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From the Desk of the CEO – June 2018 Newsletter Address

This month, I was invited by the Australia Indonesia Business Council Victoria (AIBC) to speak at the Education Panel discussion about education in Indonesia. The conference aimed to unpick some of the key issues in a critical sector for Indonesia, and learn more about the country’s aspirations.

During the panel, AIBC provided some timely analysis of the key sectors and what it means for educational business and organisations in Australia.

The panel discussion, moderated by Helen Brown, Managing Director, Bisnis Asia, involved Professor Abid Khan, Deputy Vice-Chancellor & Vice-President, Global Engagement, Monash University, Elena Williams, Immediate past Resident Director, Australian Consortium for In-County Indonesian Studies (ACICIS), and Sigmund Fritschy, Senior Manager, Strategy and Policy – International Education, Victorian Government. The invitation to represent Sustainable Skills at the panel has been a privilege as well as a recognition of the work we have done over the past two years exploring VET market partnerships in Indonesia, and establishing relationships with Ministries and industry officials.

The panel discussed a number of opportunities which have been created by Indonesia’s desire and need to improve the education sector generally and the vocational education sector specifically. However to succeed in helping Indonesia develop an industry engaged vocational education sector
Australian institutions need to spend the time developing relationships and understanding the culture.

Sustainable Skills during the past 18 months has built strong relationships with a number of Indonesian ministries and government organisations and has developed a menu of very interesting opportunities that we will continue to explore and develop. Each requires a local focus and strong guidance from experienced Australian specialists. This will take time, but we are confident that strong results will emerge from the application of that Australian expertise. We’d welcome partners or supporters in any of these projects.

We are glad to announce that the team which is currently managing the consultancy contract sponsored by the World Bank to address skills imbalances and shortages in Uganda is now complete. Over the past two months, we have gone through a recruitment process to appoint new Team Leader and Senior Consultant. Lisa Giammarco has been appointed to the Team Leader position after her many months of service as the Acting Team Leader and Senior Consultant. Sarah Nalumansi has now joined the Kamapla based team, which comprises Mary Jo Kakinda and Simon Peter Nanagbo, stepping into Lisa’s former role as the new Senior Consultant. Sarah has significant depth and breadth of experience in projects similar to the due diligence activities we are undertaking for the Private Sector Foundation Uganda and will be a great asset to this project. Welcome on board Sarah!

 

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Message from the Chair – May 2018

Australians sometimes take for granted the excellent educational services and experiences available to us. Not only are they central to the progress of our community and its citizens, but they have become important contributors in an economy that has gradually moved toward an increasing level of service exports.

Yet, despite Australia’s success in attracting fee-paying foreign students, we have left untested very large opportunities to extend the value of our education capabilities and expertise.

For some time now the fastest growing economies of the world have been in formerly underdeveloped nations. Gradually, many of those nations have established stronger economic performance and slowly they have improved governance and other factors that attract the catalyst of larger scale investment. The opportunity becomes one of compounding growth and rising prosperity.

In country after country, Sustainable Skills has found a new apetite for skills training. Specifically, vocational training that has a high degree of alignment with industry demand and a practical design that supports the needs of low income communities. The Australian model, with its well established industry based competencies and modular course design, is very often the preferred choice for both qualitative and pragmatic reasons.

For example, Myanmar’s new democratic government has hoped to promote rapid economic improvement on the back of the removal of international sanctions. Yet it’s education system so far has been simply unable to provide skilled people. In the course of revising its entire education system, Myanmar’s Government elevated vocational education from nowhere to top of the list. As the nation’s most consistent long term supporter, Australia has an edge in what should become a dynamic growth market.

Even more obvious is the opportunity in Indonesia. President Widodo has elevated infrastructure investment to the top priority and has an enormous investment agenda. In this case it appears likely that a major constraint will be skills. Already, key projects like the Jakarta metro are heavily staffed by foreigners – a practice that Indonesia simply can’t sustain. Again, Australian vocational education is the preferred model.

Ethiopia, Vietnam, Malaysia, India and many other developing markets are looking for the means to fast track vocational education improvements. Not all of these opportunities is straight forward and no one would advocate a rush of investments in Australian-styled institutions is environments with very different economic and social drivers, not to mention much lower incomes. But the risks can be managed and the scale requirements beyond the initial capacity-building are manageable. Yet so far, most of the activity by Australian providers in these markets has a focus on accreditation, implying some of sort of local delivery of Australian courseware. This has been demonstrated time and again to be impractical.

