Kenya

Our CEO, Nigel Carpenter, delivered a lecture on the challenges and opportunities in establishing a Centre of Excellence focused on industry-led and the Australian TVET experience at the proposed location in Bandung.

Indonesia is currently undergoing a transition phase as it develops to become a knowledge-based economy focused on increased competitiveness, growth and productivity. Skills are significant obstacles in this respect, and the country’s government is investing more in the development of the nation’s education and training system to close these gaps and to transform the Indonesian technical and vocational education and training (TVET) system into one that provides demand-driven programmes, aimed at improving employability and participation in lifelong learning.

To continue Indonesia’s economic expansion President Widodo started an infrastructure development program to help bring more of the population out of poverty. The program requires millions of skilled people that are not available in Indonesia. To address this issue President Widodo instructed his Ministries to make vocational education reform a priority to improve the quality and competitiveness of his country’s human resources. Currently there is a significant mismatch between skills development and industry skill needs.

The main challenges currently facing TVET in Indonesia come down to a lack of engagement with industry and understanding of the demands of the labour market. The skills of the Indonesian workforce do not meet the demands of the labour market. Addressing this skill mismatch supports higher productivity, competitiveness and growth.

National TVET Centre of Excellence

As part of the national TVET reform Indonesia is establishing a new national TVET Centre of Excellence. I was invited to review the plans and deliver a lecture in Bandung last week 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.

The Indonesian Government recognises that the TVET system must be competency-based with standards pertaining to industry. In effect it must be demand-driven.
Further objectives of the Centre of Excellence are to:

• Open and develop new training programs relevant to the job market
• Develop a research and development centre, which will serve as a reference centre and vocational education policy analysis centre
• Establish and develop a teacher certification program
• Establish and develop a qualified teacher training and education centre
• Work with policy makers to drive change to TVET systems
• Develop equal access to quality job opportunities for all
• Ensure people have the skills needed by the job market

The Centre of Excellence recognises the need to work with Industry to identify Industry’s skills needs and help people graduating from TVET colleges find a job and address the quality of Indonesian teachers and lecturers.
During my visit we discussed many aspects of a successful TVET ecosystem including the following six principles:

• Competency based
• Industry led, stakeholder friendly
• Flexible, scalable and customisable
• Integrated soft skills
• Data driven
• Focused on vocational outcomes

Whilst recognising outcomes are based on a shared responsibility between government, industry and training organisations, we also discussed the importance of Industry’s role:

• Industry involved at every step-in qualification development and implementation (training) and training regulation
• Ultimately, industry is the primary ‘client’ of any TVET system, central to increasing human capital development
• While industry may ‘know’ what it needs, only an effective TVET system can help translate those needs into actionable skills development for the nation’s workforce capability while supporting a growing economy
• Both industry and training providers, supported by the TVET ecosystem as a whole, have a ‘hand-in-glove’ relationship
• The basis of this relationship is an approach to curriculum design and teaching that can support the priorities of both and lead to quality outcomes for students

The Centre of Excellence is in the design phase of determining how it can influence better outcomes. Sustainable Skills is helping to explore how it can influence the broader Indonesian TVET ecosystem and develop the human resource skills and TVET systems needed to support students in finding the ‘right training’ at the ‘right time’ for the ‘right job’.

Sustainable Skills develops, supports and assists effective technical and vocational education and training (TVET) systems worldwide.

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Sustainable Skills CEO, Nigel Carpenter, with Mary Jo Kakinda and Simon Peter Nangabo, Associate Consultants for the Uganda Project, Kampala, February 2018.

This is our first newsletter of 2018 and we hope you had a great Christmas and a fantastic celebration of the New Year. 2018 promises to be a big year for Sustainable Skills, with a number of strategic projects started in 2017 that we are confident will convert to business opportunities over the course of this year.

In late January, I travelled to Indonesia to visit the Ministry of Manpower’s BBPLK Polytechnic Bekasi, which is currently implementing a revitalisation plan with a strong focus on industry, and we hope Sustainable Skills will have the opportunity to help designing an efficient, industry-led vocational education system. During this trip I held a number of meetings with Indonesian government departments and organisations with the focus on developing TVET to improve skills outcomes and increase job opportunities. Indonesia wants to improve its TVET system. During March I will be visiting the site for a new TVET Centre of Excellence where we have been asked to advise on how the Centre of Excellence can improve TVET outcomes.

Between 5 and 8 February, I travelled to Cape Town to attend Mining Indaba, the World’s Largest Mining Investment Conference and the Largest Mining Event in Africa. For over 20 years, this event collected mining companies, investors and other stakeholders from around the world, and is dedicated to supporting education, career development, sustainable development, and other important causes in Africa.

Mining Indaba presented the opportunity to meet with international key stakeholders including governments, donors, organisations, mining companies, and delegations from Europe, America, Canada, Uganda, Zambia, Mozambique, Kenya, Ghana as well as the Intergovernmental Forum.

The second part of my trip to Africa brought me to Kenya to meet with representatives of the Nairobi City Water and Sewerage Company, which is looking for support to build the capacity of 3000 local workforce.

In Nairobi I had the chance to meet with TVETA and discuss about the opportunity to help Kenya developing a world standard TVET education system based on industry engagement. Sustainable Skills is looking forward to helping the new Mining Institute’s Committee with the objective of developing TVET to ensure locals have the skills industry needs. This followed a meeting with the Director General of TVETA who is revitalising TVET which is based on Australia’s systems and frameworks.

I moved from Kenya to Ethiopia, where the growing population needs jobs and skills. I met with the Ministry of Education and TVET Institute and have helped develop plans to improve the knowledge of teachers and lecturers.
As for a number of countries in the area, Ethiopia’s TVET system is also based on Australia’s.

I took the opportunity of my trip to Africa to meet our Kampala based team of exceptionally-qualified local consultants who are delivering our Due Diligence and Technical Evaluation project for employer-led short term training to address prevailing skills imbalances and shortages in Uganda. We’re working with the Skills Development Facility and Private Sector Foundation Uganda with the project sponsored by the World Bank. Our local 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 the “Meet the Team” section of this newsletter we are proud to introduce Mary Jo Kakinda, Associate Consultant for the project.

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