Skills Development: Vocational Education
in the Islamic Countries
12
(i) Poor attitude towards vocational work leads to under-utilization of skills. Most cases, young
people choose to go intovocational skills training not because of passion but as an alternative to
make endsmeet. The effect of this is usually lackof creativity and interest among the apprentices
which leads to poor performance among the graduates. In future, this frustration may lead
someone into quitting the job after he or she has acquired some start-up capital todo a different
trade or has other opportunities linking with social recognition.
(ii) Lack of utilities such aswater and electricity can lead tounder-utilization of vocational skills.
In order to provide effective training, few basic utilities should be available during the training.
For example, metal wielding cannot be done without electricity.
Uganda, one of OIC member country, has experienced high rate of labour migration as most of
civil servants and unemployed youth leave the country anytime opportunities for greener
pastures knock on their door. This is due to the low pay that the government pays its employees
for example according to story ran by quartzAfrica an onlinemediamagazine, “The average pay
for a nurse in Uganda is about 400,000 shillings ($100) a month, while a doctor is said to earn
about 700,000 shillings ($194)” (Fallon, 2017). This pay is among the lowest in the region and
any skilled worker can not hesitate to leave the country as most opportunities abroad are
commanding a monthly pay of above $1,000 . This has greatly led to losing of skilled labour who
can contribute towards the development of Uganda by providing their skills expertise.
1.1.4. Way Forward to Utilization of Vocational Skills
Governments should increase funding of vocational skills that target priorit y industry growth
like construction, information and communication technology, tourism and hospitality among
others by encouraging female involvement and up-skilling mature aged workers to have them
back intoproductivity (Loveder, 2017). Besides, trainees should have at-least 10%labour hours
on such projects in order to gain real life industrial experience before enteringworkplace. Both
VET institutions and industries should come forward to build relationships which will ensure
producing competent workforce that will meet industrial demand (Loveder, 2017).
Encourage lifelong learning by periodically reviewing new trends in the market so that the
skilled workers can easily update their skills to stay relevant in today’s highly competitive and
ever changingmarket. For instance, skills required in the care and maintenance of computers in
the early 2000s cannot be applied in today’s computer world unless efforts are made by the
vocational worker to review his or her skills to stay relevant.
Curriculum developers and planners should collaborate with VET providers and the industry
(market) to produce relevant employable graduates, that is, they should select content (training
activities) in relation to meeting industrial needs to get immediate employment.