An army of job-ready youth

JANA-MARI SMITH All hands are on deck at the Namibia Training Authority (NTA) to ensure that President Hage Geingob’s vocational training goals are met.In his recent State of the Nation Address (SONA) Geingob emphasised the importance of vocational education, which is a target in the Harambee Prosperity Plan and the fifth National Development Plan (NDP5)“We are acutely aware of the plight of the out-of-school youth, students, job-seeking graduates and entrepreneurial start-ups,” Geingob said.The president said to help create jobs for young people, “the promotion of relevant skills through quality vocational education and training remains a priority”.Geingob noted that a key goal, to increase the number of vocational training enrolments from 15 000 in 2015 to 25 000 in 2020 as stipulated in the Harambee blueprint, had been exceeded.“It is pleasing to report that vocational enrolment increased from 28 571 in 2017 to 32 120 by the end of March 2018. This is well ahead of the Harambee Prosperity Plan target of 18 000 enrolments per annum,” he said.Mornay Louw of the NTA pointed out that under the NDP5 targets, by March 2022 the total enrolment should be around 50 000, which is double the initial Harambee target.He added that it was anticipated that the number of trainees in the vocational education and training (VET) system would increase to hundreds of thousands at full implementation by 2031/32.Louw emphasised that the NTA was “committed to the Namibian government’s vision for VET, under which we need to aggressively invest in growing the local training market and free up more opportunities for quality training”.In terms of improving the quality of VET, the NTA conducted competence assessments of all trainers.Following this, a total of 600 trainers from public vocational training centres, state-owned enterprises and private training institutions attended training courses locally and in Spain, India and Germany.The NTA is also providing financial support to 140 candidates enrolled for VET trainer certificates and diploma qualifications. Bigger footprintOne of the targets for vocational training in the Harambee plan was to develop a VET expansion master plan aimed at establishing VTC centres in all 14 regions, which is already in full swing, according to the NTA.Louw confirmed that a comprehensive strategy, with a 15-year implementation timeframe, was completed on target and implementation began “in all earnest”.In terms of physical infrastructure, the NTA reported a number of successes, including the expansion of the Eenhana vocational training centre during the 2016/17 financial year at a cost of N$26 million.Projects were completed at the Rundu centre at a cost of N$47 million and a new centre was established at Gobabis at a cost of N$13.4 million.The construction of the Nkurenkuru vocational training centre kicked off in October last year and the Kunene vocational training centre at Khorixas last December.The same is planned at Omuthiya and Keetmanshoop in the next few months.Upgrading the existing infrastructure at the Kai//Ganaxab centre at Mariental into a public vocational training centre for the Hardap Region is expected to start later this year.In terms of programme expansion, a new national VET qualification was recently introduced in the agriculture sector, and training has started at the Rundu vocational training centre. Image revampAnother target is to improve the image of VET, and Louw noted that the NTA recently concluded a successful advocacy campaign, titled Live your Passion, where 24 VET graduates were profiled as ambassadors or champions of VET.The Harambee plan states that vocational training centres must be renamed as technical and vocational education and training (TVET) colleges, which will help to improve their image.Louw explained that to adopt the term TVET would require amendments to existing legislation, “but the political will is definitely there for this change to be made”.He noted that by adopting TVET, special emphasis would be placed on the development of technical skills at higher levels of the National Qualifications Framework (NQF) in future.The Harambee goal of creating more apprenticeship opportunities for VET graduates was met with the launch of a pilot programme in March this year, which placed about 300 apprentices with 14 participating employers.Together we canIn order to improve the quality of training, a work integrated learning (WIL) policy, including apprenticeship, job attachment and recognition of prior learning (RPL), was drafted.The draft policy includes incentive schemes for employers taking in trainees and trainers on attachment, Louw said.

An army of job-ready youth

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Namibian Sun 2025-04-03

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An army of job-ready youth

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Namibian Sun 2025-04-03

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