A critical Analysis of TVET and its contribution to job creation in The

GambiaSolomon Atibuni

Banjul

April 2015

Outlines

Introduction Background and motivation Objectives (TOR) Analytical framework Methodology Key Findings Conclusions Recommendations

1. Introduction

This study was commissioned by VSO The Gambia in partnership with NTA to achieve her Strategic Plan (2012-2015) of “Putting Youth at the Center of Development”.

VSO is a leading independent international development organization that works through volunteers to fight poverty in developing countries and VSO’s mission is a world without poverty.

VSO Strategic Plan (2012-2015) was coined to contribute towards Gambia’s National Development Plan (NDP) for 2012-2015 that was ushered through Programme for Accelerated Growth & Employment (PAGE) 2012-2015.

Cont.

In line with mainly the third PAGE main objective that focuses on improving human capital, VSO recruited volunteers to be placed with her partners to implement activities in different sectors of youth engagement, secure livelihood and education.

My attachment to National Training Authority was among other objectives to formulate a policy research document to achieve the following outcomes:

― Enhanced policy frameworks that support TVET developments.― Enhanced TVET service delivery in line with labour market

demands

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― Adequate capacity in TVET regulatory institutions to undertake evidence based planning and statistics/data management.

― Make youths acquire positive attitudes towards willingness to take up TVET as a career path.

To benchmark impacts of TVET related activities and future projects, a nationwide survey was undertaken during my placement at NTA a semi-autonomous institution mandated by the act of parliament (2002) to regulate national vocational qualifications.

Background and Context

Skills are vital for poverty reduction, economic recovery & sustainable development.

As a consequence, policy attention to technical and vocational education and training (TVET) is increasing worldwide.

TVET comprises of formal, non-formal and informal learning or education system that prepares participants for specific skills e.g. technician, trade, repairer and craft.

Employment is the act of generating income from a relationship between two parties (employer, employee or customer (client)

.

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Based on the evidence that TVET leads to the development of skills that creates employment in the formal and informal sector, private and public sector, all international actors and nations have taken the stride to incorporate skills development in a holistic scope.

Developing countries whose economy has been severely battered by the “domino-effect” of the weakening global recovery in 2012 and 2013 has heightened youth job crises in the formal employment sector (ILO, 2013).

According to World Bank, 2012), people living extreme poverty (consuming less than 1.25 USD a day) have halved to one billion (14.5%) of the world population.

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17% of the people living in extreme poverty in LDCs. The global youth unemployment rate is projected at 12.8%

in 2018, which is on an increasing trend since 2013 was at 12.6% (ILO, 2013).

In 2011 unemployment was rated at 12.3% and contrary, the year 2009 had witnessed a drop in unemployment by 0.4%.

In summary, the current youth unemployment is estimated at 73.4 million, an increase by 3.5 million from 2007.

The year 2013 has witnessed the decreased global youth employment-population ratio to 42.3% from 44.8% in 2007 (ILO, 2013)

Situational Analysis of TVET and Employment in Africa

Unemployment, youth employment challenges, and poverty are a serious problem across the African continent with more concern in Sub-Saharan region.

These challenges are centered on legislative shortcomings, poor quality of TVET data, lack of physical and financial support, human resource and employment mismatch.

Sub-Saharan Africa has the fastest population growth projected between now and 2050 and the highest youth population in the world with almost 50% unemployed. (South Africa, Nigeria)

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The reasons for the neglect of TVET include; systemic isolation, low reputation, lack of political will for proper funding, and inadequate measuring instruments.

In its Plan of Action for the Second Decade of Education (2006 – 2015), the AU recognizes the importance of TVET as a means of empowering individuals to take control of their lives and recommends integration of vocational training into the general education system.

But SSA countries have several issues relating to integrating TVET into the mainstream education systems. 

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Inadequate integration as well as isolation of TVET is reducing the cluster of learning experiences available to students and contributing to the low reputation of the discipline.

