1.1 VET and Adjustment
1.2 The VET Policy Debate
1.3 Research Hypotheses
1.4 Methodology
1.5 The Study Teams
1.6 Structure of the Report
It is now widely accepted that successful long-run development in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) will require significant improvements both in basic education and in technical and managerial skills in all sectors of the economy. In particular, major increases in labour productivity in tradable goods and service sectors are essential to achieve and sustain international competitiveness. However, while there is a general consensus that governments should take primary responsibility for the funding and provision of basic education, no such consensus exists concerning the role of government with respect to vocational education and training (VET). An important factor aggravating this lack of consensus is the paucity of recent, detailed empirical research on VET in Africa.
There has long been widespread disenchantment with training provision by government institutions in SSA. Until the early-mid 1980s, the main criticism of VET was that it was generally poorly related to (effective) demands for skills among producers. Not only was VET provision "overextended" but it tended to be biased towards particular sectors (central government, parastatals, and manufacturing) and groups (young, urban-based males in high-middle level occupations). Typically, public sector training was poorly planned, managed, and resourced (particularly with respect to trainers and training materials) resulting in poor quality but high cost provision often with limited skills utilisation among trainees once in employment. In addition, seriously distorted labour markets adversely affected training incentives facing both individuals and enterprises and organisations. (See Blaug, 1981; Bennell, 1984; Bennell, 1991; King, 1976).
Since the late 1980s, there are clear indications that the impetus for reform of VET provision has increased markedly in Africa, in particular with the advent of comprehensive structural adjustment programmes and as donor support for VET has declined. However, there is an acute shortage of hard evidence about how VET policies and provision have changed during the last decade. Given this lack of information, it was decided to look in detail at VET provision since the mid-late 1980s in two African countries, namely Tanzania and Zimbabwe. The Tanzanian research project was funded by the Education Division of the Department for International Development (DFID) while the Zimbabwe study was supported by DFID's Economic and Social Committee for Research (ESCOR).
This report summarises the main findings of the Tanzanian and Zimbabwe studies. Four sets of questions have underpinned this research:
· Since the start of the economic reform process, how have the governments of Tanzania and Zimbabwe attempted to reverse the previously ineffective and inefficient patterns of VET provision and facilitate the formation of skills necessary for successful adjustment and sustainable long-term economic growth?· What have been the main outcomes and impacts of government policy reforms and other actions;?
· What are the reasons for these outcomes and impacts?;
· What changes in policy are still required to improve outcomes in future?
The research project covered all types of post-secondary VET provision including pre-employment occupational training mainly targeted at secondary school leavers and job-related training for those already employed. While technical colleges and polytechnics were included, universities were not.
In addressing these questions, the study has focused on the extent to which attempts have been made to change VET provision in Tanzania and Zimbabwe from being essentially supply-driven to demand-driven so that it responds more efficiently and effectively to the training needs of both individuals and enterprises and other organisations. As with many other areas of economic reform, the World Bank has been at the forefront of efforts to reform VET provision in SSA. More specifically, since the late 1980s, the World Bank has consistently advocated the adoption of a package of market-driven VET reforms. In broad terms, "the challenge is to move from policies dominated by social and supply objectives and programs funded and provided by governments to policies and programs that respond to market forces and promote employer and private training, and establish appropriate complementary and supportive roles for the state" (van Adams et al, 1993: 253). Similarly, the Bank's 1995 Education Sector Review states that VET is "generally best provided on-the-job by employers" (World Bank 1995:108). While the shift away from off-the-job, publicly provided VET to on-the-job enterprise training is the most emphasised policy recommendation, the other main components of the Bank's VET reform package include:
· focusing on the training needs of farmers (particularly smallholders), other labour intensive exporters, small-scale enterprises, the poor, and women.· closely linking VET to labour market needs and enhancing labour productivity through the restructuring of labour markets, adoption of new planning methodologies, and new governance and consultation structures based on social partnerships among the major stakeholders.
· a greater emphasis on improvements in training quality rather than quantity.
· a much enlarged role for the private sector and generally much greater diversity of training provision.
