Africa-Press – Namibia. Dr. Itah Kandjii-Murangi, the Minister of Higher Education, Technology, and Innovation (MHETI), has launched a task force which will transform Technical and Vocational Training Centres into Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) colleges.
The minister explained that there is a dire need to transform the TVET centres from just offering certificates to accelerating to Diploma level, as its current Level 3 qualification is not enough to advance TVET in Namibia, as it has not contributed enough to economic development, job creation, or the beneficiation of natural resources.
“It’s not like we are saying that the task force will transform our TVET centres immediately to colleges. They should assess the readiness of all the TVET centres with regard to staffing, infrastructure, curriculum, and many other things, including the budget, to see if they are ready to start offering courses at Diploma level. What we have been offering in our country is just certificates in TVET, but it is time to age into diploma-level training at TVET centres, and the Diploma starts from Level 4, and Advanced Diploma at Levels 5 and 6. If you are teaching at Level 5 and 6, it can no longer be carpentry but furniture making; that’s when you actually start at the products of things, e.g. furniture. We will do beneficiation with some of our natural resources with those TVET centres, e.g. in Rundu or Katima, where there is a lot of wood, there can be production of furniture making,” Dr. Kandji-Murangi said.
She elaborated that the lack of qualifications at Levels 4 and 5 leaves the labour market excessively polarised, hampering qualification progression and articulation, as well as social mobility.
“Our TVET graduates exit at Level 3, whereafter they often struggle to progress to higher levels of qualifications, and as such, to higher-skilled and higher-paid roles,” Kandji-Murangi said.
She added that the task force would conduct a comprehensive assessment of existing VTCs to identify strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities for improvement and develop a strategic plan for the transition to specialised TVET colleges over a period of seven months.
The task force includes Prof. Francis Sifiso Nyathi from NUST as its Chairperson, Loide Shaanika, union representative, as Vice-Chairperson, Abraham Ndakolute from the Ministry of Higher Education, David Iigonda from the Ministry of Labour, Leilanie Hochobes, finance expert, Dr. Albertina Ngurare, researcher, Dr. Aune Sem from UNAM, Dr. Rowan van Dyk, relational leadership expert, Henry Kapalu, legal expert, Uaapi Utjavari, oil and gas expert, Monica Nehemia, ICT expert, Asnath Kaperu, qualifications expert, Amon Haufiku, TVET standards expert, and Henny Seibeb as organisational development expert.
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