Sustainable Skills has a menu of very interesting opportunities that we will continue to explore and develop.  Each requires a local focus and strong guidance from experienced Australian specialists. This will take time, but we are confident that strong results will emerge from the application of that Australian expertise. We’d welcome partners or supporters in any of these projects.

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From the Desk of the CEO – April 2018 Newsletter Address

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.

 

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From the desk of the CEO-December 2017 newsletter address

Nigel Carpenter, Sustainable Skills CEO, introducing our organisation during a seminar in Jakarta on 14 December.

This has been a remarkable year for our organisation, beginning with the launch of our new  Sustainable Skills brand which is now recognised as a reputable TVET consultancy in a number of countries.

During the first part of the year 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 part of the year saw us concentrating our resources on regions where Sustainable Skills expertise and background can effectively assist to build TVET systems able to meet the nation’s needs, like Indonesia and Myanmar.

Sustainable Skills has 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. This month, I had the pleasure of being invited by the Indonesian Ministry of Research, Technology
and Higher Education to present Sustainable Skills to a 4-hour seminar on the benefits of an industry-led TVET system in Jakarta. Over 40 polytechnics were invited from throughout the archipelago. The seminar was well received and good outcomes were achieved. In fact we’ve been asked to deliver a longer workshop in the new year. Indonesia recognises there’s a need to work more closely with industry so that
students are more likely to have the skills industry wants and therefore gain work.

In Myanmar  the Government 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 students with the skills they need to succeed in the 21st century and to enable them to fulfil their career and lifelong learning aspirations. Sustainable Skills can support the execution of the plan and assist with projects that increase the quality and supply of education and training places.

In July 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.

We are at an early stage of our path and we are aware of the important challenges Sustainable Skills will face next year to achieve our goals. We believe the foundation we built so far are strong and promising and we’ll continue to manage the organisation doing everything we possibly can to succeed and contribute to build effective TVET systems worldwide.

I would like to thank the Sustainable Skills team for the commitment to the organisation during this challenging year, all our Board Directors for their support and trust, our Chair of the Board who has been instrumental to develop our current strategy, and all our stakeholders and partners who followed and supported us over the course of this year.

Sustainable Skills will shutdown operations over the Christmas and New Year period. Our last day of work will be Thursday 21st December and returning to work on Monday 15th January. The Sustainable Skills team wishes you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 2018.

 

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Message from the Chair-August 2017

Michael Gill-Sustainable Skills Chair of the Board

One of the remarkable success stories in Australia’s recent economic history has been in tertiary education. Australian institutions have attracted very large numbers of foreign students and have developed a strong reputation, especially in our immediate region. Up to now, much of this has been the result of economic growth and rising middle class, notably in India and China. Most of this activity has been in and around Australian universities in Australia.

Sustainable Skills has developed a strong position in what may be a second wave of Australian education’s potential in our region and elsewhere. We have found that the Australian model of vocational education is both a natural fit and the preferred solution to a critical issue.

Substantial investment and opportunity has arisen in many communities in recent years as a result of improved governance or political reform. Where that has occurred it is common that governments find one substantial hurdle to the delivery of economic benefit. That hurdle is the lack of effective skills. Our work in many countries has been prompted by a realisation that vocational education and training is a critical component of economic development. In many cases, vocational education has been established but it is not aligned with today’s workplace. Or the courses are too expensive for people in low income communities. Or the standards are not effectively applied to ensure that students are correctly accredited. In some cases, there is no system, but a mixture of institutions aligned with different economic players in what often was a narrowly defined labour market.

Over many years, vocational education and training in Australia has refined characteristics that make it both effective and flexible in ways that are highly applicable in the situation of developing economies. Industry alignment is vitally important, providing the means to maximise the potential for job-ready students. Modular course design means that students may acquire skills incrementally, avoiding the often impractical requirement for years of full time study. Strong standards and accreditation management provide confidence and enhance the marketability of skills acquired. These are key attributes in our work today in a number of countries.

Some of our greatest opportunities are ahead. Indonesia and Myanmar are two neighbours in focus for us.

Indonesia, Australia’s nearest neighbour, has been on a path of gradual reform for almost 20 years. In recent years, steady economic progress has led to the ambitious program of President Joko Widodo for massive infrastructure investment. This program aims to deliver enormous expansion in power generation, large increments of transport infrastructure and a series of new facilities at key ports. Anyone familiar with Indonesia’s business conditions would be aware of the need for these improvements and of the value they will bring. But they will require millions of skilled people that today are not available in Indonesia.

