Inclusive technical and vocational skills training in Zambia: opportunities and challenges

Clive Mutame Siachiyako

The Technical Education, Vocational and Entrepreneurship Training Authority (TEVETA) regulates, coordinates and monitors technical education, vocational and entrepreneurship training (TEVET) in Zambia in consultation with industry, employers, employees and other stakeholders in Zambia. Broadly, TEVETA develops curriculum and training systems, registers learning institutions offering technical, vocational and entrepreneurship training, manages the TEVET Fund and assesses and certifies learners in the sector.

The Zambian TEVET sector has a number of training pathways. These include:

·         Institutional-Based Learning

·         Open, Distance and Flexible Learning

·         Work-Based Learning

·         TEVET Learnership Scheme

·         Secondary School Vocational Education and Training

Training institutions offering training under any pathway are required to register with TEVETA. The bulk of the training is institutional based. The TEVET Learnership is similar to Apprenticeship training that most countries implement. The Learnership is a Dual Based Training, which combines theoretical classroom education and on-the-job-training at a workplace. The approach is based on industry’s willingness to partner with training institutions.

Challenges of the TEVET sector in Zambia

Access, quality, relevance, gender parity and long term financing are the main sector challenges, each of which will be explained separately below.

ACCESS

Access to TEVET is mainly a challenge, inter alia, due to the limited number of training institutions and the concentration of training institutions in four provinces (along the line of railway connections) out of the ten provinces of Zambia. About 82% of training institutions registered by TEVETA are in these 4 provinces. People in provinces away from the line of the railway are denied access to training. These provinces have a limited pool of skilled persons to drive and stimulate development. Skilled labour to undertake developmental projects in these areas is imported from elsewhere, thus depriving people and provinces of income. Government policy to construct new trades training institutes is key in increasing access to TEVET and empowering people with lifelong skills required in meeting national and sustainable development goals.

 QUALITY and RELEVANCE

Quality of skills is affected by both little investment in modern equipment and workshops and the lack of capacity building on trainers. Most trainers have been trained on old equipment and have remained behind on new technologies. The trainers cannot adequately impart skills using modern equipment in cases when its acquired, hence affecting the quality of skills supplied to the industry. The quality of TEVET also has a bearing on the relevance of the training. When trainers are not up-skilled, the delivery of a relevant and quality training is negatively affected. Coupled with low-scale industry –training collaboration, the relevance of skilled persons for some industries have become more challenging.

Industry–training sector collaborations are based on willingness rather than policy. Incentives to attract industry to such collaborations are non-existent. Instead some sectors like the mining sector run their own training centres whilst some hire foreign skilled persons. Collaboration between training and industry is possible at curriculum development, internships/apprenticeship or skills audits. To ensure that skills developed in TEVET is relevant to the industry, curriculum development and reviews are collaboratively done between TEVETA and relevant industry to narrow the theoretical – practical divide. Industry actors, especially when backed and financed by foreign investors, have modern equipment for improved production processes that TEVET can benefit from in improving quality and relevance of skills.

There is also a shift from technical and vocational training to business training in the sector. Low costs for providers to run business programmes, increasing demand and preference for programmes that lead to white colour jobs drive this shift. Business programmes have become a money-spinner to trades training institutes. However, this threatens Zambia’s competitiveness in the region as artisans, technicians and other skilled persons required in the country’s economic mainstays of mining, tourism, agriculture and other sectors will be in further short supply. The shift puts Zambia into a more consumption and trading country position instead of production and value adding to earn more from the resource endowment. Job creation and poverty reduction are risked when skilled persons to drive the process are in short supply.