In SSA two fundamental mismatches and a proxy for skills between demand and supply of skills based on a comparison of the educational attainments of the employed and the unemployed and mismatch between the skills that youths have and those required by employers.

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Teachers are pivotal to the facilitation of learning in TVET programmes but less commitments by governments and development agencies on TVET teacher education as well as continuing professional development programmes.

TVET teachers do not go for any continuing professional development programmes between initial recruitment and retirement.

133 million young people (more than 50 per cent of the youth population) in Africa are illiterate with little or no skills and are therefore largely excluded from productive economic and social life

Situational Analysis of TVET in The Gambia.

• Gambia remarkably has emphasized the need to promote skills acquisition since 1977.

• This strategic interest hence witnessed the inception of NTA in 2002 and consequently the adaptation of the Gambia Skills Qualification Framework (GSQF) as policy document in 2006.

• Amidst these interventions, youth unemployment, and underemployment especially for (13-30 yrs) is perennial at an estimate of 38% (GLFS, 2012), 40% (EFANET, 2014) and 57.9% of the same age are considered illiterate hence

•

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National Training Authority (NTA) is mandated by the Act of Parliament (2002) (National Assembly) to regulate national vocational qualifications, coordinate the quality of delivery of Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) in the country.

Vision 2020 emphasizes Government efforts to increase skills centres for students who do not wish to or are unable to continue into the academic stream

Pillar 3 of PAGE (2012-2015) Secondary education highly seen a basis for employment but TVET given less promotion and priority for skills development (PAGE Midterm review report,2014)-supervion still low.

Cont’

UNDP Funded Country Programme Action Plan- 2012-2016 (CPAP) supports skills training for the youths in different skills areas but numbers are still low compared to the demand and there is no evidence of follow up of trainees. Start up capital/kit for trainees remains a challenge.

Labour Market Information System (LMIS) an essential component of effective TVET is taking a slow pace in all government interventions.

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Skills training centres are registered with NTA but unevenly distributed in the country (NTA,2014).

Some skills centers continue to operate without registration. Majority TVET service providers are privately owned and

training fees are higher than majority would be students can easily afford.

Some parents and a section of the youth remain disinterested in Pursuing TVET as a career.

Objectives

To identify and review the TVET services available both in terms of quality and quantity through the country indicating the opportunities, constraints and challenges facing the service providers.

To identify and review the TVET labour market requirements throughout the country, including both qualitative and quantitative needs as well as the various modes required to manage such identified needs.

To review the TVET policy environment at both the central and decentralized levels and within the public and private sectors including the regulatory, historical, economic, legal, and social dimensions.

Cont.

To analyze the attitudes of the general public on TVET including the youths, parents and policy makers.

To analyze TVET facilities and their accessibility to vulnerable groups like disabled people and women.

To document success stories of TVET beneficiaries, lessons learned and how these can replicate to motivate others to join TVET as a career path.

To review the tracking methods/tools on TVET development.

To provide recommendations on how to address the issue arising from research findings

Analytical Framework

Analytical Framework.pdf

Methodology

The study was carried in four major steps namely; inception workshop, sample selection and determination, data collection, analysis and report writing

The study adopted both qualitative and quantitative approaches and the unit of analysis were the households, TVET service providers, employers, policy makers, community leaders, TVET graduates and trainees, and document analysis..

First stage: Inception workshop, was organized and attended by some stakeholders (MoHERST, MoTIE, GBoS, MoYS, VSO and NTA).

Second stage: sample selection and determination

The study employed both probability and non-probability methods since it was qualitative and quantitative in nature.

For the quantitative method, Yamane (1969) formula of sample size determination was used to determine household sample size. (217,400 H/Hs) in Gambia (Gbos, 2013).

Confidence level estimated at 99% and sampling error of 2.5%, sample size was 1599 H/Hs.

In order to gather the views of youth and parents, two persons were at least interviewed in each household (youth and adult). Hence a total of 3198 persons.

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LGAs were considered as stratum hence the 8 LGAS were classified as stratum.

