> P M Leelaratne
> Director General, Tertiary and Vocational Education Commission, Sri Lanka
>
> TEVT in Small Countries
>
> Introduction
> Small countries are not homogenous. They are heterogeneous and diverse. How small is > '> small> '> is a very big and complex question. Differences among small counties in terms of population, land area, system of governance, economic development, cultural backgrounds etc. are huge. Some are rich and advanced city states. Some are Islands of different sizes. Some others are archipelagos with groups of tiny little islands. Above all, their level of economic development varies and this has significant implications for TEVT development.
>
> Country Land Area Sq. Km. Population Per Capita Income US $
> Singapore 640 3 million 32,810
> Maldives 298 270,758 1080
> Hong Kong 1076 6.2 million 25,200
> Fiji 18272 802,000 2470
> Sri Lanka 65610 19 million 800
> Kiribati 886 77,853 730
> Tonga 748 30000 1630
> Bhutan 46500 638000 551
> Norway 323,877 4 million 31,250
> Australia 7,682,300 19 million 20,650
> Source: World Development Report 1998 - 99 World Bank / World Labour Report - 2000, ILO
>
>
> Notwithstanding the differences in size of land and population, what matters most is the level of economic development in these countries. A distinction between developed and developing is important in looking at the TEVT development.
>
> Let us therefore talk about small developing countries. The majority of small countries in the Asia and Pacific fall into this category.
>
>
> What are the characteristics of small developing countries?
>
> * High incidence of poverty (among unemployed, employed, women)
> A large number of families in the developing countries are poor. Many of the poor are employed in the informal sector. Though there have been government led major poverty alleviation programmes they have not been adequately successful mainly due to lack of arrangements for transfer of technology and vocational training for those who have been socially mobilised. Therefore effective policies and strategies are required for providing training to the poor.
> * Dominance of informal sector/unorganised sector, unregulated economy (small and micro business, family economic activities, casual workers, and unpaid family workers - urban informal economy and rural informal sector). Informal sector provides bulk of the employment in most of the small developing countries. In Sri Lanka informal sector accounts for 75% of the employment. One of the major problems in the informal sector is inadequate income for those employed and for small businesses. This is due to poor level of productivity and efficiency in the informal sector economic activities. This in turn stems from low technology and weak entrepreneurial skills. Little or no access to TEVT for the poor and those employed in informal sector. Therefore, we need to provide entrepreneurial skills to the poor and those employed in the informal sector. Entrepreneurial skills could be provided through :
> i entrepreneurship awareness creation built into vocational training courses
> ii entrepreneurship development courses for those who have completed vocational training courses
> iii linking entrepreneurship training with vocational training
> iv enterprise development programmes for small businessmen.
>
> * Technologically behind (today the gaps are not between ideologies but between technologies). Today the economies and countries are not divided by ideologies since most economies are liberal economies. The competitiveness is maintained through productivity which mainly depends on production technology and quality of human resources. Therefore, there is no option than absorbing technologies into the areas where the small countries have niches.>
> * Inadequate institutions capability
>
> What is the environment of small developing countries?
>
> * Globalisation
> Globalised market economy
>
> * Rapid technological change
> Information and communication technology
> Production technology
>
> * Market liberalisation
>
> The above factors lead to continuously changing competitive economic environment. This in turn lead to changes in nature of work and work organisation, styles of management and organisation structures. Changes in occupational structures, occupations and competencies required by occupations.
>
> Whether we like it or not we, the small countries, need to at least survive if not prosper in this environment.
>
> What are the major constraints?
> * financing TEVT
> * human resources
> * systems capability
>
> What can we do?
>
> * Strategic planning
> * To put simply strategic planning is to focus on matching internal strengths with external demands. It involves taking decisions today about the future, analysing the environment. Strategic decisions are made with respect to identification of strengths, weaknesses, threats, opportunities and capability. The outcome of this process is a detailed plan of action. The environmental changes, however, affects the implementation aspects.
> *
> * Strategic management
> * Planned strategy has to be implemented and monitored to achieve success. This involves organisational consideration to implement strategic planning through goal setting, objectives setting and resourcing.
> *
> * Strategic thinking
> The pace of technological change is fast today that the > '> big swallowing the small> '> is no more valid. Today the > '> faster swallows the slower> '> .
>
> Many small countries (e.g. Singapore, Taiwan,) that have move fast towards development have undertaken and are involved in on a continuous basis on strategic planning and strategic management. The others need to learn from them.