· leaner, better managed and more innovative public sector provision that "fills the gaps" left by the private sector.
· learning from foreigners, in particular by the encouragement of foreign corporate investment.
· increased cost recovery and mobilisation of additional resources.
· reduced donor involvement that is limited to clearly identified labour market needs in priority areas.
Since the early 1980s, World Bank support for post-secondary vocational education has fallen from almost 20 per cent of total lending to the education sector to less than 5 per cent. Most donors have followed the lead of the World Bank and have also significantly reduced their funding of formal VET in SSA. Given that many African governments have become heavily dependent on donor support for VET, the reduction in donor support for VET is likely to have intensified the need to make far reaching policy adjustments with respect to public sector training provision.
Critics of the World Bank's market-driven VET reform strategy argue that it places too much emphasis on the role of improved incentives in stimulating supply responses and pays; insufficient attention to the conditions necessary for producers to respond to changes in incentives. As Pack points out, "without an increase in proficiency, the responsiveness of output even to the best designed structural adjustment programme is likely to be limited. Prices are one half of a scissor, the other being technical skill" (Pack, 1992:1). More serious still, adjustment may undermine the capacity of the state to formulate and implement key reforms and/or provide skills training in critically important areas. In particular, fiscal belt-tightening often takes its greatest toll on public investment. Given the close links between new investment, skill acquisition and learning by doing, policies that lower investment levels can "drive the economy to a new steady state in which physical and human capital stocks are lower and underemployment is higher" (Buffie, 1994:267). If this is the case, the overall impact on the VET system is likely to be negative.
Both the Tanzania and Zimbabwe country studies have tested two related hypotheses:
· Since the mid-late 1980s, there has been a deterioration in the provision of formal (i.e. off-the-job) VET in key areas of skills formation that are critical to the long term development process in each country.· Economic liberalisation is a necessary but not sufficient condition for achieving the required levels of skills training in each country. Private sector training institutions and on-the-job training by enterprises are playing increasingly important roles, but wide ranging state interventions are still essential for the effective development of workforce skills that are necessary for successful development. These include the development of an overall policy framework for VET as well as the provision of VET by public sector training institutions.
Comprehensive structural adjustment and/or stabilisation programmes provide the overall macroeconomic context for the assessment of VET provision and policy reform in most African countries since the mid-late 1980s, including Tanzania and Zimbabwe. Certainly, economic liberalisation can increase the incentives for individuals, households, and enterprises to enhance labour productivity in order to compete effectively on local and international markets. However, the effective demand for and/or the capacity to supply the VET necessary for this process of skills upgrading could be adversely affected by a number of factors. Most important among these are; the impact of fiscal belt-tightening on public VET institutions (especially their ability to respond to new priority areas of VET, most notably among small-medium enterprises in the formal sector and micro enterprises in the informal sector); the negative training response of surviving public and private enterprises now faced with 'harder budgets' and possibly lower levels of profitability (training is often one of the first expenditures to be cut); lower levels of wage employment with mass retrenchments (resulting in fewer opportunities for work-based VET and learning by doing and the erosion of the skills of laid-off workers); generally lower real wages but increased cost recovery thus reducing the returns to investments in human capital; greater uncertainty which depresses all types of investment including human capital; much reduced funding from aid donors which in the past have heavily supported VET; the reluctance and/or inability of farmers to make investments in new technologies that require the acquisition of new/improved skills; and the impact of adjustment on micro enterprises in the informal sector (the limited evidence that is available suggests that, to date, this has tended to be negative).
While accepting that changes in the policy environment at both macro and sectoral levels could have far reaching effects on VET provision, there are other sets of factors that also need to be investigated that are not directly related to adjustment policies. Most notably, these include: (i) the voluntary implementation by African governments of VET reforms (including all or some of those being proposed by the World Bank); (ii) the withdrawal and reduction of donor funding for VET; and (iii) adverse economic shocks, external and internal.
