“This specialization is new in our centre, the curriculum is good, it suits market demand and I strongly believe there are a lot of job opportunities out there for girls who want to be photographers,” she said.
Rina is among few young Yemeni women who enrolled in specializations traditionally associated to men, such as desk top publishing, computer programming and construction.
Society is still not aware that these new fields of study are most needed in the labor market. Fathers and mothers are still holding onto the idea that their daughters should guarantee themselves a good future by going to universities, even though realistically there are a lot of university graduates who don’t have the labour market relevant skills."
"They blame the government for not creating jobs, they don't think that their sons or daughters would have found a job had they studied in another field of education or training,” she explained, referring to the misconception that most Yemenis have of vocational training or technical education.
"The main issue with technical Education and vocational training is considered as a manual labor and heavy work which is physically exhausting and with low income. That is what vocational training means in the mind of majority of people in Yemen,"
Very few Yemeni women are currently enrolled in technical centers focusing on industrial training such as carpentry, electricity, and construction.
Instead, they enroll for training at centers that offer more traditionally women-orientated skills such as sewing, embroidery, handicrafts and hairdressing. But this niche is already oversaturated, and has limited returns in terms of women participating in income-generating activities.
A few women such as Rina have gone forward and signed up for training in non-traditional specializations. In the academic year 2008-2009,more young women signed up for courses in institutes across Yemen, according to the Ministry of Technical Education and Vocational Training.
In order of preference, they chose courses in computer programming, office management; accounting, early childcare, marketing, management, photography, desk top publishing, interior design, PC maintenance, telecom engineering, engineering construction and building construction, according to the ministry's administrative records.
According to the Department of Women Workers at the Ministry of TEVT that collected the data, participation in these traditionally male-dominated specializations ranged from 256 of women enrolments in computer programming down to just three enrolments in construction.
A situation analysis on young women in TVET centres in Yemen, conduced jointly by ILO and MoTEVT showed that women mostly enroll in technical training in the governorates of Aden, Hadramout, Hodeida, Taiz, Ibb, Dhamar, and Sana’a, with the highest and most diversified participation found in the governorate of Taiz.
The same analysis noted that despite Sana’a being the capital, women from the governorate traditionally enroll in the same vocational training courses. The highest rate of female enrolment were recorded in commercial institutes for courses in secretarial, administration and accounting, or traditional skills such as sewing, ceramics, and hairdressing.
An increased and diversified participation is noticed in community colleges in courses such as information technology, graphic design and internet technology.
And despite its past historical experience of women entering into non-traditional fields such as carpentry, electrics, and mechanics during its socialist period, Aden now resembles Sana’a when it comes to women’s participation in the vocational training and technical education sector.
Limited female enrolment
Despite women's participation in the sector having increased from 5 to about 13 percent between 2003 and 2007 according to the government, the proportion of young women in this type of educational system remains limited.
A recent policy brief issued by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) revealed that young Yemeni women are more disadvantaged than their male counterparts in breaking into employment.
Female employment in Yemen has been bound by a number of factors that include low educational levels, early marriage, high fertility rates and negative cultural perceptions associated with "women workers," noted the policy brief.
The ILO argues that improving access to vocational training will supply young Yemeni women with more labour market relevant skills find employment, and give them opportunities beside informal employment which they often fall into because they are under-qualified.
A hole in the market
Yemen’s population has doubled in size since 1990 and with an annual growth rate of 3.5 percent , it is set to almost double by 2025. Close to 190,000 young people enter the labor market each year, a figure which significantly outpaces labor demand.
Yemen's predominantly young population is increasingly more vulnerable to unemployment. However, unemployment was higher among persons with higher education than among those with basic and primary education, according to the 2004 Population Housing and Establishment Census.
Up to 75 percent of the unemployed were first time job seekers, said the census. Unemployment of young women is also much higher among those with higher education.
