordable and safe housing, and reliable energy supply.

 

Ghana employment rate

In 2006, The Council for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (COTVET) has been established in Ghana, with the aim to reform the TVET system and contribute to the development of a productive workforce by linking the education system to the needs of the economy.

According to COTVET, one of the greatest challenges that TVET in Ghana is currently facing is to improve the perception and recognition among the population. Most people have dreams of pursuing academic careers to become doctors, lawyers, or accountants. Trades like auto mechanics, hairdressing, and carpentry are considered the poor alternative to university education.

As a consequence, university graduates spend an average of 2 to 5 years looking for non-existent employment, as local universities produce more graduates than the job market can absorb. Whereas,  many national industries, like the emerging oil and gas sector, have a real and growing demand for skilled workers that, in the absence of local skilled workforces, has to be filled by foreign labour.

Another significant challenge is the need to reform the national TVET system. TVET related policies promoted by COTVET aim to establish:

  • Industry-led and demand driven Competency-based training (CBT), aimed to promote equitable access, opportunities and career pathways for students and employees to develop their vocational, technical and generic skills; and
  • Workplace Experience Learning (WEL) to ensure that the theoretical and practical aspects of the CBT model are integrated and adequately prepare students for the world of work.

Other challenges are presented by limited equipment, lack of regular training for trainers,  needs of coordination between TVET and Industry,  lack of a clear qualification framework.

Sustainable Skills CEO, Nigel Carpenter, recently visited Ghana to attend the Sustaining Competitive and Responsible Enterprises (SCORE) Convention organised in Accra by the International Labour Organisation (ILO), and explore potential opportunities for our organisation to support Ghana with the national TVET reform.

Sources:

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International Women’s Day 2017: Promoting equity and gender equality in TVET

International Women’s Day: Promoting equity and gender equality in TVET

According to the UN Secretary-General’s High-Level Panel on Women’s Economic Empowerment, increase women’s participation in the labour market and advance equality could boost global GDB by US$12 trillion by 2025, whereas at the moment only 50 per cent of working-age women are represented in the labour force globally, compared to 76 per cent of men. Achieving gender equality in the labour market is also one of the goals set by the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (SDG 5), and it is considered a crucial factor to reach a sustainable development worldwide.

As a connection between industry and labour market, TVET has the potential to increase women’s participation in the labour market, by ensuring equal access to quality education, skills acquisition, and technical training, particularly in those occupations that are traditionally held by men.

Sustainable Skills experience developing equal vocational education systems and training programs

Over the years, Sustainable Skills has extensively worked on this topic developing plans able to incorporate principles of equity into vocational education systems and training programs. Sustainable Skills (formerly SkillsDMC) has been engaged between 2003 and 2016 by the Australian Government as the Industry Skills Council for the Resources and Infrastructure Industries (RII).  For almost fifteen years, we have connected industry, government and training organisations to develop and maintain the RII Training Package, which specifies the skills and knowledge required for workers to perform safely and effectively in the civil infrastructure, coal mining, construction materials (quarrying), drilling and metalliferous mining industry sectors.  These specifications create profiles of what a competent person looks like for the purposes of assessment, irrespective of their race, gender, religious beliefs, etc. They may specify how principles of equity can be incorporated into training programs or learning strategies and may be implemented by employers and training providers themselves. The skills competency recognition framework developed by Sustainable Skills aims to be gender inclusive to encourage participation from all genders.

While developing a qualification framework, we adopt a gender inclusive approach to the process of engagement and consultation with all stakeholders. Women are encouraged to actively participate and become part of the engagement and consultation process. Our activities focus on the design of programs that enable a diverse range of learners to achieve competency in the identified job roles, including women.
Our goal while developing a Training package is to promote gender balance approach, seek to provide equal employment opportunities, and encourage increased participation of women. 

Female employment in the Resources and Infrastructure industries in Australia

We would like to share an overview of the current situation of female workforce in the Mining and Civil Engineering Construction industries in Australia, sectors where the majority of the workforce is traditionally constituted by males. These figures are taken by the 2016 Resources and Infrastructure Industry Workforce Analysis and Forecast that we have developed in 2016.

Since the early 1990s, the proportion of females in the workforce for both Mining and Civil Engineering Construction remained within the ranges of 8 and 17 per cent of total employment. In the 1990’s, the proportions fluctuated without a clear trend, however the onset of the mining boom in the early 2000s pushed the proportion of female workforce upward, reaching a peak of almost 16 per cent between November 2010 to May 2012. In fact, between 1993 and 2015, the pace of growth in female employment increased rapidly (almost by a factor of four) compared to male employment (an increase by a factor of 2.5). However, in 2015, a weaker commodity market resulted in a 15 per cent decline in total employment in Mining compared to the previous year, the first fall in employment since 2000. As a proportion, females employed fell slightly more than the males within the Mining industry with female employment declining 18 per cent and male employment declining 15 per cent against 2014.

Within the Heavy and Civil Engineering Construction industry, the proportion of females to the total workforce has continued to remain within historical ranges. Females have averaged around 11 per cent of total employment over the past two decades although percentage changes from year to year for female workers have fluctuated more than that of the male counterparts. As at November 2015, the number of females employed in Heavy and Civil Engineering Construction totalled around 8,800 – representing 14 per cent of total employment. As a proportion of the total, female employment within Oil and Gas Extraction has remained above 15 per cent in most years since 2002, peaking in 2005 and 2013 at more than one-fifth of the total. In 2015, when the workforce employed within the Oil and Gas Extraction industry remained largely unchanged, the female workforce increased by 14 per cent from the previous period, compared to a 2 per cent decline in the male workforce. Nonetheless, female employees within Mining and the Heavy and Civil Engineering Construction industries remain below that of Australia as a whole.  The Resources and Infrastructure Industry has strong levels of female participation in part time employment however, they are considerably below the national level for full time employment. From the previous year’s report, part time female employment also fell in the Mining industry from 58 per cent to 44 per cent.

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