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TVET approach has contributed to the availability of skilled people in the country but unemployable due to skills mismatch
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Experts in technical education say that the introduction of vocational training is not an automatic solution to the unemployment in the country.
The UNDP statistics indicate that over one million people in Uganda attain working age every year.
Government has instituted several strategies to reverse the unemployment trends in the country and among them is the introduction of TVET, to provide skills that can be easily translated into employment.
However, according to the experts in TVET issues, the approach is not yet addressing the challenge due to the many gaps that still exist. Robert Bob Okello, the CEO Maarifasasa Ltd, an education technology company that skills and creates employment linkages for young people, says that 74% of CEOs are concerned about the availability of skills to grow their business.
Okello says that TVET has contributed to the availability of skilled people in the country but not employable due to what he calls skills mismatch.
He indicates that there is a need for more collaboration among the partners especially the employers and the institutions to ensure that they agree on the skills that the employers are looking for to get the work done.
Wilberforce Watsara, the registrar Kichwamba Technical College, says that the TVET approach is still lacking interconnection to ensure a constant supply of talent by nurturing skills as early as kindergarten and developing those skills up to university and then during careers at company level.
Watsara says, “Starting vocational studies at lower secondary is not answering the problem of making learners embrace the hands-on culture, it should be nurtured from pre-primary to have an impact.”
Joseph Ssekandi, the policy and advocacy officer Uganda Small Scale Association says that the best way to deal with unemployment is to market driven skills and re-skilling as needs arise.
Jimmy Otim, the TVET expert in Brac Uganda that supports over 200 students in different vocational institutions says that they are finding it hard to connect their students for the world of work even after attending the vocational institutions.
Otim adds, “Even after attaining their degrees and diplomas from TVET institutions, again they need a certificate in hands-on in order to qualify for the world of work.”
Cyrus Ruhweza, a graduate of Petroleum Geo-Sciences and Production from Makerere University says that it’s important that all education institutions think of providing skills to their students in the different disciplines they offer to avoid double work.
Meanwhile, according to the director high technical education training ministry of education, Dr. Jane Egau, the ministry is already taking on reforms after realizing that manpower produced was being rejected in the world of work on grounds of incompetence.
She says that as they try to implement the TVET policy amendment of 2019, they are step by step trying to ensure that at the end of the process, TVET will produce competent manpower without complaints from employers as it has been.
She says that the TVET policy that was passed in 2019 replacing the Business, Technical and Vocational Education Training (BTVET) Act 2008 is helping them to reconsider a number of issues that have been leading to the inadequacy of manpower like the absence of enough trainers and assessors.
According to Hajjat Safina Musene, the commissioner of the BTVET ministry of education, the implementation of the TVET policy requires 20% of the education budget, however, due to scarcity of funds, they are still operating at 10%.
The education budget of 2020/21 stands at 3.286 trillion following a reduction of shillings 111.17 billion from the 3.397 trillion budget appropriated in the 2019/2020 financial year.
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