Skills Development: Vocational Education
in the Islamic Countries
38
is needed to develop andmaintain implementation of VET programs. Supporting aids, tools and
accessories, teachers training for both adoption of new technology and enhancing current skills,
need huge amount of financial support especially for those countries that live under the
international poverty line (Okolie & Yasin, 2017). Due to having financial constraint, the
government of many countries (up to upper middle income) work with NGO’s to ensure funds
and proper implementation of TVET. It’s a very common issue in lower and lower middle income
countries that if the NGOs withdraw their financial support the started TVET project undergoes
the process of uncertainty.
Skill development via VET programs mainly place emphasis on making more employment
opportunities for theworkforce within local or international market. Employment opportunities
in formal economy are difficult to ensure but there are huge possibilities in informal economy
where skills can be applied uncommitted. Due to poor quality skill development process, many
migrant workforces face problems of “skill and job mismatch” and narrowing the opportunities
of employment. ILO (2015) recent studies on migrant worker can be displayed as the Figure 1.9
which is classified with income level of the countries.
Figure 1.9: Migrant workers, by income level of countries
Source: ILO, 2015
In a socio cultural vacuum, most of the time people discuss about the topics of employability,
carrier adaptability, skill mismatch but do not address the issues of gender discrimination
(Leberman & Shaw, 2015). Factors like gender inequality, social acceptance of VET programs
and dropout rate relatewith the socio-cultural reason of becoming failure of skill development.
Gender inequality at low and lower middle income countries is more affected at employability
and enrolment in TVET sectors compared to the upper middle and higher income countries.
Women are still disregarded bymentioning the phrase "it's a men's job" when many developing
countries announce the gender equality in all sector. Based on the recent labor market statistical
data of few selected developed and developing countries, figure 1.10 shows gender
discrimination between countries (ILO, 2017).
2%
11%
12%
75%
Low income
Lower middle
income
Upper middle
income
High income