TVET UK has operated below the radar, but brought in major business – worth at least £20 million – to the UK by promoting British technical and vocational training expertise abroad. Matthew Anderson, Executive Director, spoke to The PIE.
The PIE: Please tell me about how TVET UK was set up?
MA: It was driven by UKTI (UK Trade and Industry) who wanted an organisation to deal with technical vocational education and training [hence TVET]. They asked the Association of Colleges (AoC), British Educational Suppliers and English UK to make it a reality.
TVET UK ended up sharing office space with English UK when initially set up and its remit is to help boost export revenue for UK businesses which have a vocational slant – be they education suppliers or specialist equipment suppliers. Due to funding complications we decided to run it as a membership body.
What deals have you managed to win on behalf of TVET members?
MA: We have brought in around £20 million so far! It is difficult to quantify; it could be much more as we effectively introduce people to potential business and if they choose not to share info with us we may not know.
Kazakhstan is great country and I would encourage anyone thinking of it as a market to go
We have won part of a €3 million EuropeAid project in Turkmenistan; our first aid-funded success aimed at building the Turkmen vocational system. Another example is £6-7million in business in Kazakhstan which was our number one market. This came via equipment, college partnerships, ELT, curriculum development and corporate training. Kazakhstan is great country and I would encourage anyone thinking of it as a market to go (via a TVET UK mission of course).
The PIE: How does this feed into the ‘traditional’ model of international education?
MA: We are going in at a much higher level. Individual colleges, universities, schools and suppliers will typically never get near the decision makers in places like Turkmenistan, where we engage with the deputy prime minister (one down from the President).
He has a great knowledge of UK education and was keen for us to bring over some of our expertise in the energy sector. If we were a training provider, we would have had no way to access him or find the vision to engage in that way in the industry. It’s a similar situation in Saudi Arabia, where we have engaged directly with the minister of labour which has boosted our credibility and allowed one college to pick up business by association with TVET UK!
We have no agenda, we simply work with the customer to understand what they want and match that to UK capability
We have no agenda, we simply work with the customer to understand what they want and match that to UK capability. This leads to satisfied customers and the spread of a great reputation. Other competing nations tend to offer their product and that is that.
The PIE: Are there other reasons why countries like to engage with British business?
MA: The UK vocational system once explained is a great product. Qualifications delivered in colleges which have been developed in accordance with industry requirements are a great selling point, and of course there is the need to speak English!
Our qualifications framework also helps out. The fact is that once you have an HND or a BTEC you can transfer onto a university course whereas at 18 you might have had no hope of getting into the same university if you didn’t have the “stepping stone” qualification. [more>>]
MA: We had a deal with a Kazakh college that trained students deemed not good enough for a Kazakh university. They studied a BTEC-style course with intensive English language, passed, and are now taking a UK BA [undergraduate degree] in Business Studies, splitting their time between the UK and Kazakhstan for study. Who will be the better prepared in the global marketplace? The UK degree holder or the one who went to the Kazakh university?
The PIE: It sounds as if you are working with some really interesting countries.
MA: Turkmenistan, that is really interesting. There is no mobile phone coverage there as they have no roaming agreement! All their engineers are getting old as they were trained in the Soviet days and they need training in techniques for extracting different oil and gas; important for the prosperity of the country. We have skills to offer and can provide on-the-job training.
“They have aid money, often oil revenues and a new entrepreneurial class”
I have also been to Iraq, most of Central Asia, Syria, Algeria and most of the Middle East. Never be afraid of the newsworthy countries! We are actively targeting South Sudan, Yemen, Burma and Libya in the coming year.
The PIE: Anything else in the pipeline?
MA: Huge amounts that means we will double and triple our current success rate in the coming months. I have mentioned these newsworthy countries, they are all great markets for us. They have aid money, often oil revenues and a new entrepreneurial class.
The PIE: How much revenue have you achieved for UK PLC via deals that TVET has been instrumental in brokering?
We estimate that we have brought in £20 million via deals that meant new business for 40 plus companies. In Kazakhstan, one project via one college was worth over £1 million with hundreds of students coming to the UK every year. We are changing people’s lives and making the UK money.
The PIE: Who are the members of TVET?
MA: 50% of members are FE [further education] colleges. There are about 300 in the UK and I would say 40-60 are internationally active; 20-30 of them seriously so. And another 20 maybe dabble.
It’s a really immature market and we need a cultural shift, particularly in FE, to deal with global customers. We have about 75 members. The rest are made up of equipment suppliers, training providers, ELT schools, awarding bodies, sector skills councils; so you see we really have everything covered.
“It’s a really immature market and we need a cultural shift, particularly in FE, to deal with global customers”
The PIE: Do you often work with the British Council?
MA: Sometimes. Although they have a very different role to us. We are focused solely on commercial contracts which often include equipment, curriculum language etc… We work through the British embassies and high commissions.
The PIE: Why do you think it is important to champion British vocational exports overseas?
MA: It is a hugely important sector and a major contributor to building soft power for the UK. Many developing countries need access to skills, we have the best skills system in the world, we just need to sell it better. I think the government is starting to realise they have a product that can fly off the shelves globally, and we hope for a little more support from them in what we are doing because we are making it a reality on our own.
