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From the Desk of the CEO – July 2019 Newsletter Address

Between 24th-28th June, the workshop on TVET Systems, Competency Based Training, Governance, Monitoring and Evaluation organised by the Australian High Commission in Kenya and Sustainable Skills was successfully delivered by our senior TVET consultant, Bob Paton, to 20 local TVET coordinators.

Over the course of the workshop there were many in-depth discussions on the current TVET arrangements in Kenya and on how they, based on the Australian experience, could be improved to gain efficiencies and improve effectiveness. Participants were very engaged and we received some terrific feedback indicating that the workshop was well received. We’re glad to share a video interview to Mr James Onyango,  Assistant Director at the Kenyan Department of Vocational Education and Training, who talked about his positive experience with the workshop.

This month, our team leader in Fiji, Mike Prime, had the last in-country meeting with the Fijian Government, Ministry of Education, Heritage and Arts (MEHA), before flying off to Perth and complete the rest of the project remotely between now and mid-August. The meeting was very positive and feedback focussed on the excellent quality of the online learning module designed by the Sustainable Skills team to develop the skills and abilities of local school heads, as well as on the commitment and passion shown by our team.

On 15 July 2019, we celebrated the World Youth Skills Day designated by the United Nations General Assembly to create greater awareness of the importance of TVET for youth around the globe. This year’s theme, “Learning to learn for life and work”, advocates for skills development to improve young people’s access to decent work, in line with Sustainable Development Goal (SDG 4) which aims at “ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all”.

The World Employment Social Outlook recently published by International Labour Organization (ILO) reports that global youth unemployment rate is 13 per cent, compared to an adult rate of 4.3 per cent. TVET can play a crucial role to ensure young people around the world develop skills and competencies to access the labor market as well as contribute to a more equitable and sustainable society .

 

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From the Desk of the CEO – June 2019 Newsletter Address

This week our TVET consultant, Bob Paton, travelled to Kenya to facilitate a workshop on TVET Systems, Competency Based Training, Governance, Monitoring and Evaluation organised by the Australian High Commission in Kenya and Sustainable Skills, which will take place in Nairobi from 24th-28th June and will be delivered to 20 local Government officers.

I am glad to introduce Clinton Glendinning who recently joined our team in Suva (Fiji) as Assessor Specialist for the ‘Head of School’ Skill Development Program awarded to Sustainable Skills in November 2018. Clinton has worked for over 36 years with the Department of Education Western Australia in a range of positions and has acted in the Fiji education sector for seven years. In the coming weeks, Clinton will provide additional value-add support to assist in the training and assessment of the selected Fijian Assessors who will be assessing all Modules that current and future Heads complete.

The Fiji project team recently ran an Implementation Facilitation workshop in Suva to ensure successful roll-out of the program. The two-day session involved all key project’s stakeholders including participants from Ministry of Education, Heritage and Arts (MEHA) Learning & Development, IT, HR teams, Development Advisors and external guests from other local institutions. An update on this project can be accessed here.

Between 1 and 12 July 2019, UNESCO-UNEVOC  International Centre for Technical and Vocational Education and Training, which assists Member States develop policies and practices concerning education for the world of work and skills development for employability, will organise a virtual conference on ‘Inclusion in technical and vocational education and training’ to discuss and identify suitable measures to support inclusive TVET, focussing on inclusion of people with disabilities as well as of other groups who are vulnerable to exclusion.

In line with the Sustainable Development Goals, particularly Goal 4 on Quality Education aiming to “ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all”, UNESCO has made equity and inclusion one of the three priority areas of its Strategy for TVET (2016-2021). The insights and evidence gathered in this virtual conference will also contribute to the 2020 UNESCO’s Global Education Monitoring Report.

The virtual conference will take place on the UNESCO-UNEVOC TVeT Forum and can be accessed by registering for a UNEVOC account.

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From the Desk of the CEO – May 2019 Newsletter Address

Sustainable Skills CEO, Nigel Carpenter, with William Sabandar and Eka Simanjuntak in Jakarta, June 2019.

May has been a busy month at Sustainable Skills with a number of trips and promising announcements for our team.

