Articles

Public Private Partnerships in TVET

Cont...

In developing countries, TVET educators often do not feel comfortable with Enterprise leaders. Both sides are tempted to criticize each other and do not see TVET as a joint activity of Enterprise and Government. This reduces the frequency and depth of PPPs in the TVET sector. Experience shows that a strong and determined national coordinating body with good Enterprise representation is needed to overcome this.

 

However, the use of PPPs remains an attractive option for the future development of Technical Institutes. It is unlikely that Governments can build and sustain such institutions on its own. As technical institutes must be  directly linked to the needs (demands) of Enterprise for a skilled and adaptable workforce at the Technician level (12 years schooling plus 2 years Technical College), there are clear incentives for Enterprise to be engaged in PPPs.

 

Forming PPP

The following steps would lead over time to the formation of TVET PPPs:

1. Enterprise is formed into an Enterprise Advisory Council to a national training body (NTB) .

2. This group meets twice a year to advise the NTB on changing Enterprise needs for skills and projections for growth.

3. When one sector has sufficient companies, a Sector Council is formed and the specific skills needs of that industry are identified.

4. When the sector expresses a need for training, Government offers training in one of its institutions or share the costs of building a specialized training institution to be managed, operated, maintained, staffed and equipped by the industry in that sector.

5. Government agrees to purchase a minimum number of student places per year in the specialized training institution to ensure access for the poor.

6. Government also ensures that agreed national competency standards are being maintained.

7. Government ensures that PPP Training institutions’ graduates can move within the national TVET framework and are not “captive” in one sector.

8. The Sector Council itself recruits students, charges fees as required, places graduates in Industry, and develops apprenticeship programs as required.

9. The Sector Council appoints a Board to govern the institution, with one member appointed by the national TVET body. The Institution will operate as an autonomous institution within the framework set for TVET providers

10. The PPP training institutions may be financed by an assessment on that Sector’s payroll or an assessment on export revenue or a transfer of corporate tax to a training fund. It may be most efficient and effective to have the sector assess its own members for a share of the costs with minimum Government intrusion into operations.

11. The process is repeated as each sector achieves a sufficient size.

 

Interim Operations

Until industry reaches sufficient size to begin these PPP training institutions, the Government will continue to operate technical diploma programs to meet any needs of Enterprise for externally trained workers at this level. It might also operate worker upgrading and updating programs to generate revenue and improve the quality of teaching staff. This would begin to develop links between Enterprise and TVET and perhaps begin confidence building Surveys of Enterprise through the Labour Management Information System. This will give early warning of a demand from training at the technician level.

 

Timing

In TVET, there are very few new ideas. Most ideas have been tried before and what separates a workable idea from one that will not work is often timing. If the political or operational environment is not ready, the idea will be developed and then fade away. Many ideas that have been tried in TVET were good, but the timing was wrong and they have just faded into memory.

 

Public Private Partnership is a good idea in TVET that works well in many countries. The key has been to introduce the idea at a time when it has been the answer to a real and obvious problem. If PPP does not answer a real problem for both parties, the idea has little hope of being successfully implanted.

 

What real problem will PPPs solve for Enterprise now? What are the conditions in the future that will signal that the timing is right? How can we be ready so that when the timing is right, we are ready to move with PPPs as an answer? Timing is everything. And so we need to be prepared to act quickly when the opportunity arises.

 

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