ASEAN race to meet UN Millennium Development Goal 2015 via sustainable voc-tech education

(Part I)

To meet the UNMDG for national sustainability the Indonesian government is making sure that 60 percent of their secondary schools will have the technical vocational program. Only 28 percent are expected to enroll in the universities. The Thai Ministry of Education is following suit to make sure 50 percent of their secondary schools will “go TVET.” Acknowledging weakness in their current curriculum, Thailand is determined to develop performance indicators for excellence. This is part of the report delivered at the 16th IVETA-CPSC international conference by Dr. Paryono, Deputy Director and research specialist of SEAMEO VOCTECH center at Brunei Darussalam.

ESD in TVET 2010

Prof. Shyamal Majumdar, Director General of CPSC Colombo Plan Staff College for Technician Education and Klaus Sodemann, president of IVET (International Vocational Education and Training) Association together with the new TESDA Secretary, Joel Villanueva co-sponsored the international conference with the theme “ESD in TVET” last Nov. 3 to 5 at EDSA Shangri-La.

With just five years for UN member states to reach the UN Millennium Development Goal of sustainability they stated that global efforts are on the rise in establishing economic development strategies to enrich quality of life while taking care of the environment. The mid-decade assessment of Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (DESD 2005-2014) in Bonn Germany last year pointed out how high global consumption together with the human destruction of the cosmic biodiversity have caused resources to run out and therefore nothing would be left for our future generations.

This poses a critical challenge to reorient education sector in rising ESD awareness. Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET), as a major sub-sector and being the largest producer and consumer of natural resources, has to play a vital role in addressing sustainability. Therefore ESD principles are high on the agenda of TVET institutions around the world.

Global ESD enablers in TVET

More than 60 world experts, senior administrators, decision makers and educators from America, Europe, Africa and Asia Pacific presented their papers in four tracks: TVET Curriculum for ESD, Green Technology approaches for Industry and Education, Sustainable TVET Institutions through Partnerships and Alliance, Research, Monitoring and Evaluation.

“Greening TVET” as a framework for providing enabling environment to learn skills, learn and re-learn habit forming practices in the world of work was advocated by Prof. Shyamal. With his lengthy experience in TVET Teacher training, ICT and Total Quality Management he referred to the five dimensions of “Greening TVET” – First, the GREEN CAMPUS means managing campus resources such as energy, water and fuel, to reduce the carbon footprints of students, teachers and staff within TVET institutions; Second, the GREEN TECHNOLOGY PROGRAM touches on projects to meet upcoming skills for clean and green jobs; Third, to enhance daily life through GREEN COMMUNITY extending ESD practice at the community level to extend the TVET movement to society; Fourth, GREEN RESEARCH to foster the development of a research culture in relevant areas of sustainable development; Fifth, promoting GREEN CULTURE to strengthen ethical standards, attitudes and behavior that respect ecological resources and values the requirements of the future generation.

Green jobs and skills

Dr. Sandra Rothboeck, Skills and Employability specialist of ILO Bangkok reported that Climate Change adaptation and mitigation have become major drivers of change for societies, economies, enterprise and workers to shift to a low carbon economy during the last decades. A profound transformation in modes of production and consumption can be expected. There will be a redefinition of job profiles. The global market for environmental products and services is projected to double from $1370 billion per year at present to $2740 billion by 2020. Half of this market is based in energy efficiency and the balance in sustainable transport, water supply, sanitation and waste management.

Dr. Harry Stolte, head of the InWEnt, Capacity Building International spoke of trends in work demands which are environment driven due to climate change. In building construction there will be more need for assistant managers for sanitation, heating or cooling systems, experts for alternative energy (thermal, wind, solar and water). Dr. Stolte also announced the establishment of the new UNEVOC Center for Sustainable Development.

Barriers in TVET

The Euro-Mediterranean Partnership allowed Turkey to promote her entrepreneurship to enable her to join the EU (European Union) market. Funding SVET (Strengthen Vocational Education and Training) project to the cost of 51 million euro between 2002-2007 parallel to the MVET (Modernization of Vocational Education and Training institutes which ran from 2003-2007 costing Turkey 4.5 million euro and EU 14 million euro). Yet it fell short of the ideal target of 65 percent share of total secondary enrollments while the enrollment in the past decade remains a constant at 35 percent. According to Dr. Ilhan Gunbayi of Akdeniz University Faculty of Education in Turkey, the main reason is that the Turkish students still consider technical professions least prestigious and easy to enter compared to graduating from a university. Does that sound familiar?

Dr. Gunbayi’s paper included a table comparing the distribution of enrollment in VocTech secondary schools of European and OECD countries: Austria, 77.3; Belgium, 69.6; Finland, 66.7; Germany, 57.4; Italy, 59.8; Netherlands, 67.6; Norway, 57.5; Switzerland, 64.8. Lower than 50 percent enrollees are France, 43.8; Japan, 24.3; Mexico, 9.4 and Turkey, 36.7.

Some professions like catering, real estate, surveying, etc. have been performed by people without attending vocational schools in Turkey. Some of those jobs are still performed by unqualified people. But in the near time, these professions will be performed by technicians who graduated from vocational schools. A student who studies in a vocational school must know that he will have a good job, earn more money, and get good life conditions after finishing the vocational school successfully.

Thus, the enrollment rate to the VET in Turkey has not reached the target yet of 9th Development Plan (2007-2013). However, if policies to increase the quality and attractiveness of VET are put into action and new projects like SVET orienting VET closer to the requirements of the employment system and the corresponding labor market needs are started, it is expected that VET in Turkey will be preferred by 65 percent of the students at high school level.

Other barriers to enhancing the quality of VocTech training are the lack of training standards in the Turkish system. They merely serve administrative purpose. The content is often a list of topics to be taught and without indication of levels required at the start and the level to be achieved upon completion. Guidelines for assessing the student are lacking and the technology is often outdated. Being teacher oriented it lacks flexibility to meet local demands.

Many countries stress the need to place greater emphasis on TVET in the years to come

Vocational Education has recently been one of the primary policy areas of governments, industrialized or developing alike. Globalization of the economy, increasing international competition, changes in demographic development and the labor market, are giving rise to a need for new strategies on education and training policy. Economic development depends a great deal on adapting TVET systems to meet social and economic demands. For this reason many countries place a greater emphasis on highlighting the importance of providing attractive qualified training programs and continuing training opportunities in order to enhance employabilitiy and occupational mobility.   

(Next week: TVET Corporate Partnership and Best Practices)

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