The case for vocational careers

Southern African Development Community (SADC) member states have been urged to revive vocational training, amid reports that preference for white-collar jobs by many of the region's youth was denying it practical skills that can support integration through industrialisation. Dr Johansein Rutaihwa, a senior programme officer in the areas of industrialisation and competitiveness at the SADC Secretariat, said at a SADC Parliamentary Forum meeting last week in Luanda there is a disconnect between what the region's universities were churning out and what industries needed in term of human resources. He said there was a disturbing phenomenon within the SADC region which sees some member states appearing bent on outdoing each other in transforming their colleges and vocational training centres into degree-awarding universities. “We have turned all the colleges into universities. We no longer get technicians. Now everyone is a graduate and wants to sit in an office to make decisions. No one can (unscrew) a nut. No one can fix anything in the mill. We need to go back to where we have come from and promote our technical and vocational centres,” he said to applause. “We need to revamp the whole system and find out where we messed it up.”

In the Namibian context, higher education and training deputy minister Becky Ndjoze-Ojo said recently the mindset of the community that a vocational and technical career is only a second option for academically weak pupils should change. She stressed the time has come for the negative perceptions around vocational education to change, in the wake of the high unemployment rates of university graduates in Namibia, as well as in neighbouring countries. It was revealed in January that the Namibia Training Authority had collected N$848 million from levies paid by employers since 2014. This was revealed in the NTA's annual report for the 2016/17 financial year, which stated that the money was collected from over 2 700 employers (levy payers) registered during that financial year. It is critical that a mindset change does come so that our youth, who suffer most under the yoke of unemployment, see vocational careers as a viable and effective way out of the poverty cycle.