Employer Based Training
Technical Education and Vocational
Training is at the foundation of a nation’s economic success. Singapore
is a regional model in TVET that is interesting and important to study.
While no one country’s model fits easily in a second country, we can look
to those with vibrant economies for lessons to be learned.
Singapore began TVET
operations in 1961 when skills development was moved from Singapore
Polytechnic to its own management framework. Over the next 20 years, the
partnership between TVET and Employers was strengthened until the training
system was virtually an extension of the human resources development
departments of Industry. By 1990, this system was clearly paying off, and
a country with no natural resources except the talent of its own people
became a world leader in productivity in a range of manufacturing and
service areas.
It took over 25 years for this
Employer Based System to mature. With it grew the companion institutional
system, including the Polytechnics and Engineering Universities.
The two tracks of TVET supported each other and fed into the same national
economic plan.
Every country will have its own path.
But what we are seeing today is the emergence of the second track of TVET,
Employer Based Training (EBT), to compliment the
institutional system developed over the last many years. As you
will see, EBT will reach out to those who are presently shut out from
further education. It will take as an objective to meet the skills needs
of communities, to develop community responsive programs throughout the
country. It will try to make every employer a training campus and every
employee a part time learner. It will take time and resources, but the
training partnership between employers and institutions is underway and
EBT will be an excellent addition to any TVET system.