Proportionate stratification sample size determination was adopted to determine a representative sample size. (nh=Nh/N)n

Stratified LGAS and sample size

Stratum No. of Districts

No. of Households Proportion

Household sample size

Numbers of respondents to be interviewed

Banjul 03 6641 50 100

Kanifing 01 60104 442 884

Brikama 09 81988 603 1206

Mansakonko 06 9668 71 142

Kerewan 07 22600 166 332

Kuntaur 05 8862 65 130

Janjanbureh 05 11735

86 172

Basse 07 15802 116 232

Overall total 43 217400

1599 3198

Table 1: Stratified unit of analysis according to LGAs

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Thereafter, multi-stage sampling methods. within the stratum simple random sampling technique was

used to determine districts for H/H intervention where 50% number of districts were considered.

Interval scale was derived from the number of households in the districts of intervention to determine household selected.

This was determined by the supervisors. Districts that missed from simple random sampling were

considered for FGD.

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Non probability for qualitative: purposive, convenient and snowball methods were adopted. (KII, FGD and In-depth interviews)

Targets were (TVET stakeholders, TVET service providers, Employers, Policy Makers, Opinion leaders, and TVET graduates)

15 KII were held during the fieldwork 6 FGDs were held during the field work Checklist, observation schedule, life stories/narratives

and photographs were taken.

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All the above interventions were executed after recruiting and training 27 enumerators on data collection ethics, quality control during data collection and data collection methods.

Pretest for the tools was done in Essau, (Lower Nuimi District, Kerewan LGA) after occasions of random sampling.

Quantitative data was analyzed by SPSS while qualitative data was transcribed and captured as quotes.

Key findings

This section presents findings from the survey. This presentation includes the household responses presented in quantifying trend and KII, FGD responses presented in in a qualifying trend.

As stipulated in the methodology, a total of 3198 household respondents were targeted to represent 1599 households whereas determination of KII and FGD depended entirely on availability and convenience.

In-depth interviews depended on the needs assessment especially during FGDs.

Photographs depended on consent and mood of respondent.

Response rate & Bio data

Household results indicated 7.8% of non-response rate and 92.2% of response rate. This high response rate is attributed to vigorous follow-up and spirited effort employed by the respondents. The response rate of over 90% is considered effective and significant to base on the findings of the study (Holbrook, 2005) .

71.4% of the respondent hailed from the urban settlements and only 28.6% from the rural areas (urban settlement and rural urban migration).

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Brikama had majority respondent participation represented by 38.5%, followed by Kanifing (27,1%), Kerewan (11.1%), Basse (7.7%), Mansakonko (5.4%), Janjanbureh (3.9%), Kuntaur and Banjul at 3.7% and 2.6% respectively.

This response distribution is in line with the population density of the LGAs, much as Banjul is the capital, in terms of household distribution, it sparsely populated.

Fig. 1

demographics

Male 59% and female 41%. Nationality Gambians 98.4%, non-Gambians 1.6%. Ethnicity; Mandinka 46.2%, Fula 12.8%, Wolof 12.8%,

Serer 5.2%, Sarahule 4.4%, Jola 9% and others 3.5%. Age group, 18.9% -(26-35yr), 16.3%- (56+yr), 16.1%-

(16.1%), 13.9% (46-55). Hence youths of 26-35 and adults of 56+ were more represented.

Marital status, 38.8% married (monogamous), 36.8% never married, 18.7% married (polygamous), 2.9% divorced/separated and 2.7% widowed. (see fig, 2)

Fig 2& 3

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Figure 3 indicated 56.06% of married (monogamous) and 29.6%) married (polygamous were household heads unlike 62.13% unmarried respondents who were not heading household.

In general, 55.53% respondents were not household heads and only 44.47% were heads in the household. The implies that the views gathered from the study responses are balanced (see fig 4).

This representation is significant to the results.

Objective 1: TVET services (opportunities)

In household responses, 60.5% indicated insufficient lack of available skill centers, 27 % admitted existence of skill center and 12.5% had no idea.

