New report shows skills gap worsening

Technical and Vocational Education Training (Tvet) in low and middle-income countries, including Malawi, have failed to equip students with the requisite skills required in the job market, a new report shows.

The joint World Bank and United Nations agencies report indicates that the failure to train qualified graduates could undermine the implementation of national development programmes in low-income countries such as Malawi.

Published jointly with the International Labour Organisation and United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, the report observes that shortage of companies ready to host learners is one of the main challenges that have negatively impacted the industrial attachment programme.

Reads the report in part: “Lack of clear, adequate and easy-to-monitor regulations such as the pedagogical capacity of in-company mentors, curriculum requirements or assessment procedures, also jeopardise the successful implementation of work-based learning.

“Coordination failures, such as misunderstandings or disagreements on how WBL [Work Based Learning] should be conducted, may also occur between a training institution and employers, which may affect monitoring and quality control.”

In an earlier presentation, Technical, Entrepreneurial and Vocational Education and Training Authority (Teveta) executive director Elwin Sichiola said the placement of junior technicians in senior positions during their industrial attachment limits the student’s capacity to learn.

He said failure to remit Tevet levies by some private institutions also robs Teveta of the resources it needs to finance Tvet programmes.

Sichiola urged the private sector to collaborate with the authority to train competent graduates in technical courses by allowing access to their workshops where tutors in technical colleges can familiarise themselves with modern technologies.

In a press statement posted on www.worldbank.org, World Bank vice-president for human development Mamta Murthi is quoted as having said the institutional weaknesses inherent in the Tvet institutions are undermining their capacity to eradicate some social problems such as youth unemployment and poverty.

“Good Tvet systems will help countries invest in skills and jobs for young people,” she said.