The limited ability of the formal education system to prepare young people for the labor market is leading to a chronic ‘skills shortage’ in Yemen, according to the ILO.
Specific skills lacking in Yemen mentioned by business leaders in Yemen were leadership and management skills, followed by insufficiency in foreign languages, lack of computer skills and sufficient knowledge in the use of office equipment.
Yet against this background, technical education and vocational training in Yemen, a sector with the critical role of delivering skilled youth to the labour market, absorbs only 0.2 percent of the bulging young population in Yemen.
There are currently 67 operational centers across Yemen and 219 private institutes that are licensed by the Ministry of Technical Education and Vocational Training.
Outside the formal technical education and vocational training system, there are also a significant number of non governmental organizations that target specific types of youth groups, i.e. young women, rural youth, and recent graduates, mostly focusing on providing life skills, such as leadership and networking skills, civic engagement, and youth leadership.
'Second-rate education'
Despite the labour market relevance of vocation being offered in all these centers, a socio-cultural bias against technical education and vocational training persists in Yemen. The dominant stereotype is that the institutions in this sector associated with ‘drop-outs’ providing a and an ‘second-class’ education
The policy brief of the ILO also noted that the Yemeni technical education and vocational training system is mostly supply and not sufficiently, demand, driven. It does NOT have enough linkages to the private sector, and almost no linkages with employment offices or with the secondary school systems.
This is consistent with the perception in Yemen -especially amidst the private sector and the business community- that the formal technical education and vocational training system needs to produce higher quality graduates with more relevance skills to labor market needs.
The ILO policy brief outlined the lack of systematic monitoring to trace the progress of young technical education or vocational training graduates, as well as reliable statistics on the performance of these or labor market demand.
Obstacles to breaking in
"When I take the bus and I am asked by a woman next to me what I do, and tell them I study at the Hotel and Tourism Institute, she becomes cold and distant,” said Nawal, who studies at the National Hotel and Tourism Institute (NAHOTI) in Sana’a.
As in Nawal's case, the challenge for women studying in areas such us tourism, in the technical education and vocational training institions is the negative perceptions associated with it in general, and specific misconceptions about women entering these particular sectors.
"In comparison to their male counterparts, young women in Yemen are doubly disadvantaged in entering this sector due to the traditional perception that technical education and vocational training provides second class education, and a system that is dominated by men," reported the ILO.
The ILO however dismisses cultural hindrances as the most important factor behind lack of women's enrolment, rather stressing the need to raise awareness about the relevance of vocational skills in finding employment.
"In comparison to men, women are generally more restricted to the private sphere and have therefore less of a chance to know about vocational training opportunities,” said its report, however noting that limited capacity in most technical education and vocational training institutions meant that awareness campaigns for young women and their families were not common.
The study further noted that mixed classes in mixed vocational and technical institutes where the majority of students are young men such as industrial institutes are clearly inhibiting the entry of young women, and small adjustments like introducing women only courses in mixed institutes may ease the entrance of these young women into these courses.
Handicrafts not lucrative
Especially in rural areas, young women from poorer backgrounds with traditionally feminine specializations, such as sewing, embroidery, and handicrafts, generate less income, said the report.
According Dr. Salwa Al-Moayyad, one of the authors of the study, with increasing levels of poverty in Yemen, more women are entering these centers in order to provide additional income. However, the basic skills training, they receive are often not enough to master a trade. The products are often of low quality and no connections to the market.
Despite the reality, many women continue to favor these types of skills because the work can be conducted from home, a plus for women with stricter mobility restrictions as, for example, specifically poorer women from urban areas.
As employment offices in Yemen are structurally weak with little linkage with either the technical education and vocational training system or the private sector, the majority of hiring in Yemen is done through personal networking, said Maha Ghaleb, the director of General for the Directorate General for Working Women
This method of job search has a negative repercussion on young women who are mostly restricted to the private sphere, without access to such networks
Women therefore find it tough to break into the labor market following their training and often end up working either teachers in other traditional skill center NGO where salaries are very low, or setting up small businesses where income is little due to lack of knowledge on project management and market access.
