Download theme: combating youth unemployment through vet

THE UNITED REPUBLIC OF TANZANIA
MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND VOCATIONAL TRAINING
THEME: COMBATING YOUTH UNEMPLOYMENT THROUGH VET
Addressing Youth Unemployment Through TVET: Policy Perspective In
Tanzania
Paper Presented at the Vocational Education and Training (VET) Forum
held
at Naura Springs Hotel, in Arusha, Tanzania from 10 - 11 December, 2014
By
MR. THOMAS D. KATEBALIRWE
Director of Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET)
Ministry of Education and Vocational Training
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Abstract
The youth employment challenge has its own dimensions and confronts countries
worldwide regardless of their stage of socio-economic development. Youth
Unemployment needs to be addressed critically by all nations including Tanzania.
Youth make up the next generation of parents, workers and leaders of any nation.
Their well being, therefore, has implications not only for their own lives, but also on
the societies they will build and maintain. Their ability to play effective roles
depend on the support of their families, communities and on commitment of
governments to their development. The paper whose purpose is to address youth
unemployment through Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET)
based on the policy perspective in Tanzania appreciates that youth unemployment is
a global problem. The paper provides the basic information on the key definitions
and gives overview of the crisis including causes of youth unemployment in Tanzania.
The paper highlights on the role of Technical and Vocational Education and Training
(TVET) and how the TVET structures, policies, plans strategies, and programs are set
up in the context of Tanzania in addressing youth unemployment. It further
highlights some of the initiatives the Government of Tanzania has put in place to
address the issue. It also highlights on recommended interventions to be put in place
to address youth unemployment. The paper finally gives conclusions on how the
matter can further be approached by involving all key stakeholders.
Key Word: Youth, Youth Unemployment, Labour Market, TVET, Tanzania
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1. INTRODUCTION
Essentially, youth unemployment continues to be a development challenge globally
and in several African countries including Tanzania despite the positive economic
growth rates experienced over the past decade. There are indicators that this
growth has not generated sufficient employment opportunities for the youth
(UNECA, 2011, 2012). As a result, unemployment, working poverty, vulnerable
employment and underemployment are widespread amongst Africa’s youth.
Moreover, the demographics indicate that Africa is going through a youth bulge
with a large proportion of its population below 25 years of age (Kararach, 2011).
It is evident that insufficient employment opportunities amidst a rapidly growing
young labour force can lead to social unrest and political instability. The
difficulties faced by young people in most developing countries in finding work are
attributed to limited expansion of employment opportunities, skills mismatches
and limited or no work experience (AfDB et al., 2012). As a result, most African
youth engage in low quality informal sector jobs. The informal sector accounts for
about 90 percent of the jobs created in the continent (World Bank, 2009).
Youth has been in the spotlight ever since the economic and financial crisis began
in 2008 which revealed its large impact on youth employment. Stimulus packages,
consultations, and private and public investments on youth became the trend.
Despite the response to the crisis, the global youth unemployment rate does not
seem to give in. Policymakers, social partners, and the global youth development
community continue seeking answers to the youth employment challenge. There
are about 1.2 billion youth, aged 15 to 24, and nearly 75 million of them are
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looking for a job. Such a sizeable youth cohort is an opportunity for growth but can
also become a source of instability if youth unemployment and discouragement are
not addressed. Many countries around the world are now trying to bridge the gap
between education and work by upgrading Technical and Vocational Education and
Training (TVET) institutions at various levels and encouraging them to form closer
relations with industries, and embracing apprenticeships. There is great cry by
employers that there mismatch between the skills that youth offer and the ones
that employees need.
Definitions of Youth and unemployment
While the World Bank (2013) defines unemployment as the share of the labour
force that is without work but available for and seeking employment, International
Labour Organization (2012) defines as the status of individuals above a specified
age who are without work, currently available for work, and actively seeking work.
There are several youth definitions depending on the social, economic and
political environment. The United Nations along with most other international
organizations define youth in terms of youth unemployment as comprising all
persons between the ages of 15 and 24 (ILO, 2011). However, the Government of
Tanzania defines youth as people aged 15 – 35 years. Others, define youth
unemployment refers to the share of the labour force ages 15-24 without work but
available for and seeking employment. The unemployment rate is defined as the
number of unemployed youth (typically 15-24 years) divided by the youth labour
force (employment + unemployment).
