Skills Development: Vocational Education
in the Islamic Countries
136
THEME 2: Government initiatives towards improving TVET sectors
Uganda has realized the importance of TVET sectors towards improving the economy and they
have taken initiatives towards their improvement. Among these initiatives include:
Short training (based on society needs) : Uganda comprises many tribes spread across
different corners of the country. Every community has skill needs that are quite different from
others. Thus, the government has introduced informal training programs for a short period of
time targeting a specific skill needs of the society. According to one of the participants:
“Government introduced a program facilitating informal skills training where they
conduct training programs based on the needs of local communities. For instance, if a
community has specific needs then government should set-up training to address those
needs. E.g. hair dresser, farming, etc such skill needs that pertain community demands
should emphasized and funded by the government through paying institutions or setting
up training facilities..”(P4Ug)
Ensuring quality training: The government of Uganda has put initiatives to improve the quality
of their graduates from TVET sector. This has been ensured through revision of curriculum to
meet the current needs of the industry. Participant has highlighted this as:
“as we speak now, all our curriculum design recently was revised and it involved the
industry and the curricular office or experts…” (P5Ug)
Free informal training: In order to attract poor people and to increase the number of students,
government is offering completely free informal training in TVET sectors. The government signs
MOU with TVET sectors to host such free programs and in turn they pay the institution. The
participants have stated this:
“Government introduced a program facilitating informal skills training…… so the local
government has to pay such institution to set up the training course like for three
months and [thereafter] train young boys and girls into this skills” (P4Ug)
“The government allocates money and they advise schools or institutions to apply.
After application government looks at your capacity and upon inspection provides you
the consent on one condition- you will have to train a certain amount of students for
free. For example, if you have the capacity to train three hundred youths, you will have
to train forty at free of cost. In fact, government pays the fee and you train this
people”(P5Ug)
Loan and/or start-up schemes: The government of Uganda has put some initiatives to
empower youth to join TVET training as well as start their own business as they graduate from
vocational institutions. This has been elaborated by some of our participants:
“In Uganda, the government and other banks (like Post Bank) introduced loaning
scheme. This loaning scheme is specifically offered to engineering students to help
them with their start-up like capital. Those interested can request it through their
regional RCs and the Youth leaders of the zone and once borrowed they can use it in
their start-up business and later pay it back in instalments. This greatly helped our
young entrepreneurs to start their own life…”(P5Ug).