Case study 1: The United Republic of Tanzania’s TVET system

Over the last decade, the United Republic of Tanzania has made an unprecedented fiscal effort to support its education system, including the abolition of primary school fees and enrolment-related contributions from parents in 2004. In 2011, spending

on education reached almost 20 per cent of the total government budget (of which half still goes to primary education), while from 2005 to 2011, education expenditure per capita increased by 175 per cent. In 2011, the number of unemployed people out of the United Republic of Tanzania’s workforce of more than 22 million fell to 10.7 per cent. However, in the same year the level of unemployment among young people reached 13.4 per cent (14.3 per cent for women), with a high percentage of young people occupied in the informal sector.¹³

Notwithstanding the increased spending, since 2007 learning outcomes are lagging as measured by pass rates in primary and secondary schools and dropouts are high. According to the United Nations, in 2010, only 53 per cent of 13-year-olds had completed a full cycle of primary school and, of those, around half had passed the primary school leaving certificate. At the same time, secondary schools are relatively underfunded and are facing enormous pressures. Although in 2010 enrolments in secondary education (form I–IV) was only 30 per cent of the eligible population, student secondary school population grew by more than 30 per cent per year subsequently (World Bank, 2012a). As for tertiary education, the number of students is still insufficient, and enrolment rates are poor in absolute terms (in 2009/10 there were approximately 120,000 students distributed over 31 universities, 20 of which were private) as well as in relative terms, if we compare the United Republic of Tanzania to countries such as Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda (EAC Competitiveness Report 2017: 110).

Formal education-based skills are necessary for using technologies effectively: for example, literacy skills allow workers to read blueprints or, in the case of engineering skills, to operate and control sophisticated machines. However, very often, basic skills acquired in primary and secondary schools, such as literacy and numeracy, or higher skills acquired in tertiary education, are insufficient as production processes also require workers endowed with experience-based technical skills. The latter are generally acquired in vocational training and technical education colleges (often called TVET). Among them, in the United Republic of Tanzania, the major providers of industrial skills which are relevant for industries are the Vocational Educational and Training Authority (VETA) training centres and the company-based training centres. Internal training schemes are mainly provided by larger companies and parastatal companies, and their number drastically decreased as parastatals were privatized. In 2010, the total number of students enrolled in all forms of vocational and technical education was approximately 180,000 (URT, 2011: chapter 19; ADEA, 2012).

13 These estimates are provided by the National Bureau of Statistics by projecting the data collected in the Labour Force Survey 2006 (the last available).

VETA is the State body responsible for the management of vocational training in the United Republic of Tanzania. It is governed by a tripartite council comprising representatives from employer bodies; employee bodies, including trade unions;

and government representatives from the Ministry of Industry, the Ministry of Labour and the VETA secretariat. Implementation of policy set by the council is overseen by the VETA secretariat through headquarters in Dar es Salaam and nine regional offices. VETA operates along four main operational axes (VETA, 2010):

(a) Provision of training and vocational education through its own network of education centres, including 27 VETA-run public training centres, and coordination of training by some 700 other institutes.

(b) Revision and setting of TVET curricula at the national level: Currently, there are 50 subject areas clustered into 13 skills groups: mechanical; electrical;

civil and building engineering; extractive industry; transport; hospitality; tourism and travel agency; commercial and business support; automotive; textile and clothing;

agriculture and food processing; cosmetology and printing. For each group, a sector advisory committee reviews the curriculum. The labour market department within the VETA secretariat also conducts market surveys to identify skills needs by employers. While there is an attempt to pre-empt future needs within industry, there is currently no strategic thrust to build skills in areas not currently within the country’s industrial mix.

(c) Continuous training for TVET teachers within the Vocation Teachers Training College: The teacher training is tailored towards two streams: (i) courses on pedagogy, skills for teaching and communication for industry experts to prepare for the unfamiliar challenges of teaching; and (ii) providing more experienced teachers with industry placements and exposure to either upgrade existing skills or become acquainted with changes in their industry of expertise.

(d) Accreditation and assurance of quality and relevance of other vocational training institutions and centres run by other actors such as Ministry of Works, other ministries, private companies, civil society, faith-based organizations and private individuals: Although independent, institutions such as the Regional Vocational Training and Services Centres, Vocational Training Centres, Folk Development Colleges and Post Primary Schools fall under the VETA accreditation system. Inspections for all institutes occur on an annual basis, with repeat inspections on a quarterly basis for follow-up if deficiencies have been identified by the inspection team. To ensure a minimum standard in the quality of students graduating from the vocational schools, a national standardized exam is set for each subject. Recently, trade exams have been scaled back to put greater importance on continuous assessment.

The strong commitment to quality assurance is testified to by the fact that, in 2011, the number of vocational training centres fell from 900 institutes to 300 as a result of the annual review of accreditation standards. Also, the supply of programmes has been segmented for increasing training effectiveness, flexibility and differentiation: the minimum requirement of formal education for undertaking VETA training has been recently increased for many programmes, especially those aimed at developing higher experience-based technical skills; while, for other programmes, especially those targeting the informal sector, there is no barrier to entry, and selective interventions have been developed, such as the “informal apprenticeship” programme. Finally, other programmes promote self-employment, microenterprises and SMEs development by providing business and financial management skills and offer complementary services such as microcredit.

The VETA Directorate of Labour Market, Planning and Development is responsible for promoting private sector/industry interaction. Industry experts are involved in the training process as educators in some cases, but there appears to be a limited level of technology sharing. There are memorandums of understanding with several companies for training geared specifically towards their projected needs in the short to medium term. These include: British Gas, PetroBras, United Republic of Tanzania breweries and Tanzania Cotton Board, as well as hotels and cement companies.

Special industry-specific trainings have been established in Moshi and Mwanza for the mining sector. However, there is mistrust on the part of some industries that (a) they may lose valuable staff to become full-time trainers, or (b) by sharing technology, competitors may gain advantage. Internship placement is common practice in most education programs in the United Republic of Tanzania and is part of many technical programmes. Previously, there was also an industry placement programme for trainees, but this is in need of revitalization. In response to industry needs, the Dar es Salaam Institute of Information Technology was opened in 2012, offering five courses on electrical, computer application and programming, electronics, multimedia, repair and maintenance.

The main sources of financing include: sales of products from training and other income generating activities; enrolment fees; public funds and private companies (the latter are levied at 6 per cent of total wage bill as part of a social development fund, with one third going towards vocational training programmes). Overall, the lack of appropriate funding constrains the possibilities of upgrading vocational training programmes, especially in those areas of training requiring high investments in capital equipment or those affected by fast technological change (Ziderman, 2002).