This month, Luke Behncke, Sustainable Skills Director, International Development Services met with Dr Jonah Aiyabei, Professor Catherine Ngila, Mr Julius Alolo and Ms Freda Cheruiyot from the Morendat Institute of Oil and Gas (MIOG), Kenya Pipeline Company Ltd (KPC) discussing their training Centre of Excellence and learnings from the Australian TVET experience in building capacity for the Northern Corridor Integration Projects (NCIP) in East Africa.
MIOG offers training in oil and gas related areas and was initiated as a result to the 3rd Heads of State Summit held in Kigali Rwanda on October 28th, 2013 and accords with the KPC’s ‘Vision 2025’ that aims at establishing an oil and gas investments hub in the region. MIOG is the third Oil and Gas Institute in Africa after Transnet of South Africa and Sonatrach of Algeria, and pioneered Competence Based Education Training for industry professionals with approval by the Technical and Vocational Education and Training Authority (TVETA) in Kenya.
MIOG’s visit to Sustainable Skills was to explore vocational education and training in the Australian context, which is similar to the emerging Kenyan experience, to better facilitate industry-led skills development. Sustainable Skills looks forward to further collaboration in supporting a thriving Kenyan TVET system and making MIOG a key hub of oil and gas workforce development in Africa.
This month, I visited Jakarta to strengthen our partnership with government departments and organisations, NGO’s and local institutions and to further develop TVET capacity building projects. Sustainable Skills is supporting several projects aimed to reform the TVET system in Indonesia, including the new national TVET Centre of Excellence.
I had the opportunity to visit Vietnam and explore potential opportunities to support the national reform of their TVET system. I met with several government departments and NGO’s and will be pursuing opportunities during the coming months. Vietnam is currently one of the most dynamic and fastest growing emerging countries in East Asia region, with a young and well-educated population able to effectively gain knowledge and skills, work efficiently, and embrace new technology and innovation. In the coming years, Vietnam will need a large number of skilled and productive local workers able to make the country competitive regionally and globally particularly for the infrastructure, agricultural, and manufacturing sectors.