Myanmar’s political reform came at a rapid pace from 2011, with first a relaxing of extremely tight controls by the military regime and then a popular election in November 2015 that returned an overwhelming majority to the democratic opposition, the National League for Democracy. However, the military-socialist regime in place from 1962 has left a large problem: Myanmar’s social infrastructure – its public service, legal system, education – is in poor condition, a brake on what could be quite rapid economic and social progress.

In our work we have witnessed in both Indonesia and Myanmar the gradual recognition of vocational education as a vital strategic factor and a high priority in public policy. In both cases, leading figures in government have indicated that the Australian system of vocational education is preferred.

Myanmar’s National Education Strategy Plan was released early this year after a number of years’ background research. The NESP gives high priority to vocational education, a new status that reflects both the urgent need to improve the employment prospects of younger people and the gap in skills available to meet the nation’s needs. As Myanmar implements its strategy for education, Sustainable Skills aims to play a number of roles in both supporting the execution of the plan and assisting with projects that increase the quality and supply of education and training places.

Indonesia’s focus on vocational education is at least partly driven by the demands of major projects that are in active planning. The imperative is very close to having deadlines. Our focus has been to offer support in policy development, consulting on specific sectoral projects and to work with potential local players in providing expertise to back new suppliers to the sector.

The flexibility of Sustainable Skills’ resources and well established background in the reality of providing strong outcomes has proven to be attractive to communities with real needs and opportunities. We are at an early stage of what presents at present as an extremely promising path.

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From the desk of the CEO-June 2017 newsletter address

Nigel Carpenter, Sustainable Skills CEO

Nigel Carpenter, Sustainable Skills CEO

Welcome to the June edition of our Sustainable Skills newsletter!

The transition from SkillsDMC to Sustainable Skills is now officially completed. I believe it is worth retracing the pathway that our organisation has followed since the end of 2016, when SkillsDMC fifteen years’ experience as the Skills Service Organisation for the Resources and Infrastructure Industries, responsible for the development and maintenance of the RII Training Package, officially came to an end.

As a result, we have undertaken an important transition with the aim to enhance our consultancy experience building effective TVET systems worldwide, applying our proven methodology across a broader range of industrial sectors. The global consultancy activity was introduced over five years ago as a new focus to broaden and grow the SkillsDMC business. Since then, our TVET experts have helped a number of countries to improve their TVET systems including Mozambique, Zambia, Vietnam, The Philippines, and Timor Leste.

Over the last six months, our team concentrated its efforts on the development of new business opportunities. We have travelled to South Africa, Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, Ghana, Indonesia, the Philippines and Myanmar exploring how we can support and assist the development of effective technical and vocational education and training systems worldwide. We have developed relationships with TVET authorities, Education Ministries and other government departments in most countries and are exploring a number of opportunities which would make a significant difference to maximise the performance of their TVET systems, developing local skills and supporting local economies.

We are now starting to see the first exciting outcomes of our work as we are in the process of signing a contract with the  World Bank which will see Sustainable Skills TVET experts, coordinated by Ben Rawlings, our Director International Development Services, leading a Skills Development Project managed by the Private Sector Foundation Uganda.  We are proud to say that our technical proposal has obtained an excellent evaluation from the committee, positioning Sustainable Skills as one of the leading TVET consultancy organisations in the world.

We believe that our expertise together with the Australian TVET best practice can support the development of successful vocational education systems, particularly in emerging countries, to ensure equal access to quality education, lifelong learning, and employment opportunities for all.

Over two decades of activity, SkillDMC has developed a number of training and assessment materials for the Resources and Civil Construction industries for Australian and International contexts. These products have been used by training providers and operating companies to meet the training and assessment needs of current and future workers of these industries. At Sustainable Skills, we believe that these resources form an important asset for the industry and we have decided to make them available through our new e-shop that is now fully renovated, hoping to offer our clients an improved customer experience.

In this monthly newsletter we are proud to introduce Sustainable Skills Chair of the board, Michael Gill, whose senior expertise in business strategy, with a strong focus on Asian markets, is significantly supporting our international activity. This month, Michael helped us to nurture the recently created partnerships with Myanmar, where an important reform of the national TVET sector is set as a priority on the government agenda. 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 with the ultimate goals of supporting a sustainable economic growth for the country and equipping local students with the skills they need to succeed in the 21st century.

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. In this newsletter we are sharing an article that summarises a number of ideas about what the reform program could look like while specifying how Sustainable Skills could be involved in the process.

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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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