Early this month, I met with William Sabandar, Director of the newly opened Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) Jakarta, who wanted to discuss how our organisation can help develop TVET programs for the first underground railway system in Indonesia. Eka Simanjuntak, Managing Director of Willi Toisuta & Associates, our Indonesian collaborator, also joined the discussion. During the meeting, we drew on our previous experience as partner of the Sydney Metro Northwest rail link project, which between 2014 and 2016 saw our organisation working closely with Transport for NSW and major contractor to map the skilling needs of the project and create a transferable pool of workers to support the civil infrastructure and construction sectors.

A new exciting project will be managed by Sustainable Skills as we  recently signed a contract with the Australian High Commission in Kenya to deliver a week long workshop in Nairobi on the attributes of a best practice national TVET system, with a focus on governance and monitoring and evaluation. The workshop will be delivered at the end of June to 20 local Government TVET officials by our vocational education expert, Bob Paton, who has over 40 years’ experience across multiple industry sectors and has managed projects in Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia, India, Vietnam, Korea, PRC, ROC, Thailand, the Philippines, Chile, Peru, Colombia, and Mexico.

In Uganda, we had a change in the team who is delivering the Due Diligence and Technical Evaluation project, with Simon Elsy being appointed as the Team Leader of the project sponsored by the World Bank. Over the past  two years, this role has been effectively managed by Lisa Giammarco. We thank Lisa for her outstanding contribution to the project and welcome Simon in this new exciting role.

We are proud to announce that our ‘Head of School’ Skill Development Program is highlighted as one of the five key results achieved by DFAT as part of the Australia’s aid program to Fiji. Our team of education experts is currently designing a 10-module online course to upskill current and future principles of over 900 schools in the Country, with the first module having been successfully trialled and development of all the modules about half completed.

Over the past two years, we have worked hard to create new business opportunities worldwide, resulting in our teams of TVET experts currently delivering projects in Fiji, Kenya, and Uganda, as well as in promising opportunities in Indonesia which we hope to share in the coming weeks.

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TVET in Fiji

An overview of the TVET system in Fiji

Country overview

The Republic of Fiji is a group of over 300 islands with a population of 900,000 people, a GDP of 9,700 USD per capita, and a growth of 3.6 per cent in 2018. Its major languages are English, Fijian and Hindi and its major religions are Christianity, Hinduism and Islam.

After nearly a century as a British colony, Fiji became independent in 1970 and adopted a parliamentary democracy form of government, currently led by Prime Minister, Frank Bainimarama, who was recently confirmed through general elections held on 14 November 2018.

Tourism plays an important role in the local economy, with number of visitors reaching 842,884 in 2017, and Australian tourists accounting for over 43 per cent of visitor arrivals during this period, followed by New Zealand (21.9 per cent) and the US (9.6 per cent). Largely driven by the tourism industry, service sectors continue to grow strongly, and along with construction, manufacturing and retail activity, are the main drivers of growth.

Water, gold, garments, sugar and fish continue to be Fiji’s strongest merchandise exports. Agriculture is a source of income for the bulk of the population and continues to make a moderate contribution to growth.

TVET system

Education is an important item on the Government agenda, which aims to make Fiji a knowledge-based society. TVET is given particular attention in these prescriptions, and is acknowledged as a cornerstone of reform in the educational sector and as a means of supporting sustainable development. The new constitution enshrines the citizen’s right to early childhood, primary, secondary, and further education.

Education in Fiji rests on a typical four level framework of early childhood, primary, secondary and tertiary education. There are nearly 900 schools and over 700 kindergartens in the country. Tertiary education, usually referred to as higher education in Fiji, covers TVET and university streams. Provision here is by government, private for profit, enterprise and civil society including faith-based institutions.

The post-school education and training sector in Fiji includes:

  • one public university (Fiji National University);
  • one private university (University of Fiji);
  • two regional institutions (University of South Pacific and Australia-Pacific Technical College);
  • 20 theological colleges;
  • a range of training centres run by line Ministries;
  • a regulatory body (The Fiji Higher Education Commission); and
  • nearly 50 private training providers, of which 27 have been identified as TVET providers.

The Australia-Pacific Technical College (APTC) is a regional TVET provider, initiated and funded by the Australia government. It is headquartered in Nadi, and has campuses across the region including in Fiji. The college offers a range of programs at the Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF) levels 3 to 5 from its two schools: School of Trades and Technology; and School of Hospitality and Community Services.

