Seminar discusses vocational courses

A group of mostly education officers in Enga with special interest in technical vocational and education had a one-day workshop on technical vocational education training (TVET) recently.
The discussions were on the need to have TVET as an alternative pathway to education for students in secondary schools in the country.
The team leader of the European Union-funded Human Resource Development Programme Phase 2 (HRDP 2), Dr Manfred Winnefeld, told the participants that it was not unusual for TVET to have a low profile.
He said even in his own country, Germany, it took a long time before training and careers were in TVET were as comparable as those in white collar professions.
A key expert on policy and employability, Dr Ben Imbun, pointed out that in the case of PNG, after political independence there was an urgency to fill and localise new job openings and
expatriate-held positions in the public service.
For the last four decades, all schooling was largely directed at developing challenges in which parents have urged their children to strive for formal white collar jobs and industrial jobs based on college and university qualification.
TVET careers, in the process, were neglected and often stigmatised as ‘places for school leavers and low academic achievers’.
This thinking may become a thing of the past as TVET is receiving a boost in policy direction of the PNG Government and support from donors, such as the European Union in advocating
for a change in the perception of TVET.
As a way forward, several recommendations were achieved at the workshop, particularly for TVET support in Enga.
It was also suggested that there was a need to form partnerships with stakeholders, as well as industries and other important partners such as parents and non-governmental organisations.
The workshop was also told the HRDP2 programme’s support to Pombapus and Laigaim vocational centres in Enga.
These are the two of the 10 vocational centres in six provinces funded under the programme that have received support.