22 Jan 2018

Minister of Tertiary Education, Research, Science and Technology, Dr Alfred Madigele has urged the nation to desist from negative perceptions regarding technical and vocational institutions.

Speaking during the graduation ceremony of technical and vocational education colleges held in Palapye on Friday, Dr Madigele said technical and vocational education and training (TVET) is faced with negative perceptions from the public due to some stereotypes that a lot have come to accept as  reality.

“We still have people who think vocational and technical training is inferior to the so called white collar job training,” he said.

He said there is need to change this mindset and do away with these stereotypes emphasizing on the need to inculcate  in the minds of children the importance of technical and vocational education at an early age so that they can have a positive attitude towards it.

Dr Madigele who is also Member of Parliament for Mmathethe/Molapowabojang further said research has shown that TVET programmes have played a major role in the advancement of economic development of many developed countries.

He said it is against this background that his ministry has taken deliberate steps to transform this sector to enable it to contribute significantly to national development.

He said the knowledge -based economy advocates for the use of science, technology and innovation to enhance higher levels of efficiency which is key to supporting socio-economic development.

He said the economy of this country should be based on production, distribution and use of knowledge, adding “our focus will have to move from mere production of goods and services in the traditional sense and infuse technology in everything we do.”

He therefore urged the nation to join their hands with his ministry in the endeavor to develop a sound TVET sector which would serve as the basis of this transformation.

Dr Madigele said participation of industry in standard setting, provision of work-based learning and to some extent funding will certainly contribute, in a big way to the development of TVET sector. 

Dr Madigele said a graduation ceremony is very special in the sense that section of hospitality programmes will be graduating students for the first time. 

The programme covers hospitality management, travel management and culinary art, as outputs of the Better Education for Africa Rise (BEAR) projects, a UNESCO supported project implemented in selected Southern African countries, including Botswana.

He said the BEAR project aims at enhancing the relevance and quality of the technical and vocational education and training system in the beneficiary countries through specific sectoral interventions, and his ministry in partnership with UNESCO and the Korea Research Institute for Vocational Education and Training (KRIVET) piloted the BEAR at Gaborone and Francistown technical colleges and vocational education in August 2014.

He said his ministry will continue to leverage on the intervention of UNESCO and other role players to create a more positive perception of the technical education and eventually increase the uptake of these programmes in technical colleges.

Dr Madigele said the Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) programme recognised that learning indeed takes place outside of formal education and training as well, and therefore, assesses the level of skills, competencies and experiences an individual acquired outside the formal learning environment to determine whether the individual qualifies for credit within their qualifications and/or for access to a higher qualification.

He said through the RPL programme his ministry seeks to improve access to and further strengthen technical education and training. 

He challenged graduates to start thinking outside the box on how they can be employers instead of being employees as the economy needs their contribution in developing the economy. BOPA