> Perive Tanuvasa Lene
> Chief Executive Officer, Samoa Polytechnic
>
> TVET development in Samoa
>
> Introduction
> Samoa is located 14 degrees south and 172 degrees west in the central Pacific Ocean with Apia as its capital. Samoa's population of 174,800 is concentrated on two main islands, Upolu and Savaii, with 53% living in small coastal villages. The land area is 2935 square kilometers with an exclusive economic zone of 120,000 square kilometers. The standard of living is relatively high and uniform, reflecting the Samoan commitment to community and social institutions. The economy is dominated by mixed subsistence agriculture, forestry and fishing.
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> Since the mid 1990s the country's economy has been growing well, boosted by agriculture and tourism and a number of measures put in place by the Samoan Government to ensure economic stability. Through its positive policy action, Samoa has emerged as the leader of economic reform in the Pacific. The framework for economic and social development in Samoa is set by the Government's Statement of Economic Strategy (SES). The third statement, which covers 2000 and 2001, aims to achieve sustained economic growth through a healthy and competitive private sector and to ensure that the strategies pursued benefits for the Samoan community. Since the introduction of Government's SES, Education had always been one of the top priorities. Education is seen as the key to generating employment and fuelling the growth of the private sector. The Government had and is dedicating resources to improve the quality and relevance of education at all levels, with technical vocational education and training (TVET) a particular focus
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> A recognized major constraint to generating increased growth of employment in Samoa is the scarcity of occupational skills and the associated educational background of persons currently unemployed, underemployed or out of the labor force because they have become discouraged in their failed attempts to find more satisfactory jobs. Employers, both private and public, have been unanimous in pointing to the extreme difficulty they have in filling job openings requiring occupational skills above the entry level.
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> As one of the resolutions to improve and maintain the quality of skills attained in the system, a National Training Authority (NTA) has now been recommended and is expected to be approved for establishment in the near future. It will be a professionally staffed agency with expertise in assessing labor market trends and its demand/supply conditions. It will also provide the planning, policy formulation and coordination needed to achieve the efficient development of education and training institutions. The NTA will be expected to play a key role in working with TVET providers to develop strategies for strengthening TVET development in Samoa.
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> TVET development on a national level
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> Government funded TVET provider
> The Government in 1963 opened the only technical institute in Samoa under the Department of Education, offering trades training in mechanical engineering and carpentry. Through the years, additional trades programs were developed and included e.g. welding, electrical, plumbing, fitting and machining and secretarial training.
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> In 1993, the technical institute was upgraded to a tertiary level to become the Samoa Polytechnic. It is a statutory corporation of the Samoan Government that operates as an autonomous tertiary education institution which provides TVET.
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> Other TVET providers
> There are now eight other providers of TVET in Samoa on a college level, providing courses in trades, business and art performing subjects. They are all privately owned mainly by church/religious organizations. They play a very important role in providing TVET training to those students who could not make it to tertiary level institutions. Most of the institutes are located away from the capital in the outer communities and are more convenient to students in the villages including those in the other islands. Financial ass> istance from Government is granted to the institutes on an annual basis as part of its assistance program for non government schools.
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> National TVET providers association
> Since 1998, an association of all TVET providers was initiated by Samoa Polytechnic. The goal was to set up a body on a national level that will enhance the development of TVET by assisting each other, especially in the areas of curriculum development and staff development and training. This will upgrade the level of the programs offered and the quality of graduates from the college level providers to allow them to be accepted more readily by industry for employment. As well it will assist those students who want to continue their studies with Samoa Polytechnic on a tertiary level.
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> Constraints
> One of the main constraints in the development of TVET is to meet the high cost of resources and equipment. By setting up such a national body, there is more chance of getting any form of assistance from donor countries and organizations to the providers than if they request it on their own.
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> Due to the increased number of students that have completed senior secondary schools on a national level annually, the capacity of all the TVET providers is insufficient to meet the demand. The Education Department as part of its Institutional Strengthening Project is working closely with TVET providers in developing technical/vocational subjects to be introduced in the secondary school level. This will strengthen the range and level of skills school leavers from the secondary school stream have when they enter TVET institutions.
