More vocational business in Kazakhstan has been secured by British group TVET UK in association with Ravensbourne College in London. The two entities have been selected to provide specialist technical training in two of Kazakhstan’s “World Class Colleges” set to open in 2015.
The agreement is the latest in a slew of foreign collaborations in the mineral-rich country, highlighting the opportunities available to international vocational providers in light of the government’s push to increase technical training.
“The country is coming from nowhere to a be a real power and it certainly already is in the region,” Matthew Anderson, Executive Director of TVET UK told The PIE News. “They’ve got the riches in the ground so they need skills for everything.”
“They’ve got the riches in the ground so they need skills for everything”
The tender was awarded by Kasipkor holding company, set up in 2011 by the government to improve technical education to meet international standards. It has previously set up a synergistic relationship with Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT) in Canada as well as Germany’s Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), Australia’s TAFE network and Pearson.
TVET UK has been active in Kazakhstan for the past seven years, securing contracts for members totalling between £15-£20 million to date.
Anderson added that opportunities are more lucritive for vocational training providers in emerging markets like Kazakhstan. “You’ve got a better chance of business in Kazakhstan than in India or China,” he said.
Its latest success comes as the country’s Department of Education aims to refit and modernise teaching equipment and IT in more than 70% of public VET Colleges.
Ravensbourne College will be responsible for the initial set-up phase of colleges in Almaty and Astana, including development of the curricula, teacher training programmes and pedagogic materials for high quality courses in industrial product, landscape, construction and interior design.
Anderson could not disclose the amount of the contract but confirmed that it had “potential to reach the million mark”.
Mineral extraction, agriculture and oil & gas industries are driving employment demand, but Anderson explained that “there is a chronic lack of basic skills” in the country.
In 2011, there were 894 VET institutions in Kazakhstan with some 600,000 students. In a revived push to plug skills gaps, the Kazakh government has set the goal of increasing the percentage of students aged 14-24 studying at VET organisation to 20% in 2015 and 23% by 2020 – up from 18% in 2011.
In addition, qualifications offered in the country now must be allied with the National Qualifications Framework which matches the European Qualification Framework.
But, the lack of social standing of VET degrees over traditional higher education and the ability of colleges to compete with high-paying companies to attract knowledgable instructors have presented major challenges to the government’s efforts to date.
Mis-alignment between classroom instruction, government policy and industry needs could also deter reform plans.
“The big problem is that industry doesn’t respect the college system,” said Anderson.
“The vocational education system that’s there, the kids that are going there are learning things that aren’t really of any use to them because they aren’t respected by the major employers. They’d rather take an unskilled person and train them themselves.”
Part of the solution put forward by the government is to emulate the German style of education in which VET is delivered partly in colleges and partly at employers’ premises, but outside of the oil & gas industry, employer training is at an early stage.
“However attractive VET may be or become, students will not choose it if academic studies are perceived as more attractive”
An OECD report published earlier this year praises the government’s strategy to turn the sector around but added that to have the desired result they need “effective implementation”.
“Increasing quality, standards of relevance of VET programmes, developing VET infrastructure, improving factual information about the labour market and VET options, all these are necessary but not sufficient conditions for enhancing the attractiveness of VET in the minds of students,” it warns.
“What VET policymakers need to bear continually in mind is that, however attractive VET may be or become, students will not choose it if academic studies are perceived as more attractive.”
