With heightened calls for industry-academia partnership, especially in the Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) sector, stakeholders at the Africa Skills Week (ASW) 2024, held in Accra, have underscored the need for TVET institutions to table mutually-beneficial offers to the attractive industry.
The experts held the view that while the industry currently does not stand to gain any special incentives or tax waivers as a result of opening its doors to students for internships and other dual learning arrangements, the TVET sector must present services and opportunities that are unparalleled to what industry would get from directly entering the labour markets.
They described this strategy as enticing enough to be the game-changer for unlocking TVET-industry partnerships in a sustainable manner that would enhance skills development to meet market demand.
Senior TVET and Labour Markets Advisor – GIZ Kenya, Gideon Murenga, sharing best practices from the Kenya implementation process, highlighted that creating value for the industry was the focus; and that has attracted over 2000 private sector entities on-board.
He added that students who are posted to these industries have some level of specific skills of high demand that need little polishing to deliver optimum performance in the respective fields; and this makes an economically viable decision for businesses.
“For the industry to buy into any initiative, you have to demonstrate value for them because they have a purpose to make a profit. So, you have to demonstrate to them what value they will get when two or three students are sent to intern in their facility,” he said.
He indicated that even though some companies may consider it as a corporate social responsibility (CSR), the majority would like to see value that aligns with specific skills required in their industry; hence, students must come in to occupy a space and deliver a result that, hitherto, someone would have been hired to deliver at a higher cost.
In Kenya, he mentioned that over the past five years, the TVET sector collaborative training with the private sector has seen tremendous growth, with about 60 institutions partnering with over 2000 companies annually.
Founder of DTI, Constance Elizabeth Swaniker, touching on bridging the gap between the skills taught in TVET and the demands of the labour market in Ghana, stressed that precision quality is a major challenge that used to exist in the sector; however, the introduction of the Precision Quality (PQ) curriculum is doing well in addressing that.
Nonetheless, she stressed the need for retooling TVET institutions with ultra-modern technologies while supporting private sector partners to also replace outmoded technologies.
The event was organised by the Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) on behalf of the Pact for Skills Support to the Transformation of the TVET System Project.
The Pact for Skills Support to the Transformation of the TVET System Project aims to reform and strengthen Ghana’s Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) system by fostering public-private partnerships, strengthening the capacities of state agencies, digitalising and integrating green skills into technical education, developing industry-relevant curricula and equipping the workforce with future-ready skills.
The participants include AU Commissioners, government agencies, international organisations, development finance institutions (DFIs), private sector representatives, academia and other relevant stakeholders.
