By Godwin Bonge Muhwezi
Conducting industry demand analysis is important for Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) Institutes to develop curricula that respond to industry needs.
It is against this background that the Inter University Council of East Africa (IUCEA), the EASTRIP Regional Facilitation Unit, in partnership with Guangzhou Technician College (GTC), organized a webinar on Undertaking Industry Demand Analysis.
GTC is the largest technical college in China’s Guangdong Province which has of the largest vocational education in the country. The webinar was designed to provide learning experience for TVET institutes in East Africa on China’s vocational education, and the integration of industry and education in China.
The webinar attracted participants from TVET institutes in East Africa including principals, managers, and lecturers. Emphasis was put on inviting participants from Regional Flagship TVET Institute (RFTIs) from Ethiopia, Kenya, and Tanzania supported by EASTRIP Project. TVET leaders Seychelles and other private sector corporations that have signed Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) with RFTIs also attended.
The webinar was organized as part of the capacity building efforts to train leaders of TVET Institutes in East Africa and improve capacity of the institutes to engage with industry to develop skilled graduates that meet industry demands.
The webinar covered various topics including research methods, designing Questionnaires, data analysis, and report writing necessary to conduct industry analysis.
The training comes at a time when there is increasing need to address skills shortage in critical sectors of the economy including manufacturing, Agro-processing, transport and infrastructure and Information and communication technology.
IUCEA, with support from the World Bank, signed a partnership agreement with Guangzhou Technician College to conduct a series of training to improve the leadership, teaching and management ability of lecturers, middle level and top managers of Regional TVET institutes in Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania.
The capacity building webinars are part of EASTRIP effort to increase access and improve quality of TVET programs offered by selected TVET institutes in the region. The project is designed to address skills shortage and mismatch, by providing technical, financial and industry partnerships to improve the relevance and quality of training programs in selected TVET Institutes.
EASTRIP also supports the development of highly specialized TVET programs at diploma and degree levels for training of technicians and TVET faculty, as well as industry recognised short-term training, targeting regional priority sectors in transport, energy, manufacturing, and ICT.
The Writer is a Project Communication Officer for EASTRIP at IUCEA.