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Description:
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In the year 2006 Technical Entrepreneurial Vocational Education and Training Authority
(TEVETA) introduced the Competence Based Education and Training (CBET) approach to
teaching and learning of technical and vocational skills in Malawi. The introduction of the
approach followed its being piloted in several colleges within the country. Strengthening its base
was the fact that, it has become a widely used and acceptable approach in sub Saharan Africa for
teaching and learning of the technical and vocational skills in order to come up with a competent
workforce capable of contributing to social economic growth of their particular countries.
Among other countries that have adopted the approach are Tanzania, and Botswana.
The approach emphasizes on the need for the trainee to master all competencies/ requirements in his/her occupation. However the introduction of the CBET approach drew mixed reactions from College staff - some in favor of it, and others against. In general, those who were against the CBET approach cited indefinite program duration due to some flexibilities inherent in the system, the way students are assessed, and over-dependence on industry for completion of some modules among some draw backs. Further to the reaction above, there have been sentiments that although the CBET curricula were piloted, no post-pilot forum was organized to review lessons learnt, challenges, and how the curricula could be improved. Some college administrators thought it was anomalous to roll-out a program before the in-depth review of the pilot was conducted. For those who were in support of the training approach, some of the reasons given were: emphasis on competence development, inbuilt quality checks, opportunities for Graduate recognition even beyond the country. (JIMAT, 2008 P.5, 30, 31)
Two occupations/trades that were piloted in 2002 are bricklaying, and carpentry and joinery,
with two institutions; Soche Technical College on bricklaying, and Mzuzu Technical College on
carpentry and joinery. However there was no awarding body and assessment sample materials.
Therefore students had to follow traditional approach, where some sat for trade test. In 2006
there was a declaration from Technical, Entrepreneurial, Vocational Education and Training
Authority (TEVETA) that all developed occupation syllabus should go flat out CBET. Though
such was the case TEVETA proved not able to handle CBET as had no certification arrangement
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despite developing certification unit in 2002 which had no tools and a system providing for verifiers and assessors.
Modules in the two trades for level 1 were developed in 2000 and gained favor with secondary
school graduates according to Malawi Labor Market Survey (2008). Later companies in
carpentry recommended the dividing of carpentry and joinery into two trades; carpentry
separated from joinery. However the carpentry class lacked trainees until colleges intervened in
allocating trainees, a situation unique for Malawi. The change was following the delivery of
courses that were demand driven. However the going down of the sector advisory committee
affected the implementation of the splitting, such that standards were not vetted by the industry
and not registered with Technical Qualification Committee, a situation that affected the piloting.
This then takes the whole system back to supply driven failing both TEVETA and the industry.
The requirement is that after developing standards, they should be registered against Technical Qualification Framework (TQF), a thing that has not happened yet. TEVETA has developed standards up to level III and some have gone up to lever IV. This also poses a challenge to aligning of qualifications.
Though such is still the case in formal sector, the level of education for the employees in the two trades in the informal sector is lower (ibid. P6). Strengthening the latter argument is the finding that the two trades mostly are learnt through experience.
As far as employability is concerned, it has further been found that the learning and job done has a larger variance in the two trades under study. However in terms of demand point focus for the trades, bricklaying ranks six then carpentry and joinery seven, secretarial and administration being the first. |