Huge lift for vocational centres

Buildings and tools,funded by the European Union and earmarked for 10 vocational training centers (VTC) in six provinces are being delivered later this year.
Thanks to this, more student scan be accommodated in the VTCs and the quality of instruction and learning will surely increase.Important lessons will be learned by all involved, be they TVET students,their teachers, the VTCs, TVET management, and local businesses where the students will later find employment.
The entire country will benefit from this substantial investment in the national TVET system.
Shortage of the right trained people
It has been established again and again that Papua New Guinea needs properly trained people like skilled workers.
One of the main systems to ensure that young people with the right skills receive proper training,leading to employment, is the TVET system. TVET stands for Technical Vocational Education and Training,a part of the formal education,where government-run TVET institutions fall under Department of Education.In the past, a sad experience for many young people seeking formal training through TVET has been that there were no job opportunities for them, after the completion of their training.
A huge disappointment for anyone who has spent time, money and effort to acquire a certificate.This could be because they were not trained in those areas where there is an actual demand in the market for their skills. This is a problem for the young people, for businesses and for PNG.
Starting a big project in TVET
Some years back,the Government of Papua New Guinea and the European Union (EU) decided to collaborate and address this issue -to ensure that training of students in TVET was relevant for companies,so they could hire skilled workers and young people.It was decided to try out the idea through a carefully designed TVET project. The Govermment and the EU decided to launch the Human Resource Development Project Phase II or HRDP2 for short (Phase I was within general education).Six provinces were selected for this intervention, due to the presence of an obvious demand for skilled manpower in those places:East Sepik, East New Britain, Enga, Morobe, Eastern Highlands and NCD.
Within those six provinces,10 VTCs were selected, with the following in mind: What will happen to the students, to the schools and their teachers, to local industry, to TVET as such and to PNG, if these 10 VTCs were provided with a true uplift?
Quality TVET requires many elements
As one can imagine, there are many elements that need to be improved in order for this intervention to be successful.There has to be a demand in the market for students with TVET qualifications. Otherwise,companies will not hire anyone.
There also has to be VTCs in provinces that can meet this demand by knowing what companies want by ensuring that VTCs are offering such relevant education and training.To do so, the VTCs should have proper facilities, both “hardware”and “software”. Hardware are things like proper workshops with the right tools and equipment. Software are well trained teachers in the VTCs.
Trained managers in the provinces and in Department of Education are also vital to ensure that all these elements are properly managed and brought to bear.A critical issue here is to channel the needs of the local labour market back into school to ensure that they offer the students relevant training.
And then you need the students. These are students, who have completed Grades 8, 10 and 12 and are motivated to enter TVET.HRDP2 is addressing all these issues in one go and therefore, it is fair to say that it addresses systems issues.
Facilities and equipment
One of the largest categories under this scheme of new buildings is that of workshops. New TVET workshops will come up to house cooking, carpentry, electrical,vehicles, mechanical, plumbing
and welding and others. This will make it possible to arrange the entire space within these core areas of TVET much more conducive to
practical quality teaching/learning of students.
A number of classrooms for academic and non-practical teaching will also be erected in schools that either cannot accommodate the students they already have or where the existing facilities are in poor condition or even dilapidated. A number of new dormitories will be constructed.
This will be of high importance for the attendance of girl students who can remain within the protection of VTCS and will not be forced to commute daily, in order to attend training and obtain a TVET certificate.
Another key area is the construction of separate washing facilities for girls and boys and also addressing the personal hygiene issue.
New tools and equipment for the existing and new workshops should also be mentioned. In total, 22,726 single pieces of equipment will be delivered to the 10 VTCs.In short, it will be a high number of hand tools needed to train the students to the appropriate certificate levels within all trades.On top of this comes welding machines, electric testing equipment, special equipment for plumbing and catering needed in the hospitality and tourism courses, equipment like tractors and irrigation equipment in agriculture,etc.On top of this, beds, chairs, tables and lockers for the classrooms and for the dormitories and teacher
houses will be added.And lastly, of course a lot of computers, which are used in all types of courses. All this stuff is expensive – TVET is one, if not the most expensive part of the entire education system, not least because you need all the right tool sand properly trained teachers and instructors to teach the student show to use the equipment in the right and safe manner.However, it means that the VTCs are now fully equipped to cater for certificate level in TVET – opening a pathway for some of the students to pursue further education at college level, if they want to.
Valuable lessons learned for all stakeholders
At the end of the day, this multimillion Euro investment funded by the EU and ear marked for the 10 VTCs in six provinces will be measured against the whole purpose of HRDP2: To improve the VTCs and ensure that a skilled local labour force is made available to the country.
If we look a bit into the future, say one year from now, all these new facilities will be in place and will be functioning.
When new students are admitted in the 10 VTCs they will be greeted by newly trained teachers, who can instruct their students on how to proceed within academic subjects as well use modern technical equipment that enterprises are also using.
Further those in the TVET systems at national and provincial levels looking after TVET and the VTCs themselves know how to plan and how to establish those lines of communication with local businesses and enterprises that make it possible to tailor the course contents according to actual market demand for skills.
This will provide some very important lessons learned for all stakeholders, be they the business community, the TVET system (management and teachers), the students themselves, and in the final analysis, PNG overall.