Out of the 27% who acknowledged availability, were asked to estimate the distance between the nearest skill center from their household. 60.6% indicated between 0-5kms, followed 13.6% are between 6-10kms, and only 2.5% indicated 11+km.

Kanifing and Brikama LGA were most favoured with registered and accredited skills centers and other LGAs were seriously deprived.

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There are 69 registered skills centers in Gambia.

Unevenly distributed Most Skill centers

concentrated in KMC and Brikama, Janjanbureh 1 Basse insufficiently served while Masankoko & Kerewan have non.

,

In support of the same assertion one key informant had this to say;

“Here in North Bank Region where we have an outreach office, the major challenge to our campaign to desist the youths from sneaking to Europe by is failing to introduce and advocating for learning skills like wielding, carpentry, and entrepreneurship so as to equip them with employable talent is seriously dented by rural-urban migration” Key informant.

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Awareness 19.6% reported carpentry and joinery, 18.5 % welding and fabrication, 15.5%, tailoring and dress making , building and construction 4.3%, auto mechanics 2.8%.

Constraints: TVET service providers identified institutional financial

constraints 13,3%, lack modern training equipment's 12.3%, low enrolment to TVET programs 11.1%, urban centered 6.6%, unstable power supply 4.9%, high cost of training 5.2%, youth negative attitude towards TVET 2%.

Objective 2: Labour market requirements

TVET graduates mostly absorbed in the labour market through internship and industrial attachment.

Employment sector require multi-skilled graduates auto mechanic who is computer literate.

Services provider not sensitive to job requirements. (money minded).

Employment to formal sector is mostly after 12 months.

Transition from training to work

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TVET labour market requirements are compatible with new and changing dynamics in trade in which they are absorbed to provide service.

Labour market requires entrepreneurship skills to be relevant.

Objective 3: Attitudes towards TVET.

Cont’

71.9% not aware or never heard of TVET, 28.1% are ware, 41.8% respondents prefer main stream academic path, 19%

preferred business, only 14.8% preferred technical and 10.5% preferred vocational, 3.8% apprenticeship.

Cont’

Objective TVET facilities, accessibility to vulnerable groups

They are limited TVET facilities exclusively for vulnerable groups.

Existing TVET facilities do not have required facilities to cater for the PWDs (ramps, toilets, resource centers, even instructors.

They are less people with disabilities employed in TVET facilities.

Lack of policy on disability in the country.

Objective 7: Tracking methods

  Frequency Percent Valid Percent

Valid

Yes 193 6.5 22.6

No 649 22.0 76.0

No idea 12 .4 1.4

Total 854 29.0 100.0

Missing System 2094 71.0

 

Total 2948 100.0

 

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76% of the population are not aware of systems to track TVET development.

22% a ware, 1.4%, no idea, Out of the 22%. 67% cited media (radio and television),74%

identified peer group.

Conclusion

TVET is more centered and popular among policy makers compared to the target beneficiaries. It is a sustainable strategy to address the challenges of youth unemployment in the Gambia that requires more effort by the government.

Policy recommendations

NTA as the mandated regulatory authority of TVET should focus on massive sensitization programmes so as to enhance the status and attractiveness of TVET.

Establishment detailed and timely Labour Market Information Systems (LMIS) that is accessible to employers, TVET graduates, and TVET service providers.

There should be obligatory improvement and modernization of service provider’s outlook.

Entrepreneurship course should be integrated into TVET curriculum.

Improve on M&E framework

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NTA should continuously engage stakeholders to establish innovative ways of promoting and improving TVET.

Exchange programme between industries and service providers.

Government should increase funding for TVET sector Involvement of employers in curriculum development. Involve employers as assessors and verifiers Need to develop information and technological

infrastructure to match TVET needs. NTA allocate funds from National Training Levy

contributed by industries as a skills development fund.

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NTA should allocate fund to apprenticeship trainees during their course so that they don’t drop out.

NTA should design an exit strategy to TVET participants through a soft loan.

Engage University of Gambia in curriculum design so as ton absorb GSQF level 4 graduates.

The End

Thank you