Tom & Mary Norton What do you do in a small country which after thirty years of war and massive rural poverty, has well over a million out of school youth with no skills and no real hope of a future career? Cambodia faced this challenge and fortunately, the ADB managed Japan Fund for Poverty Reduction (JFPR) was prepared … Read more
Public sector institutions rarely have marketing plans. As they are essentially supply driven, they do not feel the need to respond to the market for their goods and services in the same way as private sector organizations. However, as public (government) institutions are pressured to secure funding beyond government grants, their desire to understand their … Read more
While there is a range of alternative funding mechanisms for TVET, the most common is a levy-grant model. The OECD, in preparation for the Southeast Asia Regional Policy Network on Education and Skills in Cebu, Philippines on the 11-12 October 2016, reviewed the history of funding mechanisms in technical and vocational education and concluded that: … Read more
Stop looking in the rearview mirror. Leave the past to archaeologists and anthropologists. Lead Change. Drive change. Help people adapt to change. Be the change you want them to become. Mahatma Gandhi Push yourself to try the unfamiliar. Do the things you are not quite prepared to do. Add value through innovation. Look at things with new … Read more
How did TVET get into the position that forces administrators of government funded institutions to learn the business skills of revenue generation and the development of a dynamic leadership role? Basically, most governments simply cannot afford the total cost of trade and technician institutions for the future. TVET is VERY expensive. Allowing institutions to simply … Read more
There are millions of out of school youth who are unemployed or underemployed. This number increases per year. Efforts are being made to both reduce the school leaving rate and to develop a non-formal education program which can meet some of the needs of this group. However, these efforts at re-entry have had little short … Read more
Microsoft starts a new global skills initiative to bring to 25 million people worldwide by the end of the year. The action will bring more digital skills to those primarily affected by job loss during the COVID pandemic. This pandemic brought the need for digital skills sharply and made so many individuals and companies leapfrog … Read more
Massive investments continue to grow in the institutionalization of Skills Development. The motivation is understandable. Improving the productivity of the workforce and creating employment opportunities are essential items on the political agenda. More technical schools seem to find this reasonable, especially if academics rather than economic planners lead the planning process. So, most of … Read more
Digital skills are driving competitiveness in today’s economy. Countries below the digital divide must struggle to bring their populations to a level where they can catch up… and then keep up. Education today is no longer driven by the public sector as this has fallen off the way with its turtle-like response to faster changes … Read more
International experience suggests that changing employer attitude is a long-term activity. Nevertheless, ensuring that the primary market has a positive feeling about Training institutions is absolutely essential if public TVET is to become a significant influence in industry development. Marketing in TVET is built on the premise that institutions will identify the clients they wish … Read more