Learning for Life, Work and the Future Initial ... - Unesco-Unevoc

Learning for Life, Work and the Future Main Working Document Page 11
Main Working Document
By Jakes R. Swartland
1 Introduction
This is a workshop, not a seminar or conference where
the emphasis is on presentation of papers. It is one of
the follow-up actions to the Second International Congress
on Technical and Vocational Education whose
theme was Lifelong Learning and Training: A Bridge
to the Future. The Congress concluded that, as an
integral component of lifelong learning, Technical and
Vocational Education (TVE) has a crucial role to play
in the twenty-first century as an effective tool to
realising the objectives of a culture of peace, environmentally-sound
sustainable development, social cohesion
and international citizenship.
In particular, it recommended that a technical and
vocational education system should
• Encompass inclusiveness and wider access
• Have good quality programmes that are open,
flexible and learner-oriented
• Prepare individuals more generally for life and the
world of work
• Develop close interfaces with all other education
sectors to facilitate a seamless path for learners, the
emphasis being on articulated accreditation and
recognition of prior leaning to enhance their
opportunities
• Inspire in young people a positive attitude to innovation
to enable them to prepare for self-reliance
• Reach out to the informal economic sector, which is
often excluded in the spectrum of life
• Be extended to prepare students and adults for the
real possibility of frequent career change, including
periods of employment and unemployment in the
informal sector
• Involve all stakeholders, particularly industry and
educationalists, through mutual partnerships so that
each can learn from the other in their approaches to
lifelong learning
• Harness the potential of new information technologies
to provide technology-based learning and
widespread access
• Establish quality assurance procedures to ensure a
new higher status for technical and vocational education.
Qualification standards, certification
processes, valid assessment methods and acceptable
outcomes are all key ingredients of a good quality
technical and vocational education system.
Papers submitted for this
workshop endorsed some
of these issues, and also
mentioned reforms and
developments that have
been put in place not only
to improve the quality of
TVET but also to improve
its management and coordination.
Policies
relating to TVET are under continuous review, and
reforms and statutory bodies have either been, or are
about to be, established, as is evidenced by the following
edited extracts from the papers. They highlight
some ideas which have the potential for projectisation.
• An autonomous government agency, the Namibian
Training Authority (NTA), should be established as
the supreme co-ordinating body on the implementation
of the VET policy. (Siririka, Namibia) 1
• The mission of TEVET Authority (TEVETA) is to
contribute to personal development and respond to
labour market demands by providing technical,
entrepreneurial and vocational education and
training. This will increase productivity and the
production of quality goods using environmentally
appropriate technology, and will instil a spirit of
entrepreneurship in both wage earners and the selfemployed,
finally alleviating poverty.
(Kafere, Malawi)
• The establishment of the Vocational Education
Training Authority (VETA) in 1994 and the subsequent
adoption of a new Vocational Education and
Training System are a result of economic changes
in the socio-economic environment in the United
Republic of Tanzania.
• The Industrial and Vocational Training Board
(IVTB) became operational in 1989. Its objectives
include, inter alia, advising the Minister on matters
related to training; monitoring the need for training
in consultation with relevant authorities; providing
for, promoting, assisting with and regulating the
training schemes. (Seychelles)
• As part of the implementation of the national TVET
policy, the Vocational Training Act was passed in
1998 to officially establish the Botswana Training
Authority. (DVET, Botswana)
1 Quotations from Participants’ Papers are drawn from the original
versions of the papers, whereas the papers on page 29ff. are summaries
of the original versions.