Background

Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) is one of the most neglected areas of activities in education. Vocational skills, which should have started with primary education and would have been an integral part of the secondary and senior secondary education, has been pushed to secondary and stigmatized status. The EFA Global Monitoring Report published by UNESCO reveal that the developing countries mostly tend to concentrate on universal primary education and literacy, but not pay sufficient attention to skills training for youth and adolescents. Efforts in promoting technical and vocational education and training has been often in small scale and are not always recognized as a part of comprehensive national educational strategy. Another area of concern is the gender gap in TVET, few girl children and young women opt for TVET. In most of the countries, women are severely under-represented in science and related areas of study, research and employment. The reason for this are varied, including the socialization process, the cultural constraints gender biases in curriculum and negative role modelling. TVET is one of the important mechanisms to empower girls and women and to improve their lives. It is vital for meeting the shortfalls of human resources and to tackle the problem of poverty, unemployment and underemployment.

Technical and vocational education and training plays an important role in economically empowering the individuals, families and communities, particularity the rural poor. It increases productivity, empowers individuals to become self – reliant and stimulate entrepreneurship. TVET, therefore, can promote local employment and sustainable means of subsistence.

Strategies    

The international and the Unite Nations thinking have been a fundamental reorientation in standard approaches to skills training. This is especially essential for programmes serving the marginalized people (women, out-of-school children and adolescents, people with special needs, indigenous people, rural and remote population and the homeless). These groups seek their livelihoods in the informal sectors

IISD has been adopting innovations with utmost flexibility to meet the context, challenges and opportunities in skills training for the world of work. The broad strategies include;

• Relevance (training should respond to local labours, market demands and lead to some form of remunerative works);
• Efficiency( training needs to be made efficient by involving local business in all its aspects and more effective through constant orientation to local needs);
• Respect for indigenous methods ( training should make use of indigenous skills transfer systems by upgrading the traditional skills to meet the demands of the market);
• Equity ( training should make provisions to overcome economic and social barriers to access and participation by the marginalized groups, particularly women and girls);
• Asset enhancement (training should provide skills needed to understand existing work opportunities as well as should ensure enhanced income, greater flexibility, reduced vulnerability to crisis and enhanced access to economic support networks).

Activities

The Organization has been starving for vocationalisation of primary and secondary education, particularly reaching the marginalized and disadvantaged groups. The activities include;

• Imparting employable skills;
• Reducing gaps in access to useful skills training opportunities and world of work;
• Recognizing the wider economic environment in local context;
• Offering training in new and demand led growth areas and shifting the focus from the crowded sectors;
• Ensuring that skills offered are matched to the needs of the communities and markets;
• Encouraging women and girls to be trained in new emerging sectors that are that are yet to be engendered;
• Using traditional knowledge and know-how-in in upgradation of skills; and
• Integrating a business-like/ enterprise based/ entrepreneur-oriented approach to provide a greater and long-term potential to the trainers in the world of work.