GENDER PARITY

Equity-wise, TEVET has remained dominated by male students. Female learners prefer business programmes in relation to technical and science ones. According to TEVETA learner data management system statistics for the period 2010 – 2017, about 92% and 56% of the learners in technical and science programmes were male. Incentivising TEVET with female scholarships and employment quotas for girls with technical and science qualifications might help narrow the divide. Further, increasing the number of technical girls’ schools could lead to having girls with technical and science career inclination and strengths. The impacts of female scholarships in TEVET and increasing number of technical girls’ schools have not been assessed in relation to gender equity in TEVET.

FINANCE

Financing the sector has been a challenge for years. The sector is very cost-intensive as it requires workshops, equipment and tools to ensure relevant training and equip learners with sufficient practical skills they can easily apply when they transition into the industry. The Skills Development Fund was introduced in 2017 to address the financing need. The financing pillars of the Skills Development Fund focus on infrastructure development, equipment and tools acquisition, informal sector training, scholarship provisions to TEVET and strengthening the sector’s leaner support systems.  

Conclusion

Despite its challenges, the TEVET sector in Zambia provides many opportunities for lifelong learning. The sector offers opportunities to those who have not been to school as long as they are trainable to acquire skills. Social, economic and political stakeholders place high value on the sector to empower young people and adult learners with different skills to improve their productivity at different scales. The NorthSouthDialogue of Parliaments project is one of the steps aimed at finding solutions to the TEVET sector by including relevant stakeholders in defining ways forward. This political sphere is creating opportunities for effective training–industry collaborations through legal and policy realignments towards quality, inclusive and equitable lifelong learning.

 In one such discursive sphere the necessary amendment of the Zambian Apprenticeship Act of 1965 and its merger with the Skills Development Levy Act so that incentives are provided to the industry collaborating with the training sector emerged. The Apprenticeship Act of 1965 is outdated and under the domain of the Ministry of Labour instead of the Ministry of Higher Education, which deals with the TEVET sector. The creation of skills clusters to serve as advisory groups on skills gaps and mismatches are some of the approaches the international collaboration has ignited.

This article was published in the Zambia Daily Mail and NorthSouthDialogue Newsletter in Austria 

Sampled innovations in 2018 during the International Trade Fair: who is thinking and doing what in the innovation world?

By Clive Mutame Siachiyako

The Innovation Centre at the Zambia International Trade Fair was introduced in 2017. In 2018, the Innovation Centre housed a number of innovations by young people. The innovations ranged from ICT to super-fast sports car. The aim was to showcase innovations and sharing information. The Patents and Companies Registration Agency (PACRA) was in the innovation Centre to help innovators on patenting their innovations. It also aimed at creating an association of innovators to champion innovative ideas and seek financing to mature them.

Patenting innovations gives the owner exclusive rights to exploit and use the inventions years after the innovation’s birth. It also prevents others from commercially using the invention, thereby reducing competition and enabling the inventor to establish her/himself as a pre-eminent player. Innovators can sell or license their invention to have it commercialised by another person. The invention becomes a source of income to the innovators in this case. Innovators have negotiating power in the process of acquiring the rights to use their patented inventions.

Scholarly consensus shows that innovation, which is patented, creates a positive image of the inventors. Investors, potential business partners or shareholders view patent portfolios as a demonstration of expertise, specialisation and technical capacity within a country or an enterprise. This may prove useful for raising funds, finding business partners and raising the enterprise’s market value and share. Selected innovations are highlighted below.

Hello doctor system

Hello doctor an innovation by Abuit Changwe, a youth from Ndola. Abuilt argued that “many countries have well qualified health personnel, but people complain of poor health services. He asked: what are we lacking? What can we do to improve the rate at which health services are delivered?” He did not just ask questions, he came up with an innovation known as “Hello Doctor.” Hello Doctor device provides signal to health personnel in the hospital whenever there was an emergence to avoid a situation where a pregnant mother delivers within hospital premises due to time wastages looking for health workers. The device can be placed underneath designated parking lots. Any vehicle with a patient requiring an emergence medical attention will send alarm signals to the bay where health workers are found or on the screen or wrist watch worn by health workers on duty. The signal will provide the parking lot where the vehicle with the patient is parked.