Revamping the sector
The situation analysis recommended the improving the image of technical education and vocational training to encourage the enrolment of more young women in its classes.
It suggested that government launch a media campaign featuring both young men and women graduates, with the latter not only sewing and embroidering as would be expected of them, but also working in less traditional fields such as multimedia desk top publishing.
It recommended the Ministry of Technical Education and Vocational Training follow the campaign up by ensuring its website also represent women beside men as successful agents of the new skills acquired. This would mean women, for instance, handling electronic equipments , instead of sitting at desks.
Ms. Lara Uhlenhaut, a co-author of the situation analysis noted that MoTEVT could launch a comprehensive secondary school awareness campaign to reach not only young girls, but also their parents, and introducing non-mixed classes in industrial institutes where are the a majority of students are men
Curricula should be strengthened with training in life skills, such as leadership, negotiation, initiative, confidence and applying for jobs, as well as basic guidelines in how to start up an independent business. These packages can also be adapted and specifically target traditional centers with women from poorer backgrounds, she said.
Dr. Simel Esim, a senior technical specialist with ILO said that progress should be tracked using gender responsive monitoring and evaluation system in the sector, it added.
The International Labor Organization is recommendations also included strengthening coordination between the Ministry of Technical Education and Vocational Training and organizations promoting women’s employment, including Trade unions and chambers of commerce as well as the Business Women Committee, the National Woman Committee, the Directorate General of Women Workers at the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs and the Productive Family Centre at the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs.
Government efforts
The Ministry of Technical Education and Vocational Training has already reduced fees for women in order to attract more women in technical education and vocational training. It has also established the Department of Women and Qualitative Training that is in charge of addressing women, the disabled and the socially marginalized.
However, this step has been seen as an approach tends to further marginalize and exclude women by treating them as separate targets, as opposed to equal beneficiaries as young men.
Moreover, efforts have been made by the ministry and the donor community to identify niches and offer attractive courses where women can tap into. Two such courses were identified by the EU, photography and desk-top publishing, a successful initiative that is both relevant to the labor market and suitable to Yemeni social norms.
Since 2004, the ministry is striving to implement strategic plan that is expected to shift the sector to cater to the labor market's demand, and improve equity in access to technical education and vocational training opportunities.
The plan calls for more courses, development of linkages with the labor market, management decentralization, and improving training centers’ responsiveness to employment demand.
Increased participation of women in the system is also stressed in the plan, although to date there is no specific baseline or target for women’s participation and no cross - cutting policy adopting a ‘gender equality perspective’ for equal representation of women and men in the sector.
The strategy’s focus is rather on targeting women in the training sector as a separate targeted group along with school drop outs, people with disabilities, and those seeking to establish micro-enterprises.
"Even if woman wants to develop [her skills], there still needs to be help and support from surrounding society" said Filistin, a trainee at the National and Tourism institute.
"Slowly, I believe there can be a change in Yemen, when it comes to women's advancement," she said. "Change will be a balance between gradual societal change and women's own will for self development … it needs time."
Friday, July 10, 2009
Vocational training to empower Yemeni women
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Crisis Training for Schools Aug. 3-7 in Ravenna
Registration is underway for the Aug. 3-7 Crisis Intervention Team Education Collaboration training in Ravenna for school personnel. Graduate credit available.
CITEC is a five-day program focusing on awareness of mental health issues and also prevention and de-escalation of crisis situations. This is the second year for the program which had 21 participants last year from school districts in Kent, Ravenna, and Waterloo as well as the Portage County Educational Service Center and the Portage-Geauga Juvenile Detention Center.
Sponsored by the Mental Health & Recovery Board of Portage County, the training will run from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Family and Community Services, 705 Oakwood St., Ravenna.
