Vocational centres to get $50m boost
Arusha. Tanzania is among the three eastern African countries, which will benefit from a $ 300 million project (over Sh680 billion) to enhance technical and vocational education (TVET).
The country will receive $ 50 million (about Sh113.6 billion) for implementation of the six-year project, which will also involve Kenya and Ethiopia.
Kenya will receive $90 million (Sh200.5 billion) and $150 million (Sh340.9 billion) will go to Ethiopia, the most populous nation in the eastern Africa.
The World Bank supports the initiative to improve the quality of technical education in the region.
The project aims at establishing regional TVET centres of excellence, which will provide staff with skills required.
Three technical training institutions in Tanzania, including the Arusha Technical College (ATC), are among the 16 centres of excellence selected from the three countries.
The others are the National Institute of Transport (NIT) and two campuses - Dar es Salaam and Mwanza - of the Dar es Salaam Institute of Technology (DIT).
“These institutions will impart market-driven skills to young learners in specialised TVET programmes,” said the assistant director in the ministry of Education, Science and Technology, Eng Enock Kayani.
Mr Kayani was speaking in Nairobi on Monday at the project capacity building and appraisal workshop, which will lay ground for official launch in December.
The diploma and degree training programmes in technical education that will primarily target priority investment sectors in the region are transport, energy, manufacturing and ICT.
Eng Kayani applauded the programme, saying it was in line with Tanzania’s drive for industrialisation and the recently-launched National Skills Development Strategy. World Bank’s lead education specialist Xioyan Liang said the East Africa Skills for Transformation and Regional Integration Project (EASTRIP) will be implemented from 2018 to 2024.
“The World Bank believes this is an important project to provide the middle level skills produced by technical and vocational education and training,” she said.
The Interuniversity Council of East Africa (IUCEA), an institution of the East African Community (EAC), will coordinate the project through capacity building.
A regional TVET technical body is one of the envisaged facilities to be established under the programme, according to the council’s executive secretary Prof Aledandre Lyambabaje.
