A common challenge faced by technical and vocational education and training (TVET) institutions is their ability to adapt curriculum and programme standards to align with the evolving skills needs of industries and markets.
African TVET institutes often grapple with outdated curriculum standards and scarcity of resources to acquire modern training facilities that match the current state of technologies in the industries.
Unfortunately, many development projects do not address thoroughly the occupational standards that underpin various TVET programmes, or the programme delivery standards, which tend to be more theoretical than practical.
Consequently, there is a mismatch of skills acquired by graduates from TVET institutions and the skills needed by the real world of work. While some initiatives attempt to deal with these issues, their staff or curriculum committees often lack industrial and technical experience and expertise.
The recent collaboration platform introduced by the China-Africa Vocational Education Alliance and the Tanzanian National Council for Technical and Vocational Education and Training, or NACTVET, with facilitation from the World Bank, is boldly stepping into this territory to support African TVET systems and institutions in updating occupational and programme standards.
This initiative aims to bring these standards up to industrial norms and emphasises practical training as well as ensuring systems of knowledge.
More than 70 occupational standards have already been updated in fields such as agriculture, energy, construction, transport, aviation, early childhood education, tourism, horticulture, artificial intelligence, and ICT.
Aligning and harmonising standards with leading industries can help cultivate relevant skills among African students enrolled in TVET institutions. And, given the significant presence of Chinese industries in Africa, especially in sectors such as construction, transport, renewable energy, ICT and agriculture, these students will likely have expanded employment opportunities.
Programme delivery standards
The development of TVET programme delivery standards is also groundbreaking. While some countries have versions of programmes guides, it is rare to find a comprehensive, yet easy to understand guide that clearly stipulates minimum entry, exit, programme delivery requirements, and credit distribution among foundational, professional and industrial practices, certification and qualification.
The programme delivery standards also recommend corresponding occupations which the graduates are trained for.
An interesting observation from the new programme delivery standards is that TVET programmes have now embedded foundational skills in the training – in addition to technical skills to ensure that graduates are still trainable and not stuck in dead-end qualifications and occupations.
Of course, it may still be a long way before the African institutions can amass sufficient human and physical capacity to deliver these programmes according to the standards.
Both occupational and programme standards undergo scrutiny by the national stakeholders and authorities before nationwide implementation. Certain new standards are being piloted through collaborations between the East Africa Skills for Transformation and Regional Integration Project (EASTRIP) Regional TVET Flagship Institutes (RFTIs) such as the National Institute of Transport (NIT) and the Arusha Technical College (ATC) and their Chinese counterparts.
Support for regional integration
EASTRIP is a five-year project funded by the World Bank and the governments of Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania to increase the access to and improve the quality of TVET programmes in selected RFTIs and to support regional integration in East Africa.
Following extensive negotiations, Chinese and Tanzanian institutions have agreed to enter into collaborations to offer several joint programmes with mutually recognised diplomas.
Students are admitted to NIT, ATC, and DIT and receive instructions from both Tanzanian and Chinese teachers. Chinese teachers primarily handle professional core courses, supplemented by industrial attachments, while Tanzanian teachers undergo capacity-building from their Chinese counterparts and relevant industries.
Joint programmes tend to offer substantial benefits to African institutions, as compliance with stringent requirements in management, faculties, programmes and training facilities required by the overseas counterparts provides strong impetus for institutional improvement.
Graduates from these joint programmes benefit from more relevant and stringent curriculums and access to the state-of-the-art training environment, including workshop and laboratory facilities, and, with the double diploma, they often have more opportunities to access quality jobs.
Based on updated occupational and programme standards, the design of joint programmes for each of the partner institutions is in response to the demand for highly skilled personnel in the early stages of infrastructure construction and industrialisation in African countries, with the goal of fully exploiting China’s technical advantages, on one hand, and Africa’s demographic advantages, on the other.
Opening up TVET education in China
This collaboration is bolstered by a trusting partnership between Tanzania and China. Financing is provided by the Chinese government through Chinese TVET colleges aiming to open up tertiary education in China.
Additionally, ongoing World Bank financing through EASTRIP contributes recurrent and capital investments to selected Tanzanian institutions. The collaboration between RFTIs and Chinese TVET institutes is not only limited to Tanzania, but also includes two other participating countries – that is, Ethiopia and Kenya.
The potential impact of these joint programmes on fundamentally improving TVET capacity in Africa is significant.
There are existing sandwich tertiary programmes, such as those in the African Higher Education Centres of Excellence, or ACEs, and the Partnership for Skills in Applied Sciences, Engineering and Technology (PASET) Regional Innovation Scholarship Fund, but most are limited to students spending a summer month or one semester conducting research or studying at partner institutions, receiving diplomas only from their home institutions.
While such sandwich programmes are very beneficial, developing double diploma or degree programmes is challenging, as global leading institutions are generally reluctant to accredit programmes delivered by institutions in developing countries. In that regard, EASTRIP is again in the forefront of innovations.
As an internationalisation strategy, joint and dual degree programmes are welcomed by many academics and policymakers as a natural extension of exchange and mobility programmes as in a 2011 study by Jane Knight.
Although the international joint and dual programme is more prevalent in degree programmes, particularly between North countries, and between North and South countries, they are emerging as a strategy by which institutions can move beyond individual faculty- and course-level collaborations to establish ongoing, multidimensional partnerships, according to a report.
While continuous evaluation of these programmes is warranted, the new type of South-to-South joint programme, according to the Knight study, holds the promise of bringing important benefits to individuals, institutions and national and regional education systems from both sides, resulting in a more in-depth and reciprocal relationship with the partner institution, as well as a more integrated experience for African students with the support of Chinese enterprises.
Dr Xiaoyan Liang is the lead education specialist at the World Bank and Dr Cosam Joseph is the regional project coordinator for EASTRIP.