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Global Youth Unemployment Situation
There is no disagreement that youth unemployment is an emerging issue and is
among the major challenges facing both developed and developing countries in the
world. The global youth unemployment rate, which had decreased from 12.7 per
cent in 2009 to 12.3 per cent in 2011, increased again to 12.4 per cent in 2012,
and has continued to grow to 12.6 per cent in 2013. In total, 74.5 million young
people aged 15–24 were unemployed in 2013, an increase of more than 700,000
over the previous year. There were 37.1 million fewer young people in
employment in 2013 than in 2007, while the global youth population declined by
only 8.1 million over the same period. By 2018 the global youth unemployment
rate is projected to rise to 12.8 per cent, with growing regional disparities, as
expected improvements in advanced economies will be offset by increases in youth
unemployment in other regions.
There is considerable consensus that the roots of today’s youth unemployment
crisis lie in a toxic mix of global economic trends: poor global macroeconomic
performance; growing youth populations in developing regions; labor market
structures and regulations; and the quality and relevance of education, resulting in
a skills mismatch.
Tanzania Youth Unemployment Situation
According to the 2012 national population and housing census, the Tanzanian
Labour force (ages 15 – 64) is 23,466,616 which is equivalent to 52.2% of the total
population; and the youth (ages 15 – 35) is 15,587,621 (equivalent to 66.4% of the
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labour force). The unemployment rate amongst young people aged 15 – 24 years is
13.4%.
Causes of Youth Unemployment
Generally, youth unemployment is characterized by various causes some of which
include: Imbalance between supply and demand of labour in the labour market;
Increasing of urban employment pressures with outflow of rural surplus labour to
non-agricultural sectors; Few available employment opportunities against a fast
growing pool of employment seekers; Good number of laid-off employees - some
faced with difficulties of re-employment;. A number of youth remaining in the
Labour Market
for long period without accessing employment; Freezing
employment by the Public Sector; Limited capacity of the Private Sector in
absorbing a bigger number of new labour entrants; Low labour productivity at
enterprise level including in rural settings; lack of requisite skills and experience
sought by industry due to mismatch of TVET acquired skills and industry
expectation; Poor access to information on available opportunities; Gender and
cultural biases; Ethnicity and corruption; Unfavorable geographical distribution of
jobs; and Limited career guidance and Limited financial resources.
2. THE ROLE OF TVET ON YOUTH UNEMPLOYMENT
In view of the youth unemployment challenge, many governments are investing
considerably in Technical and vocational education and training (TVET). TVET is
important as a set of approaches to learning, both as preparation for the world of
work, and for well-being later in adult life. On the other hand, TVET can make an
important contribution to skills, as well as to human resource development
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policies and strategies that are designed to meet the various local, national,
regional and global labour market needs. TVET can effectively address youth
unemployment, a major challenge in Africa, generate hope rather than frustration
and engender peace instead of strife. The existence of quality TVET programs can
form the basis for more sophisticated and specialized skills required as countries
develop. Links have to be seen to be established between TVET institutions and
industry for securing employment.
Furthermore, the products and services rendered by TVET graduates must be of
high quality to survive competition from other sources. TVET needs to develop the
knowledge and skills that will help the workforce become more flexible and
responsive to the needs of local labour markets, while competing in the global
economy. TVET’s orientation towards the world of work and the acquisition of
employable skills means that it is well placed to overcome the skills mismatch
issues that have impeded smooth education to employment transitions for many
young people. Recent evidence suggests that TVET yields higher returns than
either general secondary education or higher education, mainly because its focus
is on providing work‐relevant skills (Kuepie et al, 2009; Herschbach, 2009).
Developing Technical and Vocational Education Training (TVET) opportunities for
youth is key to develop and promote employment opportunities in both urban and
rural areas. Unemployment can be high if the economy is not growing fast enough
to generate jobs, but also if the jobs are there but people have the wrong
education and skills.
