Problem Definition
The VET Systems in developing countries are characterized with more or less similar challenges, among which most important ones are:
- VET systems are strongly school based with relatively few links to the labour market;
- VET has relatively low status and many students are oriented to VET because of their poor academic performance;
- Institutional co-ordination is insufficient;
- Overall employment rate of is low by international standards;
- Compared to Switzerland, Austria and Germany, the economic inactivity rate of young people is high;
- Dropout is a major challenge, particularly affecting vocational programmes;
- VET teachers have strong academic and pedagogical preparation, but often lack practical work experience in their field;
- Employers argue that VET graduates do not necessarily gain the skills that firms require;
- The involvement of employer organizations in designing curricula’s is not systematic yet;
- Workplace learning seams to be relatively absent from many VET programmes;
- Many students entering VET in have weak numeracy and literacy skills;
- Insufficient data integration to support the development of strong career guidance services;
- VET Teachers do not seem to have enough access to industry to update their skills regularly;
- There is no strict requirement for VET teachers and trainers to have worked in their vocational field – although they do need to be qualified in that field and often spend periods of training in companies. This is a particular challenge in a system which relies extensively on school-based workshops to develop practical vocational skills;
- Budgetary pressures are putting particular strain on VET schools. The acquiring of new training equipment as well as the replacement of out-of-date training equipment is being postponed.
