‘Youth Empowerment through Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) in The Gambia’: local stakeholders validate the TVET curricula methodological guidelines
The Gambian National Accreditation and Quality Assurance Authority (NAQAA) organised a successful workshop for the validation of the TVET curricula methodological guidelines in Banjul, on June 26th and 27th, 2020. It laid the ground work for the next phase of this activity: the development and review of TVET’s curricula in selected areas.
76 stakeholders representing experts, industries, and policy makers from private and public TVET institutions presented their recommendations for the adoption of the methodological guidelines of TVET curricula, in Kanifing, on 26 and 27 June 2020. Social distancing measures, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, were observed, and participants were gathered in groups of less than 10 participants at a time.
During the evaluation of curricula submitted by training providers, it was observed that many of those curricula did not meet the required features in terms of format and content. Thus, the development of the methodological guidelines for the Gambian TVET system became of utmost importance to enable learners to perform according to the occupational standards.
The Methodological Guidelines will cover, among other things, the following key points:
Determination of competencies and learning outcomes,
Competency based training (CBT) curriculum and CBT curriculum development process.
Once again, Gambian partners and stakeholders reiterated their key role in the success of the Youth Empowerment through TVET project through their engagement and collaboration in each stage of the process.
The objective is for the methodological guidelines development, led by NAQAA, to promote relevant and quality TVET programmes throughout all skills areas and levels. This will set the stage for the next phase of this project, which will consist in the development of new curricula and the review of existing ones in the skills areas and levels previously highlighted through a needs assessment.
This activity is being accomplished in the context of one of the 8 activities of the project Youth Empowerment through TVET in The Gambia, and will contribute to its outcome No. 1: Relevance of the TVET system strengthened through supporting the development of TVET policy and curricula in The Gambia.
The 4-year project aims to create an enabling environment that will give young people, especially girls, a better chance at finding decent employment by providing them with lifelong learning opportunities as recommended by Sustainable Development Goals 4 and 8.