Improving access to vocational training

 

Senior Group Village Headman (GVH) Kanyenda of Nkhotakota could not hide his glee as he addressed the small gathering.

“When news of this project reached us, we were overjoyed. This centre has helped many youth and we will do everything to support the project,” the chief said, stopping short of breaking into a dance.

He went on: “It would have saddened us if this place had been abandoned.”

Senior GVH Kanyenda’s sentiments were in reference to the K2 billion Tevet Improvement Project (TIP) that the World Bank has funded to increase access to vocational training.

Under the project, Tevet (Technical Education, Vocational and Entrepreneurship Training) is to set up 12 Community Skills Development Centres (CSDCs) across the country, four in each region.

The TIP aims at increasing the number of vocational programmes Tevet offers and improving their quality, among other things, according to Ishmail Ali, Tevet head of projects and development.

The project will see Tevet train 4 100 youths during its lifespan.

Giving the background to the project, Ali said it was intended to address what Tevet considered were its three problematic areas-access and equity, relevance and quality, and financing of Tevet.

He said many Malawians wanted to learn a trade and make a living, yet those “who go to university and technical colleges are few.”

“We found that in Malawi, enrolment is very low in public technical colleges. Every year, we get 16 000 applications but the fullest capacity for both private and public technical colleges is 1 500,” Ali said.

But he said out of the 1, 500 students who get enrolled in public technical schools, the vast majority are from privileged families. He said not many youth from poor families access technical colleges.

“We agreed that we had to increase access to Tevet so that more youths get enrolled. We also want to broaden the range of occupations that we are teaching in the technical colleges,” Ali said.

Besides the number of places available at technical colleges being limited, the other problem concerns their relevance and quality.

Ali said: “If you take a cloth tailored by a Nigerian, for example, you will see that its quality will be higher than that made by a Malawian tailor.”

The TIP project also aims at addressing the issue of gender imbalance in vocational training, as well as the limited number of persons with disabilities that are taking part in Tevet.

“For instance, the generally held belief in Malawi is that a girl cannot go on top of a roof [to fix it],” Ali said. “And there are very few persons with disabilities participating in TEVET activities.”

In terms of financing, he observed that TEVET was “hugely underfunded compared to other countries in the region” and that it was for this reason Tevet approached the World Bank for assistance.

“The World Bank agreed that we had a huge problem,” Ali said. “They have given us $5 million for TEVET to increase access to technical colleges and also broaden the range of occupations offered.”

Two of the 12 districts that are to benefit from the TIP are Nkhotakota and Mangochi, in the central and southern regions respectively.

In Nkhotakota, the project is to be implemented at Nkhotakota Community Business Centre, a business training centre that the now defunct Malawi Entrepreneurs Development Institute (Medi) built.

Senior Chief Kanyenda, Traditional Authority Kafuzira and their subjects initiated the establishment of the centre as way to develop the locals’ entrepreneurship skills which they identified as a needy area.

Medi asked chiefs of the area to set up a committee to run the centre. After the formation of the committee, locals used to go to Medi at Mponela in Dowa to attend business management courses.

“That was the time we did a research to find out what people wanted the centre to do for them,” Chimwemwe Mzunga, the manager for the centre, told Mana.

“We discovered that they wanted to form clubs so they could learn how to run businesses and obtain loans. Banks came to teach clubs how they could get loans, and we also found markets for farmers.”

But when Medi merged with the Small Enterprises Development Organisation of Malawi (Sedom) to form Smedi (Small and Medium Enterprises Development Institute), support to the centre stopped.

Before Medi left, they linked up the centre with Tevet because it had a vocational training component. Tevet provided tools for the courses the centre was running.

The centre has so far trained nearly 200 youth in welding, electrical installation, tailoring, and carpentry and joinery, among other trades.

Many youth who have graduated from the centre have been employed by companies around Dwangwa, according to Mzunga.

When community colleges were introduced, the centre was not among the places chosen for the programme. This prompted Tevet to seek help from the World Bank so that it could be maintained.

“World Bank came here and were impressed with its structures,” Mzunga said. “They said it would be a waste of resources if it were to be abandoned.”

Mzunga hailed government for introducing the TIP, saying it would go a long way in helping idle youth who she said were indulging in bad behaviour for lack of occupations.

But perhaps no one is happier with the TIP and the funding it has received from the World Bank than the 62-yearold Senior GVH Kanyenda, born Feston Allan Phiri.

The traditional leader said he and his subjects welcomed the project with open arms, considering that the country’s national technical schools cannot absorb all youth who finish school each year.

He said Malawi was not going to develop unless the youth who he said were in the majority, got fully involved in development work.

“We are prepared to give the project land,” a vividly excited Senior GVH Kanyenda said during their discussions over the project with a Tevet official. “This centre has helped many children.”

In Mangochi, the project is to be implemented at the Malindi Skills Development Centre, owned by the Anglican Diocese of the Upper Shire.

The skills development centre, set up in 2012, currently offers courses in welding, fabrication, carpentry and joinery, and tailoring, among others.

The centre signed a memorandum of understanding with Tevet in 2012 and plans to introduce other courses in bread-making, electrical installation, and beauty treatment.

The Rev. Canon Mchakoma, the chairperson of the committee running the centre, commended the project, saying it would stop early marriages in the district among the youth.

“Many youth in Mangochi marry early because they are idle. This project will equip youth with job skills which they will use to earn their livelihoods,” the Rev. Mchakama told Mana.

He said: “The project will also stop youth going to South Africa to look for jobs.”

Mangochi, a densely populated district with limited employment opportunities like other areas of the country, arguably has the largest number of people from Malawi living and working in South Africa.

Ali said after phasing out the project, Tevet would continue to train 1 000 youth annually in the CSDCs and that would mean “we will have pushed the enrolment number from 1 500 to 2 600 annually.”

Tevet is also looking into redeveloping occupations to include agricultural Tevet and basic electronics (such as the repair of telephones), and tannery.

“We are reviewing our curriculum. We plan to redevelop a total of 15 occupations and on top of this, we want to introduce an automobile course at diploma level,” he said.

“There is a gap in automobile mechanics and the idea is to fill the void. The course will be done at Lilongwe Technical College.”

Ali said they were planning to have teachers for the automobile diploma level course, and that Tevet would shortly be sending four people to South Africa for training.

“We plan to enroll 20 trainees each year for the course,” he said.

Ali also revealed that under the TIP, 250 master craft persons across the country would be trained. Once trained, they will be given equipment and stationed in remote areas of the country, he said.

“Their job will be to train those who may not have the necessary qualifications to go to a public technical college,” Ali said. “They will coordinate with NGOs, CBOs and councils to publicise their availability.”

And senior GVH Kanyenda said every well-meaning and development-conscious Malawian needed to support such initiatives, adding “this is the way to go if we are to develop the country.”

“We all need to join hands and help government to bring to fruition such initiatives,” he said, speaking on behalf of Senior Chief Kanyenda. “Here, we are more than ready to offer our support.”

Tevet head of corporate affairs Lewis Msasa said they viewed the assistance from the World Bank as a sign of the confidence that the international financial institution had in it to run the project.

Msasa said Tevet in the past also received funding from the National Aids Commission (NAC) and the Department for International Development (DfID) to implement vocational-related projects. n