By: Benjamin Ibrahim Brima Kanu
On Wednesday, the National Council for Technical Vocational and other Academic Award (NCTVA) schooled selected administrators of Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) from across Sierra Leone on assessment and certification of Grantee trainees of the Skills Development Fund.
Hosted at the MADAM multipurpose hall, the day's long training was well attended by various heads of all TVET institutions from the six regions of Sierra Leone including renowned academic scholars among other stakeholders and representatives such as Government Technical Institutes - (GTIs), MADAM, the Saint Joseph Technical Vocational Institute Lunsar among others.
The training which is organized by NCTA is support by the Government of Sierra Leone through the Ministry of Technical and Higher Education and their partners seek to take advantage of the continuing development of vocational and technical skills education in the country, since the council introduced the newly proposed act which is due to be approved by the parliament of Sierra Leone will replace the current NCTVA which was established in 2001.
The various Heads among the other beneficiaries were being trained on the best ways to assess and certify their students, and were also told by the team of experienced academic scholars assembled by the NCTVA for the purpose of schooling the TVET institutes administrators to embrace the best practices of the entrepreneurship training as was thoroughly explained by Mr. Mohamed Alie Serry Tarawalie, NCTVA's Industry Coordinator for the Skills Development Project.
Giving an overview of the training, Mr. Tarawlie said their aim of organizing the training is "to meet and discuss with TVETs Heads and capacitate them about assessment methods of the NCTVA for onward implementation of same in their internal assessment systems which will help them as administrators of TVETs institutions nationwide to meet the required needs of the council."
The Industry Coordinator added that "conducting such training will help to speedily bridge the gap between the institutions and the national examination council that is legally charged with the responsibility to assess and certify all Technical Vocational and other Academic institutions in the country, according to the existing curricula and the syllabi, which they as a council are seeking to harmonize for all TVETs institution."
He also outlined some of the relevance of technical education to the individual and the country at large, saying technical and vocational education will help individuals to be employable, become job creators for themselves, their relatives and friends rather than them seeking for a job elsewhere.
"Government alone cannot be able to provide jobs for every citizen, in order not to become a job seeker, it is advisable for the youth to see skills training as important as that of university education," he stressed.
On his part, Mr. Marray S. Kamara, a representative of NCTVA informed the gathering that they seek further comments and suggestions from the public in addition to the proposed act before tabling it to parliament for approval as this will have a very huge importance to the socio-economic development of the country regarding the proposed new act which he says will help to catch the learners at an early stage, creating room for pupils who cannot pass WASSCE to enroll for Senior School Technical Vocational Education (SSTVE) and i the end, still stay relevant in their respective communities.
Mr. Kamara also admonished the attendees to see this as very welcoming news as they are seeking approval before the June 24 election and told them that "the Council hopes that the proposed act when approved by parliament will grant NCTVA the legal mandate to award Bachelor's Degree and as well Post-graduate in technical education.”
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