Flagship TVET project: A few sparks can light a prairie fire

Countries in East Africa, led by Ethiopia, Kenya, and Tanzania, have taken a big step towards regional cooperation in technical and vocational education and training (TVET).

On 24 May, education leaders from the three countries signed a communique in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to adopt the Regional TVET Qualifications Framework.

The adoption of the framework will facilitate the mobility of students, staff, and skilled labour initially across Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania, and eventually the entire East Africa region.

People and labour mobility is an important part of Africa’s regional integration agenda. The free movement of people and related rights on entry, residence and establishment is an essential pillar of the long-term goal of the Abuja Treaty, which came into force in 1994 to create a continental free trade area and common market.

While universities in the region have long been undertaking student and faculty exchange programmes, regional or international cooperation in TVET is a relatively new phenomenon. TVET programmes often aim for local and national markets, including informal ones, and can be difficult to scale up.

Demand for specialised technical skills rising

However, as African countries industrialise and move towards regional integration to create one common African market, demand for specialised technical skills is on the rise across the continent.

Countries may find it challenging to produce all the skills and need to resort to export and import relevant skills. Without a common framework, it is difficult for the qualifications to be portable from one country to another.

This achievement was catalysed by the East African Skills for Transformation and Regional Integration Project (EASTRIP), a five-year project implemented by the governments of Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania through World Bank funding, to increase access and improve quality of select TVET programmes in three countries and to promote regional integration.

The Regional Flagship TVET Institutes (RFTI) model has been adopted as a core strategy of the EASTRIP Project to achieve sustainable TVET development as well as regional integration. Currently, EASTRIP is supporting 16 competitively selected RFTIs – seven in Ethiopia, five in Kenya and four in Tanzania.

Under the EASTRIP Project, each RFTI specialises in specific sectors and occupations with corresponding TVET certificates, diplomas and degrees, recognised by national TVET regulatory authorities and often by industries and employers.

The project’s key priority sectors, proposed by the governments and validated by experts, include manufacturing and agro-processing, transport and infrastructure, power and energy, information and ICT.

Countries and RFTIs are expected to complement each other towards the development of high growth sectors of the economies in the region.

For example, the Arusha Technical College in Tanzania specialises in technician training for hydro, wind and solar power industries, whereas Meru Polytechnic in Kenya specialises in technician training for construction, including green construction.

The KenGen Geothermal Training Center, which is the EASTRIP RFTI for geothermal technology, was appointed by the Association of Power Utilities of Africa (APUA), to offer specialised training to the power utilities in Africa.

Exploiting economies of scale

Creating a cluster of Regional Flagship TVET Institutes receiving both national and regional students spread the cost of what would otherwise be costly training investments for each country.

It means countries in the region are collectively training skilled labour targeting employment, not only within national boundaries, but also in regional economic corridors such as the Northern and Central Corridor Initiatives, mega infrastructure projects in the region such as Lamu Port-South Sudan-Ethiopia-Transport (LAPSSET) Corridor Project, Standard Gauge Railway Projects, as well as Industrial Parks and Export Processing Zones.

This model allows countries to devote their limited resources to strategically selected RFTIs initially, exploit economies of scale as programmes attract students from other countries and, at the same time, access high-calibre skills produced by other countries.

Incentives are created with the project to encourage RFTIs and countries to enhance collaboration.

The adoption of a regional qualifications framework at high level helps create legitimacy for skills mobility and also removes technical bottlenecks in programme articulation for the respective regulatory bodies.

Injecting dynamism

The EASTRIP support to the RFTIs is guided by the principles of industry linkage and institutional autonomy.

With a common quality assurance and management framework, RFTIs are being supported to institutionalise functional industry advisory committees, conduct market surveys and skills needs assessment, actively pursue industry certification in addition to regulatory approval, regularise graduate tracer study and employer satisfaction surveys.

RFTIs are being incentivised to send their staff for industrial attachment and increase their enrolment for female and regional students.

RFTIs signed performance agreements with the government through a five-year Strategic Investment Plan that commit the RFTIs to deliver concrete results in access, quality and regional integration in return for the EASTRIP investments.

Three rounds of results verification show substantial achievement in expanding access and improving the quality of programmes, including the overall high graduate employments rates among the RFTIs.

RFTIs also benefit from intense technical support from the World Bank and its partners. From the very inception of EASTRIP, professional firms were brought to help develop the RFTI Five-year Strategic Plan.

During the implementation, the World Bank team trained the 16 RFTIs in project management, financial management, international competitive bidding and establishing proper environmental and social safeguards measures to mitigate risks.

Bilateral partners from China and Korea have provided technical assistance and are continuing to support EASTRIP through scholarships for faculties and through various technical and capacity-building events at regional, national and RFTI levels. Numerous memorandums of understanding have been established in EASTRIP.

The regional approach also promotes peer learning among countries and institutions in sharing good policies and practices. Facilitated by IUCEA, the EASTRIP community and their partnership institutions as well as industries meet twice a year for a technical advisory meeting to share knowledge and experiences.

Globally, the flagship approach has been used and proven effective in not only serving the short- and medium-term needs of skills development but also in catalysing broader national reform and injecting dynamism into the system. As the saying goes: a few sparks can light up the entire prairie.

Dr Xiaoyan Liang is the lead education specialist at the World Bank Group. The World Bank Group’s country team leaders are Kaboko Nkahiga (Tanzania), Kirill Vasiliev (Ethiopia) and Annet Kiura (Kenya). Biruk Gebreyohannes is a consultant and Dr Innocent Mulindwa is the regional team leader at the World Bank Group.