All school staff members have the potential to be faced with a crisis situation with students and their parents. The training is open to all staff including classroom teachers, bus drivers, custodians, office staff, cafeteria employees and administrators, as well as guidance staff.
The curriculum covers mental Illness symptoms, suicide prevention, autism, domestic violence, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, legal issues, security plans, de-escalation principles, verbal techniques , role-plays and resources.
The original Crisis Intervention Team training is a collaborative effort between law enforcement and mental health communities designed to educate and assist police officers who handle persons with mental health problems. School and staff at the MHRB, led by Waterloo teacher Carrie Suvada, adapted the training to school system needs.
Jill Biden Says Community Colleges Are a Key U.S. Export
PARIS — Community colleges could become a tool to help economic recovery in the United States and a model for developing countries debating how to improve their education systems, Jill Biden, the wife of Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and a longtime teacher, said Tuesday.
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Times Topics: Jill Biden
Mrs. Biden made the comments as she wrapped up a five-day visit to Europe, her first independent trip abroad since President Barack Obama was inaugurated in January.
The visit started in Germany, where she celebrated Independence Day on July 4 with U.S. soldiers, and ended in Paris, after a speech to a Unesco conference on higher education.
“Community colleges are the way of the future,” she said in an interview by telephone. “Now with people losing their jobs, they’re a great place to go for new training.”
Community colleges are higher-education institutions with, typically, open admission policies. They provide vocational and language training and award diplomas. After graduating from such schools, some students transfer to university for full degrees.
There are almost 1,200 community colleges among the 4,100 public and private higher-education institutions in the United States, serving almost 12 million students.
Mrs. Biden described the schools as one of America’s “best-kept secrets” that could be a model for other countries. They “lead the way in preparing graduates in the fields of green technology, health care, teaching and information technology — some of the fastest-growing fields in America and the rest of the world,” she said.
That message resonated in a report released Tuesday by the World Bank, which said countries that aspire to build “world-class universities” to drive development and compete in global rankings of the best international universities may be “chasing a myth.”
Countries like Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Qatar have announced plans to create world-class colleges from scratch. Such institutions take years to build, cost hundreds of millions of dollars and may still fall short of the economic rewards associated with elite schools, the report says.
The Obama administration, Mrs. Biden said, sees higher education as a tool to revitalize the economy and has increased aid to students and unemployed workers, bolstered tuition tax credits and streamlined the financial aid process.
Mrs. Biden, 58, earned a doctorate in education from the University of Delaware in 2007. The “second lady,” as she is referred to, divides her time between a suite in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, next to the White House, with a staff of eight, and North Virginia Community College, where she teaches English as a second language.
Mrs. Biden now seems ready to carve out a more public role. She said that she would use her “microphone” to promote a handful of causes, including breast cancer awareness, the importance of national service and the support of military families.
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Brooklyn Today: Monday, July 6, 2009
Good morning. Today is the 187th day of the year. It is the birth anniversary (1946) of George W. Bush, 43rd president of the U.S.
Other well-known people who were born today include Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, former first lady Nancy Reagan, actor Sylvester Stallone (the Rocky and Rambo films) and singer-actress Della Reese.
* * *
POLICE ATHLETIC LEAGUE Kicks Off Summer Pay Street Program.
Today, the Police Athletic League (PAL) will launch its 2009 summer programs in Brooklyn. Youngsters will play traditional sidewalk games, develop their creativity through the arts, and learn from a wide range of professionals.
PAL’s Summer Play Street Program closes off streets and utilizes other public areas such as playgrounds and parks throughout the city. Featured activities include Double Dutch jump rope, hopscotch, knock hockey and basketball.
PAL will be operating throughout the five boroughs this summer, including more than 75 play streets: leagues for basketball, volleyball, touch football; and day camps.
There will be more than 20 play streets in Brooklyn, from Gowanus to Starrett City to Flatbush; and from Bay Ridge to Bedford-Stuyvesant to Gravesend.