Given the intractability of the methodological problems involved in trying to assess what would have happened to VET provision without adjustment, no attempt has been made at a detailed counterfactual assessment of the impact of adjustment policies on VET. However, both studies have tried to examine the full range of factors (including adjustment and stabilisation policies) that may have influenced VET provision since the mid 1980s.
Each country study comprises of two distinct but related parts: an overview of formal VET provision in the public and private sectors and two industry case studies.
1.4.1 Formal VET Provision
The main objective of the study is to identify the main changes (both quantitative and qualitative) in the provision of formal, off-the-job VET by both public and private training institutions for the country as a whole since the mid-late 1980s and to analyse the main factors that have influenced this process of adjustment by the VET system itself. Particular attention has been given to assessing the impact of VET policy reforms. These can be categorised as follows:
· Improving fiscal and macroeconomic stability (better targeting of VET resources, cost containment, and mobilisation of additional resources);· Building training markets (improving consumer choice, incentives, and internal competition);
· Regulating training markets (better training standards and accreditation, more equitable access);
· Strengthening institutional capacity to implement reforms (new planning methodologies, improved organisation and management).
Given the paucity of secondary data on public and private sector VET provision in Tanzania and Zimbabwe, it was necessary to undertake surveys of both sets of institutions. The public sector survey was divided into two parts: (i) Artisan and technician training. In Tanzania, this is the responsibility of the newly created Vocational Education and Training Authority (VETA) which is an autonomous agency within the Ministry of Labour. In Zimbabwe, the two polytechnics and eight technical colleges under the Ministry of Higher Education provide this type of training; (ii) Pre-employment and in-service VET that is provided by other ministries. A survey of VET in eight of the most important ministries in each country was undertaken.
1.4.2 Industry Case Studies
Surveys were also undertaken of VET policies and practices in two key industries, namely manufacturing and tourism in order to assess the demand for skills training by enterprises and individuals as well as the provision of both on- and off-the-job training. These two industries were selected because they cover a wide range of skilled occupations and both produce tradable goods and services thus allowing an assessment to be made of the impact of trade liberalisation on the demand for and supply of skills training. In addition, tourism is both resource-based and relatively labour intensive. International competition in the tourism industry is intense, but it is one of the few export-oriented industries in SSA (outside of agriculture and mining) which has considerable potential for further development.
Dr. Paul Bennell, Fellow, Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex, Brighton, UK was the overall coordinator of this project. Teams of researchers from each country undertook the surveys and wrote individual reports.
Tanzania Team
Mr Shane Bendera, Director, Division of Industries, Planning Commission, Dar Es Salaam
Mr Emrode Kimambo, Lecturer, Cooperative College, Moshi.
Dr. Sixtus Kiwia, Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Education, University of Dar Es Salaam.
Dr. Faustin Mukyanuzi, Consultant, HR-Consult, Dar Es Salaam.
Dr. Willy Parsalaw, Lecturer, Cooperative College, Moshi
Mr. John Temu, Head, Field Research Unit, Cooperative College, Moshi.
Very sadly, Dr. Parsalaw, who was the country coordinator for the project, passed away in September 1997.
Zimbabwe Team
Dr Godfrey Kanyenze, Economist, Zimbabwe Congress of Trades Unions
Mr Tichafa Mbiriyakura, Independent Consultant.
Mr N. Munetsi, Assistant Director Vocational Education and Training, Ministry of Higher Education
Dr Jo Muzulu, Chief Economist, Finhold Ltd.
In total, over 200 training managers and policymakers were interviewed in each country. We gratefully acknowledge the excellent assistance given by these individuals to the research team. One day dissemination workshops were held in Harare in January 1998 and in Dar Es Salaam in April 1998 each of which was attended by over 50 individuals from both the public and private sector. These workshops provided the opportunity to discuss the main results and recommendations of the research project and enabled key stakeholders in the VET system to provide feedback on the research.
Chapters 2 to 6 summarise the key findings of the five surveys. Each chapter presents the main survey results for each country in turn. Possible VET reforms which would address some of the most serious weaknesses in VET provision are discussed in Chapter 7. Some of these are common to each country, but others are country specific.