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TVET Programs and Labour Market linkage in Tanzania
There is an urgent need to transform TVET so that more youth have opportunities
to develop the skills they need for work and life. TVET Programs to equip youth
with the hard skills for the world of work must provide a combination of classroom
education with workplace training, and impart soft skills such as communication,
problem solving and entrepreneurship awareness. The skills acquired from the
TVET institutions and the skills required by the labour market must match to allow
the effective application of the skills acquired from training to the work place.
Otherwise, young people will find it difficult to find a job, to stay in employment,
to move on in the workplace, and, more broadly, to succeed in lifelong learning.
The relevance of TVET is measured by the productive employment that graduates
find after training. TVET can bring about reduction in unemployment, and also has
a positive role to play in improving the productivity of all workers and enhance the
skills of those in the various industries and equip the unemployed with employable
skills.
If Tanzania is to become one among the Middle Income Countries in the world by
the year 2025, its leaders must properly equip TVET institutions with the state-ofthe art equipment and facilities, staff them with well trained professional
teachers and develop relevant and up-to-date TVET programs.
Consistently, TVET programs frequently provide training for a specific job, yet
employment opportunities and the fast changing technology require adaptability
and permanent skills development. Hence, increasing employability requires
consideration of both short and long-term perspectives, enabling young people to
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seize immediate employment opportunities while also equipping them with the
ability to continue learning and be able to adjust to changes in the workplace and
career opportunities.
The Public and Private Sectors should recognize that TVET is an investment, not a
cost, with significant returns, including the well-being of workers, enhanced
productivity and international competitiveness. Therefore funding for TVET should
be shared to the maximum extent possible between government, industry, the
community and the learner, with government providing appropriate financial
incentives. Furthermore, the Government of Tanzania should seek bilateral and
multilateral capacity-building cooperation in TVET.
TVET Structures, policies, plans, strategies and programs
From a policy point of view, it is clear that up to now, the Government of
Tanzania has taken considerable steps towards addressing the problem of youth
unemployment by setting up structures and numerous policies, plans, strategies
and programs. These include:
Coordination and Provision of TVET
The Government of Tanzania has a well established Department of Technical and
Vocational Education and Training (DTVET) in the Ministry of Education and
Vocational Training (MOEVT) that coordinates all matters pertaining to the
development of TVET Sector in the country. The Department of TVET oversees two
Quality Regulating bodies which are the National Council for Technical Education
(NACTE) for Technical Education and Training (TET) and Vocational Education and
Training Authority (VETA) for Vocational Education and Training (VET). Basic
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Statistics in Tanzania (BEST, 2013) indicate that provision of TVET is currently
undertaken at
1068 public and private registered TVET institutions owned by
Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), Private, Community and Faith Based
Organizations. NACTE has by 2013 registered 324 public and private Technical
Institutions with a total enrolment of 113,080 learners and while VETA has
registered 744 public and private Vocational Education and Training
and Folk
Development Centers with enrollment of 145,511 learners.
Quality Regulation of TVET
There are two autonomous Quality Regulating bodies overlooking quality provision
of TVET. The National Council for Technical Education (NACTE) and the Vocational
Education and Training Authority (VETA). NACTE oversees and coordinates the
provision of technical education and training (TET)
in all tertiary education
institutions, other than universities and their affiliated colleges, delivering courses
at technician, semi-professional and professional levels leading to awards of
certificates, diplomas, degrees and other related awards. VETA oversees and
coordinates the provision of vocational education and training (VET) to all
vocational training institutions as regards to their legality and programs.
TVET Qualifications Framework
NACTE in collaboration with VETA have established the TVET Qualifications
Framework that gives a range of awards and certification conferred to successful
students for various fields of TVET. The awards and certification are known as the
National Technical Awards (NTA) for the Technical Education and Training (TET)
levels and National Vocational Training Award (NVA) for the Vocational Education
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and Training (VET) levels. On completion of training at various levels graduates
qualify with various certification which include: NVA Level
1 qualify for
Certificate of Competence I; NVA Level 2 qualify for Certificate of Competence II;
NVA Level 3 qualify for Certificate of Competence III; NTA Level 4 qualify for
Basic Technician Certificate; NTA Level 5 qualify for Technician Certificate; NTA
Level 6 qualify for Ordinary Diploma; NTA Level 7 qualify for Higher Diploma; NTA
Level 8 qualify for Bachelor’s Degree; NTA Level 9 qualify for Masters Degree;
and NTA Level 10 qualify for Doctorate Degree.
