SKY project member Dr. Shimazu’s presentation material entitled “Practical Training for the TVET Students in Ethiopia: Can the students learn what they expect at the factory?” on The 57th Japan Association for African Studies Annual Meeting held on May 2020 was uploaded on the webpage.

Although the contents of the material are written in Japanese, you can read the abstract of the presentation in English below.

English Abstract

TVET (Technical and Vocational Education and Training) students need to possess the necessary knowledge and skills required by the labor market. To maintain such knowledge and skills, the Ethiopian government has implemented the cooperative training program. However, many researchers have questioned the effect of the program. They point out the weak linkage between the TVET institute and the factory hinders the students from learning. To find out the current situation and issues of the program, the author conducted interviews with the stakeholders and field observation at the factory. The author found there was no common understanding of the program between the TVET institute and the factory. The TVET institute expects the factory to train practical skills, while the factory considers the students as cheap labor. This mismatch makes the students difficult to learn at the factory. The author also found that non-cognitive skills, especially communication skill and punctuality, are essential for the students to learn at the factory. Since the factory has a limited number of machines, only a few students who came early can use them. Also, workers at the factory are too busy to take care of TVET students, so the students must communicate with the workers well to find out somehow what they want to know. This situation gives some of the students who are not aggressive/sociable tough times at the factory.