Context
Relevant skill acquisition is a prerequisite for employment and productivity at work. The Ethiopian Growth and Transformation Plan (GTP) assigns a key role to the education sector for accelerating economic growth, achieving developmental goals and becoming a middle-income country by 2025. While the country has made great progress in quantitative expansion of tertiary education, quality and relevance are still lagging behind.
The capacities of the key actors of the technical and vocational education and training (TVET) sector and the higher education sector are too low to ensure a demand-oriented education and ensure that the education sector develops a skilled workforce that meets the requirements of the economy in the near future.
Objective
The employability of Ethiopian youth and young adults has improved as a result of the reformed vocational education and training system. The actors in the higher education system are enabled to assure quality of higher education.
Approach and results
The project has supported the key actors of the TVET and higher education sector to strengthen the institutional and legal framework for the subsectors and therewith lay the foundation for more employment-relevant education. The new TVET proclamation was adopted, occupational standards reviewed and modernised together with actors from the private sector, the teacher training was improved and the cooperation of TVET colleges and companies improved. Through the training of more than 2.000 TVET teachers the vocational education for almost 350.000 TVET students was improved. Today, more than 100 companies cooperate directly with TVET colleges to make the education more practice-oriented.
At the universities, the project introduced central and decentral quality management systems, improved the practice-orientation in selected study programmes and trained presidents, vice-presidents and directors of universities in the management of higher education. More than 15.000 graduates were reached directly from the project’s activities. Over 750.000 students benefit from the improved conditions in the higher education sector.