>
> Workforce skills to cope with the environment:
> There is no get away from this challenging environment for the countries whether they are small or big, rich or poor. The people engaged in economic activities, whether in the formal sector or in the informal sector need to possess a repertoire of skills - basic skills, key competencies, technical/technological skills and intellectual and attitudinal skills.
>
> Basic skills
> Reading, writing, speaking and listening skills and mathematical skills
>
> Key competencies
> i. Communication skills to have productive relationship with fellow employees, clients and customers
> ii. Team work skills to provide leadership and work as a team with fellow employees
> iii. Problem solving skills to improve efficiency and productivity
> iv. Selection, accessing and applying technology in work situations
> v. Resourcing time, money, materials and employees through identification, organising and planning
>
> Technical/technological skills
> i. Theoretical and hands on skills required for work situations
> ii. Multi skills
>
> Intellectual and attitudinal skills
> i. Strategic thinking
> ii. Creative thinking to improve product quality and productivity
> iii. Positive attitudes and values
> iv. Entrepreneurial capacity to take advantage of market opportunities
> v. Learning skills to continue to learn from mistakes and opportunities
> vi. Flexibility in adapting and adjusting to work situations and changing technological and organisational environment
>
> How best we can provide these essential skills to the poor, women and those in the informal economy?
> The poor and those in the informal sector in the developing countries are those with incomplete primary and secondary education. How best we can provide basic skills to them, which is the foundation to acquire technical skills? They have either missed or been denied the opportunities to acquire key competencies and intellectual skills through primary and secondary education. We need to introduce innovative and non-traditional traini> ng methodologies and benefit from information and communication technology to impart these skills among the poor and those employed in the informal sector through open learning and distance learning.
>
> Interventions
>
> Resource rationalisation
> Our major constraints are resources - financial, human and infrastructure. We need to introduce policies and strategies to rationalise the institutional infrastructure, training programmes, human resources and most importantly the funds. Information and communication technology is being used to rationalise these resources through the maintenance of information systems.
>
> Building partnerships
> Partnerships are an effective way of rationalising resources and improving the quality and productivity of our TEVT operations.
>
> (i) Partnerships between education and training are important in small countries where there are no extended networks of training institutes. School system could provide technical skills to the students and school leavers if proper partnerships could be built between schools and existing training institutes.
> (ii) School - industry partnerships. There are many examples especially in India where IT companies have developed partnerships with schools in providing IT skills to students.
> (iii) Partnerships between training providers and providers of non training input such as credit, marketing, technology and consulting services. This is very important in preparing youth for the informal sector by linking entrepreneurship training and other inputs with vocational training.
> (iv) Partnerships between public trainers and private trainers. Public training institutions interested in providing good quality training especially in the areas of IT can organise trainee voucher schemes so that deserving poor could be provided with access to good quality training. Public sector training institutions could provide facilities to the private provider for conducting fee levying courses while accommodating a given number of voucher holders.
> (v) Twinning arrangements. Twinning of training institutions of two countries is another arrangement for improving the quality of training provided.
>
> Innovative training modalities
> Institutional training alone cannot effectively provide the skills, especially the key competencies and intellectual and attitudinal skills required to meet the challenges of the globalized economy. Combination of modes especially with the assistance of ICT through partnerships are necessary.
>
> Strengthening traditional skills acquisition modes
>
> i. On the job training need to be structured to incorporate the basic skills, key competencies, technical skills etc.
> ii. Traditional apprenticeship could be strengthened in a similar way
>
> Catching up ICT
> ICT is one of the forefront technologies that have had a revolutionary impact on the society and economy since the later part of the 20th century. It will continue to influence and shape the socio-economic life of people. ICT therefore needs to be considered as a useful tool not as a threat. ICT has penetrated into primary education and higher education. However, the TEVT sector in small countries has not fully utilised IT for improving efficiency and quality of TEVT programmes. Training institutes provide ICT courses. However, these courses are conducted by the IT specialists in IT laboratories. Training institutes have not been able to use ICT for institute management and to improve the teaching and learning process in technical subjects. The majority of the teachers are not computer literate.
>
> It is necessary to introduce IT policy to the TEVT Sector. The policy should spells out the role of managers, trainers, learners, librarians and other support staff in promoting IT in vocational training. It should also provide guidelines on allocating resources for IT in training institutes. Such a policy will lead to strategies to provide IT skills to technical teachers, introducing IT based management information system a> nd IT assisted learning arrangements. Most importantly, the introduction of ICT to TEVT will attract youth for vocational training thus improving the status of vocational training and the parity of esteem between education and training.
>
>
>
> http://www.ait.tafe.sa.edu.au/unevoc/2001conf/downloads/leelaratne_paper.doc
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