* * *
U.S. LABOR DEPARTMENT AWARDS $3.1 Million in Grants to Brooklyn Organizations.
The U.S. Department of Labor has announced the award of more than $114 million to 183 community groups providing education and training to young people across the U.S.
This includes grants totaling $3,160,763 to programs in the Bronx, Brooklyn and Harlem.
Two Brooklyn programs have been given grants: the Cypress Hills Local Development Corp., for a program in which young people will help to build and install solar-energy systems; and the Settlement Housing Fund in Bedford-Stuyvesant, for a program in which young people will receive hands-on construction education.
People in these and similar organizations throughout the nation include youngsters who have been in the juvenile justice system, youths “aging out” of foster care, high school dropouts and others.
Schools, state agencies ready to help the unemployed get training: Help Wanted
The Plain Dealer is following 88 recently unemployed Northeast Ohioans during an extended series called "Help Wanted" that will explore their hopes and fears, defeats and triumphs as they search for work in this down economy.
• Workers need to check out online schools before enrolling: Help Wanted
• Unemployment benefits can be affected when laid-off workers go back to school: Help Wanted
• Recent college graduates finding entry-level jobs hard to get and hard to keep
• Persistent approach pays off for Carmen Mayhugh
• Michelle Maloney moves from radio to radial tires in new job
• Cleveland's unemployed couples face double the challenges: Help Wanted
• Credit analyst Tom Truax recovers self-esteem: Help Found
• With new job comes fresh hopes for Jose Morales: Help Found
• Laid off since February, former travel agent Antoinette Rudge now employed
• Help Wanted: The newly unemployed find that getting online is crucial to job search
• Subject in Help Wanted series finds a job that she thinks is a better fit
• An index to the 88 people and their stories
• How old are they? Where do they live? What did they do? Search our database for answers
Do you have a job to offer? E-mail: metrodesk@plaind.com
For many people who have been laid off, the next logical step is into a classroom to get that degree they always wanted or to train for a new career.
But when they haven't been in school for a few decades, the questions confronting them can seem like a high-stakes exam:
What should I study that will give me a crack at a good job?
Where should I go -- a university, community college, vocational school?
And how am I ever going to pay for this without a paycheck coming in?
Betty Ivory's answers led her to Cleveland State University, where she's studying for a master's degree in education. John Jobe and Carmen Labbato are both on their way to earning certifications from New Horizons Computer Learning Center.
They are three of the 80-plus Greater Clevelanders whose post-layoff lives are being explored in The Plain Dealer's "Help Wanted" series. Their experiences show there is help out there for the thousands of others who are in the same boat.
That number continues to rise. The national unemployment rate (9.5 percent) reached a 26-year high in June, when 467,000 jobs were lost, according to a report released Thursday by the U.S. Labor Department.
Jobe, 51, of Aurora, sought help through the county work force development office in Portage County.
"I filled out some forms and took a couple tests, then chased down information about what kinds of jobs are available," he said.
"It went pretty quickly once I got into it -- and they're paying the full cost, which is really cool."
That kind of support is available across the state through a network of 90 One-Stop Centers, overseen by the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services.
The Cuyahoga County program, known as Employment Connection, just got a much-needed infusion of federal stimulus money to operate its 11 sites.
Last year, 40,000 people were served. But that figure has been equaled already in just the first half of this year, said Larry Benders, executive director of the Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Workforce Investment Board.
More caseworkers are being added to handle the flow, he said. They will work with laid-off people to help them figure out what kind of job they should seek, what schooling is needed and whether they're eligible for financial aid.
The agency can refer clients to more than 100 approved organizations, including community colleges, nonprofits and career training centers, that offer degrees or certificates. Often, the government pays the full tab for a laid-off worker.
"Come and talk to us and we can figure out the best fit for you," Benders said.
