Strengthening decentralised VET system governance

     With decentralisation the greater autonomy passed on to the school would include activities such as: staff selection, financial control, curriculum development, etc. These activities at school level are non-existent in the present system.

     Within the present system the MoNE develops policies, sets the goals for all levels of education, builds schools, designs and approves curricula, appoints teachers, and provides funding. The Provincial directorates coordinate and monitor regional activities in line with national policies. At school level the decisions of the MoNE are followed-up and executed. Schools are unable to respond to the socio-economic needs of their communities.

     Strengthening the VET system requires regional capacity building for internalising the ideas and procedures for a successful reform. The regional teams to be established in the 6 regions will have an important role to play in training MoNE representatives on policies, objectives, activities, financial procedures, monitoring, and reporting of the project. The regional team will also be involved in a school mapping exercise to identify the regional resources of delivery, and an exercise in identification of the general demand for VET. At a later stage the team will be involved in a study on forecasting future training needs.

     At the regional level institutional contacts will be developed with pilot institutions, directors, as well as regular contacts with CATs in the pilot institutions. Through the regional offices progress in the micro projects will be monitored and guidance and training, if needed, organised. This will all be in close consultation with the project office.

     Besides the regular contacts with the pilot institutions and adhering to the global implementation plan, the regional team has specific responsibilities to establish collaborative networks with the regional employment services, government authorities, municipalities, and managers of key enterprises.

     Empowering schools/training centres

     The outset for this activity is an assessment of the School Development Model, which was developed for the general secondary schools. The model has to be assessed to see if it reflects the more detailed intention of the decentralisation of VET school governance and management. If so, the implementation in the VET pilot institutions will be targeted at school managers, administrators and members of the board. Some of the activities to start with are: the identification of skill needs for managers, administrators and board members, followed by training needs analysis within the pilot institutions, and the definition of a training programme for managers.

     For the skill needs analysis the new functional job descriptions will be the basis for the identification of skill needs for the decentralised management of the pilot institutions. On the basis of the training needs analysis carried out at the pilot institutions the training modules will be designed. The modules will be competence-based modules with action learning components. One of the modules will address the topic of partnership or twinning, giving the participants practical skills in establishing strategic partnerships with either local or international partners.

     The regional offices will be given a crucial role as facilitators of the partnership arrangements as well as delivering back up services.

     Another module of the training programme will be developed to train selected teachers as curriculum design officers. This training will focus on the skills and competence needed at local level in order to make cost effective provision of courses to local stakeholders. The module will be product oriented and will include aspects from skill needs analysis, TNA, curriculum design, development of material and costing.

     The training will be piloted and evaluated and the best part will be integrated in a self-study kit, to be made available on the internet.

     Training of civil servants

     The fact that much of the training of the civil servants is linked to the decentralisation of certain functions to lower levels in the hierarchy, means that a clear overview of the foreseen training to be delivered is difficult to perceive. Nevertheless, the following training can be foreseen as required: the identification of national education and training needs; strategic planning and budgeting; internal management of staff resource allocation and performance assessment; and change management.

     Civil servants will also be required to partake in disseminating various aspects of the VET reform; for which they need to be well informed. Many of them have already been involved in the initial workshops that were organised during the inception period, thus familiarising themselves with the objectives of the project and specific expertise areas such as NQS, training standards, curriculum reform, etc. In the process of organising training the inspectors will not be forgotten, especially because they have a central role to play in the monitoring of the functioning of the staff.

     When the provinces where micro projects will be implemented are known, training programmes for the provincial education directors will be organised. The programmes will inform them on the objectives, procedures, activities, etc. of the project, and which information they will further disseminate within their own organisations.

     When the decentralisation process is started new competences will have to be developed, related to the revised roles to be performed.

     To enable this process a Core Management group will be established, members of which will be exposed to experiences in two EU countries where a decentralised VET system exists. These experiences will be shared with other key actors in a two-day seminar after their return.

    Another working group on Decentralisation will be proposed to support the Management Committee. Members of this group will come from the pilot regions, and will undertake a two-week internship in six EU member countries in groups of two to study the different ways of management of a decentralised VET system.

     In addition an education management programme will be developed, and an institute selected to offer the programme, which will be based on the learning-by-doing approach. Once the training is completed a handbook will be produced on educational management which will hopefully be introduced as part of the in-service training programme.

     For the 30 provincial directors and VET section heads a separate training programme will be developed, utilising the modular approach in combination with assignments for the interval periods, which will be coached by the regional project team.

     In addition a Master's Programme will be developed in decentralised VET governance. This programme aims at developing management and supervision competencies in civil servants responsible for decentralised VET practices. The programme will be offered through distance education and will last 18 months under normal conditions. After finalising the programme a M.Ed. degree will be awarded.