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> TVET developments at Samoa Polytechnic
> Samoa Polytechnic is the main provider of TVET in Samoa and was originally formed up in 1993 with two schools; the School of Commerce and General Studies and the School of Technology. Since 1998, the School of Maritime Training was amalgamated with Samoa Polytechnic as a Government strategy to have the two institutions under one management. The average annual total enrollment for the past three years is 750 with most of the students enrolling for the trades programs under the School of Technology. For the past three years, the number of applicants exceeded the available vacancies by an average of between three and four hundred percent (300-400%). Promotion of gender equity in the trades programs since the last five years have increased the number of female students enrolling in male dominated programs like plumbing, fitting and turning, welding, basic maritime, etc.
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> To be in line with Government's economic strategies of up skilling the workforce and to increase the capacity of the institute to cater for the increased number of students graduating from high schools, Samoa Polytechnic had undergone a lot of developments since the last five years. This was based on the recommendations of the Master Plan 1995-2004, which was reviewed in 2000, biannual Corporate Plan and Government SES. The following are the main development and changes Samoa Polytechnic is currently undergoing to improve and upgrade its programs and capacity as the main national TVET provider.
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> Programs development
> Since Samoa Polytechnic was opened in 1993, the number of programs offered had been increased by forty percent (40%) to a total of sixteen full time programs. This is mainly due to the expanding needs of industry and business from trades and secretarial areas to maritime, fisheries, tourism and information technology. The review of the Master Plan 1993-2004 has recommended an additional twelve programs to be implemented in future as a result of industry needs surveys and requests from industry and business sectors.
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> One of the main developments that is currently being implemented to improve the efficiency and quality of the programs, is the review of all of the seven trades programs curriculum that are offered on a certificate level, in order to change them to competency based training and assessment (CBTA). Industry is directly involved in the process for the first time throug> h the Trade Advisory Panels established for such purposes, which are responsible for approving the changes to the curriculum to meet their training needs. This has encouraged industry to be part of TVET development with the strategy that they will in future contribute more towards recovering some of the financial costs of developing and running the programs.
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> There had been a lot of positive feedback and indications from industry to run specific modules selected from different programs to meet the training needs of their current employees. As well, special short courses designed for nongovernment organizations (NGO), e.g. women's organizations, etc., have been conducted already for the past five years due to needs identified and proposed to the institute.
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> In the School of Maritime Training, new programs in the fisheries areas have been introduced for fishermen specially designed for those with limited or no literacy. In the merchant marine area, Samoa is now one of the island nations that has been included in the International Maritime Organization (IMO) White List of countries around the world that has met the international quality standards requirements for the level of training programs offered to local seafarers. All of the programs for merchant seafarers in the Pacific are designed and coordinated to meet international convention requirements through a regional association of maritime institutions and maritime administration. This regional body had helped a lot in supporting the individual island nations in their efforts to meet the above requirements.
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> Staff development
> For any provider of TVET to be successful, one of the most important areas that will have to be developed hand in hand with the programs is their implementers or staff delivering the programs. Even though the selection criteria's for all teaching staff members are set to include minimum qualifications and experience, they are still encouraged to undertake further studies or fellowship training through donor projects to upgrade their skills. Some staff members had and some are undergoing further studies for higher degrees either full time or through distance learning with foreign institutions through the government scholarship scheme.
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> In addition to the above opportunities, Samoa Polytechnic runs its own staff development program within the institute to develop their adult teaching and curriculum and lesson planning skills. As part of their employment agreement, all new staff must undertake it unless they have completed it before. The program is adapted from a similar one that is run in New Zealand polytechnics and Samoa Polytechnic is the only institute in Samoa that is running it with plans to offer it to staff of other TVET providers in future.
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> For more specialized areas and skills, a scheme is run by the government's Public Service Commission where they plan and coordinate training for government and non government organizations on a short term basis pending on the organization's specific needs. Samoa Polytechnic is one of the main organization that had benefited a lot from the scheme in such areas such as management skills and student counseling.
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> One of the ongoing problems that faces Samoa and most of the island nations is the high level of staff brain drain, either overseas or to the private sector which offers better monetary packages.
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> Teaching resources and physical facilities development
> The fast change in technology as a result of globalization calls for upgrading of teaching resources on a regular basis to ensure validity and quality of training programs to meet the changing needs of students and industry. Due to budgetary constraints to meet the high costs of resources, Samoa Polytechnic like other similar institutes in island nations, relies on donor assistance to counter such shortfalls. With education as a government priority, Samoa Polytechnic had undergone with the assistance of donor countries such as Australia, New Zealand and Japan, upgrading of teaching resources equipment that uses modern technology.>
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> Approval had also been granted by government to prepare a formal proposal for donors to fund a multi-million dollar project for the upgrading of all the physical facilities due to aging and the need for capacity increase, within the next ten years.
