Skills Development: Vocational Education
in the Islamic Countries
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8.3. Conclusions
Vocational education is primarily aimed at equipping young people with the necessary
knowledge, skills and attitude in order to prepare them to a desired level required by the labour
market of any country. This broader aim is linkedwith securing immediate employment for the
youth. This report focuses on identifying the key roles played by vocational education in areas
like poverty eradication, reduction in unemployment rates and social -economic status of a
country within OIC member states. On this note, three case-countries from three regions (Asia,
Africa and Arab) around the OIC countries were investigated immensely by means of guided
research questions. The findings were thereafter compared with Australia who achieved great
progress in their socio economic development through vocational education and training.
This report shows that skilled workers are in a high demand in the workplaces in most
developed and less developed countries in OIC member states. A student from poor socio-
economic background can easily enter into a profession earn a living after acquiring specific
skills or to open his/her own business (entrepreneurship). Therefore, in order to eradicate
poverty from any country of OIC, emphasis should be given on improving TVET sectors. This
report presents the initiatives that have been taken by the Governments, NGOs, donor agencies,
TVET board and institutions towards eradicating poverty. Despite these initiatives, the TVET
sector is still facing challenges to attract poor people towards job-oriented training. Few
challenges are worth mentioning: many countries in OIC member states do not have essential
funding for skill training; many of them lack facilities and specialised teachers in TVET sectors
to offer up-to-date skill training; social value of TVET graduates is still a challenge in many OIC
countries; graduates of TVET sectors are not getting proper recognition in both working place
and society like other developed countries (see: Australia); and lastly many countries cannot
send their skilled people to foreign countries due to English or other language barriers.
In order improve these conditions, collective efforts from different stakeholders would be
required urgently. For instance, Government, NGOs and other donor agencies, and TVET
institutions should come forward towards improving TVET sectors. They should not work
separately rather work jointly towards improving TVET sectors which will in turn facilitate
poverty eradication. In this regard, a regulatory framework is proposed in this study (see Figure
8.6). Moreover, this report provides useful information and empirical evidence to the
Government, NGOs, donor agencies, and other stakeholders of TVET sectors which could be
helpful in facilitating initiatives towards poverty eradication from OIC member states.