Financing of TVET
The government, private sector, NGO’s, and religious organizations as well as
bilateral and multilateral organizations are the financiers of TVET. The Skills
Development Levy (SDL) of 1/3 out 5% of the GDP finances vocational education
and training (VET) while technical education and training gets a 10 percentage out
of the remaining 2/3 of SDL. The Tanzania Education Fund managed by Tanzania
Education Authority (TEA) partly supports post secondary TVET Institutions. The
Tanzania Higher Education Students Loan Board (HESLB) provides interest free
loans to students undertaking TVET diploma in education programs and
undergraduate TVET programs.
Policies on TVET that relate to youth and employment
There are employment and economic policies to increase aggregate demand and
improve access to finance; education and training policies to ease the
school‐to‐work transition and to prevent labour market mismatches;
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labour
market policies to target employment of disadvantaged youth; entrepreneurship
and self‐employment to assist potential young entrepreneurs; and labour rights
that are based on international labour standards to ensure that young people
receive equal treatment. Some of these policies include: The Education and
Training Policy (2014); Technical Education and Training Policy (1996); National
Youth Development Policy (2007); National Employment Policy (2008); National
Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) Policy; and the National Sustainable Industrial
Development Policy (1996).
Development plans, programs, protocols and resolutions
The Tanzania Development vision 2025;
The Strategy for Growth and Poverty
Reduction II (MKUKUTA II); The Tanzania FYDP 2011/2012 -2015/2016; The
Tanzania Long-Term Perspective Plan (LTPP), 2011/12-2025/26; Millennium
Development
Goals (MDG); UNESCO
Educational
Protocols; African Union
Educational Protocols; SADC Educational Protocols; and East African Community
Educational Protocols.
Education Sub Sector Programs
Adult Education and Non-formal Education Programme (AEFNDP, 2012 -2017);
Higher Education Development Programme (HEDP, 2010-2015); Technical and
Vocational Education Development Programme (TVETDP, 2013- 2018).
3. INITIATIVES IN TVET FOR ADDRESSING YOUTH UNEMPLOYMENT
Considerable attention by the Government of Tanzania has put up initiatives with
clear decent work relevance in addressing youth unemployment through TVET.
These involved the development and implementation of the following:
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a) The Tanzania FYDP 2011/2012 -2015/2016 with the goal: Re-orient human
capital development towards achieving the development goals in the key
productive sectors (agriculture, mining, and manufacturing) and economic
infrastructure (energy, ICT, and transport).
b) The Strategy for Growth and Poverty Reduction II (MKUKUTA II) with the goal:
Ensuring expansion of
vocational, technical, polytechnics, and
higher
education, and improving non-formal and continuing education.
c) The VETA Corporate Plan 2012/2013-2016/2017 with goals: Improved equitable
access to VET: Increased employability of VET graduates; Enhanced VET
management capacity and financing; and MVTTC Strengthened as a College of
Excellence for TVET Professionals and Managers.
d) The Five Years (2013/2014 – 2017/2018 ) Technical and Vocational Education
and Training Development (TVETDP) Program whose focus areas are: Access
and Equity in TVET; Quality of TVET Output; Capacity to provide quality TVET;
and Monitoring and Evaluation of TVET.
e) The Tanzania Long-Term Perspective Plan (LTPP), 2011/12-2025/26: Objectives
being: To increase access and promote equity at all levels of education and
training: the enrolment into tertiary education should rise from the current 1.5
percent to at least 10 percent; To bridge the skills gap to ensure that the lack
of skilled labour does not remain a binding constraint to economic growth
after 2015 thus aim to increase the proportion of the population with high
qualifications to 12 percent, and to 34 percent for the population with medium
qualifications, by 2025; Creating a learning-friendly educational environment;
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Training and deploying the adequate number of teachers; To raise retention
rates at all levels of education.
