TEC boss tips Africa on vocational education and poverty

from writer Ryder Gabathuse

Tertiary Education Council (TEC) executive secretary, Dr Patrick Molutsi has said that African countries need to answer a number of questions on vocational technical education vis-à-vis poverty alleviation.

He said Africa needs to answer the questions before Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) can be seen as a critical component of the strategy for poverty alleviation. The first among these questions is whether countries are investing enough in TVET programmes. He said TVET is seen as the main vehicle for human capital development. He was presenting a paper entitled: “The role of technical and vocational education and training in poverty alleviation in Africa” yesterday at the Fifth International TVET Conference in Africa at Kasane. Molutsi, who is a sociologist, pointed out that TVET has received a higher attention in poverty alleviation because it covers the full continuum of education, skill formation and training activities. He said it therefore means that graduates from vocational and technical colleges unlike those from general education are expected to be more employable and more amenable to self-employment. He said that globally, technical vocational education and training programmes are expected to reduce shortages of skilled workers. It is meant to continuously upgrade the workforce skill levels and respond to new forms of work organisation.

Responding to a question on how TVET programmes can reduce unemployment, Molutsi indicated that evidence shows that countries with a skilled workforce and growth-oriented policies are making progress, partly through investment in skill development, which helps increase employment. “On the other side, in countries with less ideal conditions, if unemployment exists partly because skills mismatch, training can clearly reduce joblessness. But if skills mismatch is not a problem, training would have little impact.” He added that the curriculum offered for TVET must aim to respond to persistent unemployment, which deepens poverty. This is putting governments and training systems under pressure to help vulnerable groups to avoid social exclusion and overcome systematic discrimination. “More research on TVET needs to be done in Africa so as to ensure continuity and articulation of traditional skills with modern ones at the same time as we plan for high technological skills development.”