The Fiji Higher Education Commission (FHEC) reports to the Minister for Education, and has an overview and quality assurance function for the whole of the post-school education and training sector, of which the TVET sector forms a part, alongside the higher education sector. It has responsibility for the development of the Fiji Qualifications Framework (FQF), the recognition and registration of training providers and the accreditation of courses qualification levels are those of the Fiji Qualifications Framework (FQF).

Australia and Fiji bilateral relations

Australia and Fiji share a strong and enduring bilateral relationship and have extensive people-to-people links, with around 3,000 Australians resident in Fiji and 71,800 Fiji-born people living in Australia. Australia is one of Fiji’s largest trade and investment partners. Two-way goods and services trade has been steadily increasing year-on-year, totalling $2.05 billion in 2017.

Australia and Fiji work closely together in multilateral forums as fellow members of the UN, World Trade Organization, Commonwealth and Pacific Islands Forum. The Australian Government works in close partnership with the Fijian Government and key stakeholders to deliver its aid program to support inclusive economic growth and reduce poverty.

The Fiji Program Support Facility was established in 2017 to administer the education, health and scholarship programs in Fiji (and the scholarship program in Tuvalu). This support represents an investment of AUD66 million over five years (2017-2021), one-third of Australia’s bilateral aid for Fiji. The Facility, managed by Coffey on behalf of the Australian Government, also supports the integration of crosscutting issues into programs, such as gender equality, civil society engagement, disability inclusiveness, child protection, disaster risk reduction and emergency response.

Following a successful tender process, this month Sustainable Skills signed a contract with Coffey International Development to deliver a ‘Head of School’ Skills Development Program for the Fijian Government, Ministry of Education, Heritage and Arts (MEHA). The program is funded by the Australian Government, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) through the Fiji Program Support Facility (FPSF) managed by Coffey.

Source: Research into the Financing of Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) in the Pacific

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From the Desk of the CEO – November 2018 Newsletter Address

We are pleased to announce that following a successful tender process, this month Sustainable Skills signed a contract with Coffey International Development to deliver a ‘Head of School’ Skills Development Program for the Fijian Government, Ministry of Education, Heritage and Arts (MEHA). The program is funded by the Australian Government, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) through the Fiji Program Support Facility (FPSF) managed by Coffey.

Established to administer the education, health and scholarship programs in Fiji, the FPSF aid program supports the integration of crosscutting themes into programs, such as gender equality, civil society engagement, disability inclusiveness, child protection, and disaster risk reduction.

A review of selection processes for head of school positions in the Fijian Ministry of Education, Heritage and Arts (MEHA) had highlighted the need for a learning and development program covering the changing and higher level skills and abilities needed to lead and manage schools in to the future. As part of succession planning in the MEHA, the program will ensure that a pool of talent is developed, who can then successfully undertake the role of school head.

The vision is to develop leadership in schools which is dynamic and works effectively in a complex, changing environment, with the purpose of developing the skills and abilities of current and future school heads to provide excellent leadership and management for all schools.

The Sustainable Skills team in charge of delivering the project comprises Mike Prime, Team Leader, Cate van der Vossen, Assessment and Adult Education Specialist, and Maria Doyle, Online Learning Specialist. The three experts have been deployed to Suva, Fiji to kick-off the project which will be delivered over approximately six and a half months from November 2018 to May 2019.  The team will spend part of their time on site in Fiji consulting with stakeholders and part of their time working remotely from other locations.

The Project Team will use Moodle technology to create an online learning environment with ten modules that will be accessible to all interested learners. Moodle is an open-source learning platform designed to provide educators, administrators and learners with a single robust, secure and integrated system to create personalised learning environments.

The successful tender was managed and submitted by Lee Jackson, Director of International Development for Sustainable Skills. Our organisation has nearly twenty years’ experience shaping and maintaining TVET systems and frameworks in Australia and around the world, as well as assisting Governments with the implementation of successful TVET system based on Australia best practice. Sustainable Skills has the ability to mobilise highly skilled and well-suited local and international consultants able to take key principles of the Australian VET system, understand the local culture and develop solutions. We are excited to deliver this important project that will enhance the future leadership of schools, and contribute to the quality of education offered to school students in Fiji.

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