4. INTERVENTIONS TO ADDRESS YOUTH UNEMPLOYMENT
Interestingly, the Tanzanian Government must play its constitutional responsibility
of creating enabling socio-economic and political environment by employing
interventions geared to the attainment of quality TVET output at the same time
creating a friendly climate for investment by industries. This will encourage
investors to invest and thereby create jobs in order to absorb the unemployed
youths from our TVET institutions. Some recommended interventions to ensure
quality TVET output that fulfills requirements for productive youth employment
and decent work is achieved through collaborative key stakeholders include:
a) To raise the public profile and attractiveness of TVET among learners, families
and all other stakeholders, including through the media, and inform them on
the possibilities for progression, employment and self fulfillment that TVET can
offer.
b) To design TVET Programs to help youth themselves become much more better
users of real-time labor market information, more knowledgeable about career
paths, better decision-makers about short- and long-term skills acquisition, and
more socially competent navigators of the job search and hiring process.
c) To develop and adopt continuous review, validation of the TVET Curricula and
Programs so that they are modularized, flexible and adaptable to the fast
changes in technology and relevant to the industrial and individual needs.
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d) To create national youth development strategies, convening multi-stakeholder
discussions and ensuring that educators, businesses, and young people
themselves play an appropriate role in creating a skilled and dynamic
workforce.
e) To strengthen public and private partnership so as to have substantial
investment
in
TVET
in
ensuring
the
relevance,
competitiveness
and
affordability of its institutions in order to develop the TVET sub sector.
f) To update infrastructure, and modernize training equipment, facilities,
workshops and building in order to create a conducive teaching and learning
environment for quality output ready for the productive employment and
decent work.
g) To recruit competent lectures/trainers and instructors, and also train and
retrain those already in TVET
sub sector and ensure their retention for
efficiency and effective delivery in TVET institutions.
h) To support flexible pathways and the accumulation, recognition and transfer of
individual learning through transparent, well articulated outcome based
qualifications systems; reliable measures for assessment, recognition and
validation of qualifications.
i) To strengthen TVET institutions so as to provide quality training in Tanzania’s
rapid economic growth of fast growing, capital intensive sectors where youth
employment opportunities are high.
j) To improve gender equality by promoting equal access of females and males to
TVET programs, particularly in fields where there is strong labour market
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demand, and by ensuring that TVET curricula and materials avoid stereotyping
by gender.
k) To strengthen and develop effective research capacity into TVET, with a view
to developing the information base and promoting more evidence -based policy
making.
l) To establish more TVET institutions in the rural areas and ensure emphasis at
providing TVET skills to meet the needs of the community in that particular
locality.
m) To
ensure
the
government
implements
policies
that
encourages
entrepreneurship training among rural people in order to curb the rural urban
migration and its adverse effect on unemployment.
n) To enhance awareness among employers and convince them to agree to employ
/facilitate on-the job training for young graduates when appropriate.
o) To have a greater number of internships and apprenticeship systems in a broad
range of disciplines and available to all segments of the youth population,
particularly those who experience the most difficulties in accessing and
completing education, such as young people living in extreme poverty and in
rural areas, young women and youth with disabilities.
5. CONCLUSION
There is no debate that investing in Technical and Vocational Education and
Training (TVET) will set the potential to serve Tanzania’s working population by
bridging the skills gap and help improve the productivity and diversify the
economy if it addresses well youth unemployment. This requires well coordinated
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supports and incentives to come from all key stakeholders, including employers,
trade unions, NGOs, and naturally from youth themselves to work together to
make that happen. Youth unemployment will only be effectively addressed if the
youth themselves also undergo through some culture/attitude/perception change
from job seeking orientation to job creating orientation. Equally important is the
youth developing a culture of patience to remain in jobs as they continue to
search for better jobs even if the jobs that are engaged in do not match their
expectations. The need for action is as urgent now as ever before, otherwise this
trend will continue for years to come. All of us have a stake in the economic
integration of youth into this economy, to keep the engines of development
running strong through our lifetimes and those of the next generation.
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