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> Links with other institutions and regional and international organizations
> One of the recommendations in the Master Plan review is to establish more links with other similar institutions on a national and regional level. Samoa Polytechnic has direct links with the National University of Samoa through a formal MOU. The main goal is to identify areas of common interest to both institutes and develop strategies of cooperation by sharing and making the best of the resources available instead of duplicating and competing with each other. Formal links with other similar institutes in the Pacific region had also been developed and established.
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> One of the recent developments in the Pacific region that Samoa Polytechnic is directly involved in as the TVET provider representing Samoa, is a Commonwealth of Learning (COL) project for all the Pacific island nations that are members of the Commonwealth. The aim of the project is to develop TVET training programs using open distance learning (ODL), that will assist island communities that do not have access to formal training due to their isolated location and members with limited or no formal educational background. An agreement between the Education Ministers of the island nations and COL was developed and signed in March 2000 with the following goals:
> 1) Develop regional cooperation in developing and testing Learning Materials appropriate to the needs of the labour market and deliverable through the use of open and flexible learning in the Pacific Island economies; and
> 2) Establish opportunities for credit transfer and articulation and inter-institutional and international cross enrolment
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> The project has 3 aspects; course development, training and the development of a system for delivery of training. Each island nation must identify those course areas, which are of strategic importance to labor market training needs in their respective countries, which should be targeted for development. The courses may reflect regional or subregional needs.
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> A learning package on Small Enterprise Business Skills is now being developed by the New Zealand Open Polytechnic using ODL to be used as a trial in the near future. The material is planned to be used for training people in villages, that are running small businesses e.g. providing accommodation for tourists on a beach using traditional houses.
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> Conclusion
> Samoa's social and economic development strategies depend a lot on education with TVET as a priority within the sector. The support given by the Government is essential and already a lot of progress is now being experienced because of the positive way TVET is being targeted for supporting the public and especially the private sector and community orientated business developments.
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> As in other similar island nations, the main constraints to development of TVET is meeting the costs of human and physical resources required. Thus, development of closer links and partnerships with donor bodies is crucial to the success of such developments.
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> Globalization and its effect on the fast rate at which technology is changing is another factor that is of concern to island nations like Samoa. The use and maintenance needs of IT in all areas in the public and private sector are becoming more essential to reduce problems created due to our isolated location. This is an on-going challenge for TVET providers in Samoa to provide appropriate training programs to keep up with the training needs and demands from industry.
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> Thus, the developments of TVET in a small country like Samoa to meet the challenges of the new millennium are summarized as followed:>
> * Recognition as a priority by Government the important role TVET plays in its economic and social national developments thus increasing its annual budgetary assistance to Samoa Polytechnic
> * Develop and establish closer links between Samoa Polytechnic and donor countries and organizations to assist in TVET development
> * Continuous developments in Samoa Polytechnic to increase its capacity and improve and upgrade the quality of its programs to recognized standards
> * Development of regional projects in the development of TVET using open distance learning to provide training to people in communities that do not have access to formal training
> * Develop and continue to establish linkages with TVET institutions and organizations/bodies such as UNEVOC to learn and to keep up to date with developments internationally.
>
> References:
> AUSAID, 2001, Pacific Program Profiles 2000 - 01
> COL, 2000, Statement by Ministers of Education
> KVA, 2000, Samoa Polytechnic Master Plan 1995 - 2004 Review
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> Samoa Polytechnic, 2000 Corporate Plan 2001 - 2002
> Samoa Treasury Department, 2000, Statement of Economic Strategies 2000 - 2001
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> About the author
> Perive Tanuvasa Lene is Chief Executive Officer, Samoa Polytechnic. He was born and has been living and working in Samoa all his life except when he went abroad for studies. He is the first graduate of the former Samoa Technical Institute (now the Samoa Polytechnic) to become its CEO. Perive has an aircraft and marine engineering working background and is a graduate of the Australian Maritime College, Launceston; and the World Maritime University, Sweden. Perive has spent 12 years teaching at the School of Maritime Training of which 8 years were as Principal and he has been CEO Samoa Polytechnic for three years. He proposed and coordinated the Samoa Polytechnic to become the UNEVOC Centre in Samoa in 1998 and is a member of the advisory committee for the Commonwealth of Learning project for developing TVET training for isolated island communities.
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> http://www.ait.tafe.sa.edu.au/unevoc/2001conf/downloads/lene_paper.doc
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