Online resources
There's plenty of information online for laid-off people who want to make themselves more marketable with a college degree or certification of skills. Here are some places to get started:
• employmentconnection.us: Tells about services offered at One-Stop Centers operated by Cleveland and Cuyahoga County. Sites are in Cleveland, Parma, Maple Heights and Euclid. You can also call 216-664-4673 or 216-898-1366.
• One-Stop Centers: Links to One-Stop Centers in Akron, Chardon, Elyria, Medina, Painesville, Ravenna and counties across the state.
• uso.edu/network/index.php: Links to state universities and community colleges, and maps vocational schools and career centers in the Adult Workforce Network.
• opportunity.gov: Is the federal government's portal for unemployed workers seeking new educational opportunities.
• GetEducated.com: Helps you figure out whether an online program is legitimate.
Learning at his own pace
That's what Jobe did. He earned a degree in electrical engineering "a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away," he said. After he lost his job as a sales engineer in December, he decided to pursue his longtime fascination with computers and earn a Cisco Network certification through New Horizons.
His instructor and his labs are on a computer screen but he can flag down a real, live mentor whenever he has questions. He finds the technology "liberating," enabling him, for example, to stop a lecture and rewind to listen again.
Labbato, 56, of Lyndhurst took a similar route after becoming unemployed in October from his information-technology job. He completed his Microsoft training in April and now is trying to pass three tests to be certified as a database administrator.
Although he had some computer experience, the technology he's learning now is like "a new language," he said.
He had trouble with the first test -- he thinks he tried to finish the course too quickly -- but the people at New Horizons are helping him go back over his lab work.
"There's a lot more I need to learn, but I see the holes I need to fill," Labbato said. "Now I'm more aware of what I need to know."
Matching trainees to employer needs
The University System of Ohio is partnering with other state agencies to make sure people like Labbato are being prepared for jobs that local employers need to fill, said Paolo DeMaria, executive vice chancellor.
'Help Wanted' on WCPN, WVIZ
The Plain Dealer is collaborating with WCPN FM/90.3 and WVIZ Channel 25 Ideastream on the "Help Wanted" series. Throughout the year, there will be multiple reports, interviews, videos and discussions about the experiences of the jobless.
"We're trying to accelerate the approval process for new programs, especially in the area of 'green' jobs," he said.
Ideally, workers starting new careers will keep using the system to add to their qualifications, he said. "People with college degrees are faring better in this economy. A certification or associate's degree is good, but you have to continue to expand your skills."
DeMaria doesn't have to convince Ivory of that. The 40-year-old Cleveland resident already has a bachelor's and a master's degree in mechanical engineering. But even before her job with a nonprofit disappeared last fall, she realized she wanted to teach.
Now she's in a master's program at CSU that prepares teachers for high school math and science classrooms. Tuition is charged at the lower undergraduate rate to attract people to those openings.
Ivory didn't qualify for a federal Pell grant (worth up to $5,350 a year) because she already had a bachelor's degree. So she took out a student loan to cover tuition and living expenses.
"It's low-interest and you have some leeway in paying it back," she said. "I see it as an investment."
The amount and kind of aid you can get depends on many factors, such as age and whether you're a military veteran. The best way to find out where you stand is to talk to a counselor, advised Doug Miller, director of community outreach at Polaris Career Center in Middleburg Heights.
"When people call us, they don't know what to do, where to go, who to talk to," he said. "They are not alone. We have people here to help them through the system."
But with so many laid-off workers looking into education now, you might have to wait your turn wherever you go for help, he cautioned.
Cuyahoga Community College is trying to meet the demand with rolling enrollment for many certifications, said Pete Ross, vice president of enrollment management. Short-term certificates, in subjects such as automotive technology or medical billing, can be earned in as little as three months.
Whatever route you take, the best time to start is now, said Benders, the work force development director.
"It's a real challenge to look at making a change in your life if you're recently displaced," he said. "But the sooner you can avail yourself of the tremendous services out there, the sooner you can regain the control that's been taken away from you."
