© UNESCO-UNEVOC/Jean Luc Habimana
In responding to demands for new qualifications and competencies, African TVET systems have been more agile in updating curricula than in upgrading teachers’/ trainers’ knowledge, skills and competencies.
A study of seven African countries found that all had adopted competency-based training (CBT) approaches and updated their training curricula with help from industry or international partners. However, TVET teachers were often unable to implement these curricula using modern teaching methods. (IIPE UNESCO 2020)
One reason for this, according to interviewees participating in the BILT scoping study, is that while all African countries seem to have systems in place for training TVET teachers and lecturers, the training that TVET teaching staff receive tends to be the same as that for general education teachers. Thus, the focus tends to be on theoretical training rather than on practical skills development using CBT approaches. (BILT scoping study of current TVET trends in Africa carried out in 2021)
Furthermore, while emerging workplace demands mean that workers are expected to possess a new set of transversal skills – including life skills, ICT skills and entrepreneurial skills – most teacher education programmes in Africa do not teach these skills. (European Commission 2015)
Industry experience is also not a formal entry requirement for secondary-level TVET teaching staff in most African countries and TVET institutions, which limits teachers’/trainers’ knowledge and skills in relation to new practices and technologies used in the workplace. (UNESCO-UNEVOC 2020)
African TVET teachers’/trainers’ access to any kind of training has tended to be limited. A recent study found that, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, only 50% of secondary teachers across Sub-Saharan Africa received the minimum required teacher training. (UNESCO-UNEVOC 2022)
“Fast changes in technology pose a great challenge to TVET, not only in developing new programmes but in training the trainers.”
- Interviewee from Seychelles participating in BILT scoping study of current TVET trends in Africa carried out in 2021
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Barriers to African teachers'/ trainers' acquisition of skills to deliver new qualifications and competencies in TVET have come from the demand side as well as the supply side.
Challenge
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Barriers to African teachers'/ trainers' acquisition of skills to deliver new qualifications and competencies in TVET have come from the demand side as well as the supply side.
Supply-side factors that have impeded African teachers’/trainers’ access to training in the skills needed to implement new qualifications and competencies in TVET have included: systematic lack of resources and dependence on donors to fund TVET teacher education; fragmented governance structures, which have impeded effective policymaking in the field of TVET teacher education; lack of suitably skilled trainers of teachers/trainers with knowledge of current work practices, modern vocational pedagogy and new technologies for teaching and/or delivering TVET; and lack of industry engagement in the design and implementation of TVET teacher training programmes. (European Commission 2015)
On the demand side, TVET teachers’/trainers’ willingness to participate in available professional development opportunities have been affected by low salaries, reducing teachers’/trainers’ motivation to train; lack of time for training owing to workload pressures; high costs of undergoing training, since in many African countries low funding for TVET means that teaching staff are expected to organize and fund training themselves; resistance to changing teaching practices; and a lack of institutional incentives to counter these challenges. (UNESCO-UNEVOC 2022)
UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre
for Technical and Vocational Education and Training
UN Campus, Platz der Vereinten Nationen 1
53113 Bonn, Germany
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Engaging industry in TVET teacher/trainer training can improve the responsiveness of TVET systems to demands for new qualifications and competencies.
Opportunity
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Engaging industry in TVET teacher/trainer training can improve the responsiveness of TVET systems to demands for new qualifications and competencies.
A recent UNESCO-UNEVOC trends mapping study concluded that future-focused TVET systems rely on the private sector as an essential partner in both delivering TVET teaching staff training and creating value for it by certifying teachers’ and trainers’ skills and competencies. However, to engage the private sector in a practical and sustainable way, TVET teacher/trainer training must be aligned with the private sector’s own interests and needs. Examples of models that bring about such an integration include use of live industry projects in TVET teaching staff training and secondment of industry practitioners to training institutes as part of their career growth. These models can significantly reduce the costs of teacher training for TVET institutions, thus forming an alternate funding source. They can also reduce the gap between the training being offered to TVET learners and real workplace The private sector would also benefit through reduced recruitment costs resulting from TVET teachers'/trainers' improved abilities to nurture job-ready graduates. (UNESCO-UNEVOC 2020)
Government support is needed to build bridges between TVET providers and the private sector, especially in African countries with large informal sectors and school-based vocational For example, government action may be required to convince private sector actors of the value of industry-trained TVET teaching staff for their own interests of locating appropriately skilled staff. (UNESCO-UNEVOC 2020)
UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre
for Technical and Vocational Education and Training
UN Campus, Platz der Vereinten Nationen 1
53113 Bonn, Germany
Contact
Data privacy statement | Contacts | © UNESCO-UNEVOC
The BILT project is implemented by
with support of
and sponsored by
UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre
for Technical and Vocational Education and Training
UN Campus, Platz der Vereinten Nationen 1
53113 Bonn, Germany
Contact
Data privacy statement | Contacts | © UNESCO-UNEVOC