Sunday, July 5, 2009
Training plan is labelled a failure
Technorati Tags: skill programme,labour
After months of delays, a draft National Skills Development Strategy (NSDS) for next year to 2015, which has been described as "frankly disappointing" and "a missed opportunity", is ready to be circulated for the comments and input from stakeholders.
The process of drafting the strategy for the third phase of the NSDS began at last year's national skills conference in November, with the understanding that the public participation process would have to be completed by September this year. The delay has meant that business and labour will have less than two months to study the document and make their submissions.
The draft strategy, prepared for the National Skills Authority by the Department of Labour, with technical assistance from a German consultancy, has drawn criticism as being both regressive and ignoring a wide range of constituency recommendations at the conference last year.
The final strategy, which in future will fall under the ambit of the new Department of Higher Education and Training, will be presented at this year's conference. However, the department has had little interaction with the sector education and training authorities (Setas) - the bodies tasked with the NSDS's implementation.
"It's a missed opportunity," says Livhu Nengovhela, the chief executive of the Mining Qualifications Authority.
"It ignores all our recommendations that the third phase of the NSDS move away from being a numbers-based, one-size-fits-all strategy."
The previous two iterations of the NSDS set overall targets in a number of skills development-related areas and then required the 23 Setas to achieve these in proportion to the income they received in skills development levies. There is no indication that this method is being reviewed.
"This ignores the fact that adult basic education and training (Abet) is irrelevant in white-collar sectors such as banking and financial sectors but crucial in ours," adds Nengovhela.
Services Seta chief executive Ivor Blumenthal said he was disappointed that the team drafting the strategy had not consulted with stakeholders on its content or processes in the eight months following the national skills conference. "Frankly, we are no further forward than we were then.
"What is very worrying is that the social partners (business and labour) are now being asked to be reactive rather than completely redesign the strategy to meet the needs of the economy.
"I would have expected much wider engagement with organised business and labour," added Blumenthal. "We have completely failed to use this opportunity to put right the failings of the first 10 years of the National Skills Development Strategy."
During the five years (to date) of the second phase of the NSDS, companies have paid a total of R21.9 billion in skills development levies: R16.8bn went to the Setas and R5.1bn to the National Skills Fund. Of the amount that was channelled to the Setas, just under half went back to the contributing companies in the form of mandatory grants.
Mandatory grants are levy repayments to companies that submit workplace skills plans and annual training reports. The remaining funds - discretionary grants in Seta-speak - go towards training.
Reviewing the past year's skills development activities during his recent budget speech, Minister of Labour Membathisi Mdladlana said the Setas were quietly making significant inroads into the country's most pressing skills shortages.
"The Setas were able to register 17 228 artisans in training and 109 351 workers completed training in scarce and critical skills through learnerships, apprenticeships and other learning programmes. Targets were well exceeded in this area.
"With funding from the National Skills Fund, the department was able to assist 41 336 unemployed people to enter learning programmes. This was also in excess of the target of 16 000 that was set," he said.
Two more extremely positive developments in skills training are expected in the next fortnight.
In the first instance, the skills development section of the Department of Labour transfers to the newly created Department of Higher Education and Training.
In the second, the department will announce the board of the Quality Council for Trades and Occupations (QCTO) and the processes that will be followed to have it up and running by April.
The fact that the Department of Labour's skills development team, led by deputy director-general Sam Morotoba and backed by executive manager Liz Thobejane, will be moved as a unit to the new department has, however, to an extent allayed fears of there a lack of continuity.
The marriage of higher education and training is made more exciting by the news that after more than a year of delays, the QCTO is about to come into being. In terms of the underpinning legislation, the council will oversee development of a range of occupational qualifications that will carry the same intellectual weight as those offered by academic institutions.
By working through the Setas and what is going to be called the Occupational Qualifications Sub-framework of the National Qualifications Framework, learners will be able to engage in a series of skills programmes academically on par with those of colleges and universities… all the way up to post-graduate level. What's more, these qualifications are designed specifically to meet the needs of the workplace.
Friday, July 3, 2009
U. of C. brain surgery training program on probation
The University of Chicago Medical Center's neurosurgery training program has been placed on probation for two years by the nation's leading accreditor of programs that educate doctors-in-training.
The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education on June 19 placed the U of C program on probation until June of 2011 when it
Technorati Tags: brain surgery,taining program
will be reviewed again. The program, one of the oldest in the country, trains about a dozen neurosurgery residents at any given time.
"Although the reason for (the council's) decision will not be known for 60 days, we anticipate that they will cite the loss or retirement of several clinical faculty during fiscal year 2007 and a consequent 10 percent decrease in patient volume, which is an important component of any training program," the U. of C. said in a statement to the Tribune.
The Chicago-based council would not disclose specific reasons for the decision, citing laws protecting the confidentiality of "information gathered in the peer review process," said Accreditation Council spokeswoman Julie Jacob.
The U. of C., however, believes volumes of patients needed for a rich training experience will be rebound under a new academic affiliation with Evanston-based hospital operator NorthShore University Health System.
"In the past year, under new leadership, the program has been able to recruit talented new faculty," the U of C said in its statement to the Tribune. The four hospitals in the NorthShore system "should enable neurosurgery residents to participate in the care of many more patients, increasing the total volume well above previous levels."
A probationary period is not without precedent. More than 60 residency programs across the country are on probation, according to the council's web site. More severe, however, would be a loss of accreditation. Programs must be accredited by the council to receive graduate medical education funding from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Residents must also graduate from an accredited program to be eligible to take board certification exams.
The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education is a nonprofit council based in Chicago that accredits about 8,500 residency programs educating 108,000 residents.
"Its mission is to improve health care by assessing and advancing the quality of resident physicians' education through accreditation," the council says on its Web site.
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Education Ministry delays planned ‘2 in 1’ examination
Technorati Tags: education ministry,examination
HA NOI — High school graduation and university enrolment examinations will continue to be held separately in 2010. The "2 in 1 exam" project will not be ready until further preparations are made, according to Deputy Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Vinh Hien.
During a press conference hosted by the Ministry of Education and Training (MoET) last Thursday, the ministry’s Chief Administrator, Tran Quang Quy, said that the ministry in 2010 would conduct a 4-year review on the performance of a 2006 Prime Ministerial directive on educational quality improvement, in which he proposed examination reforms would be submitted for the Government’s decision. The question of when a single, all-purpose examination would be held nationwide would be answered thereafter. This single examination would serve two purposes: high school graduation and university admission.
The reason for the delayed combination of the two examinations was that the organisation of a single, all-purpose exam needed to be based on careful preparations by the ministry, local departments of education, universities and high schools, deputy minister Hien added. He said that the delay of the "2 in 1 exam" scheme was decided on because the ministry would be stretched conducting multiple tasks next year, among which were syllabi and textbook reviews and an education development strategy for 2020.
According to the deputy minister, the proposed "2 in 1 exam" programme so far had not been backed by the majority of the public. Therefore, examination reform, which was aimed at a single all-purpose examination, should be phased out.
At a recent high school graduation exam, test site clustering and cross marking were piloted for the first time. It could be done better with more experience, deputy director of the Bureau of Tests and Quality Assessment (MoET) Tran Van Nghia said. This was the reason why the ministry thought more time was needed for situation analysis and better conditions.
It was too early to say whether test site clustering and cross marking would continue next year, but this year’s positive effects would be taken into consideration, Nghia said. During the press conference, which briefed the 2009 high school graduation results and ongoing preparations for university enrolment, the ministry referred to the recent highschool graduation as "an exercise for the single all-purpose examination". They called it "an exercise", because in reform proposals, the "2 in 1" examination would also be locally held by provinces. As strong measures like test site clustering and cross marking were applied in high school graduations, it was hoped that there would be more reliable marks that could be used for university admissions. — VNS
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