In case of a patient already admitted in the hospital that require medical attention, a button next to each hospital bed connected to a watch worn by the available specialist doctor, nurse and nurse in charge of the ward can help notify them a patient on a particular bed needed attention. Once the button is pressed, the watch [worn by health personnel] will indicate the bed number, and the bed-sider will tell control room personnel the problem of the patient for an apt doctor to be communicated to in case the personnel failed to read the message on the watch accurately.

Where did the idea come from?

Abuit witnessed a woman giving birth in a vehicle as people rushed to call health personnel. The hospital was blamed yet time wastage to let health personnel know about the emergency played a part to the misfortune. He thought he could be part of the solution to the problem. His idea requires fine-tuning and financing to actualise it. Abuit plans to mature his innovation as he gets into college.

Polani Medication Device and Mobile Tracking Device

This innovation uses GSM (Global Service Mobile) and an Android-Based-System to remind patients when to take medication. It has an inbuilt water dispenser and tray for medicine and cup of water. When the alarm reminder goes off, the patient can press a button for the machine to hand over medicine and water. However, within 10 seconds if the patient does not pick the medicine, it will call the next of kin or doctor. When the patient was away from the device, their phone will ring to remind them to go home take medication or take if they are carrying it along. The patient’s mobile phone can be connected to the device to call the patient when it is time for medication in case they were distant from the device. The device and its software was designed by Reagan Tembo. Reagan is a graduate of the Zamtel ICT College. Reagan had a problem with a grandmother who often forgot to take her medication. He made gadget for her to help take the medication at the appropriate time.

Reagan also works Charles Lumbwe, who came up with another device. Charles designed a tracking device of mobile phones, vehicles, TVs or luggage whilst in transit. The system uses Global Positioning System (GPS), General Packet Radio Services (GPRS), (GSM), and Internet of Things (network of devices embedded with electronics, software, sensors, actuators, and connectivity which enables these things) accelerometer, and mouth piece. Charles Lumbwe was fed-up with losing things. He needed a device that could be controlled by a mobile phone. The tracking device he made eliminates paying huge sums of money to companies to monitor tracking devices as his is controlled by any simplest phone. The device is encrypted via a programmable chip.

It can be commanded by a text and it will call the property owner. It allows the person eavesdrop on what was being said by the persons having the stolen property. It tells the owner the location of the stolen proper ty by a text command. The device will send the GPS location link to track the item stolen. Charles and Reagan have since registered a company with PACRA and the Zambia Revenue Authority to provide tracking devices and people can buy it for tracking different items from vehicles to mobile phones and television sets.

Sports car from waste materials

A former Northern Technical College Automotive Mechanics student Joseph Zulu, made the sports car, whose speedometer goes up to 350km/h, using recycled pieces of metal. A mobile phone signal from a simple low cost feature phone is used to start the car.

This is not the only invention Joseph has done. In 2016, he came up with safety feature on motor vehicles with overload sensor to send a signal to owner of the vehicle that the vehicle was overloaded. The signal would be sent to RTSA within a timeframe if the owner does not act on the overload. Joseph whilst in secondary school invented a house security system and a digital security system when he was in Grade 12 at Kabulonga Boys Secondary

School in 2008 which he would present at a Junior Engineers, Technicians and Scientists (JETS) club.

Production and conservation of energy

Juliana Kawamya came up with an innovation to generate and conserve energy as vehicles move along roads. She derived her idea from the principle that vehicular flow of traffic can generate electrical energy. According to Juliana's prototype energy generation and conservation system, as vehicles weigh on the road, they can switch on the system to turn on street lights and turn off hydro-supplied energy to street lights. The system has energy storage capacity for usage when no vehicle is using the road. Juliana believes that with constant street lighting, accidents due to unlit streets would be reduced.

Juliana explained that the accumulation of electric energy under her system would be proportional to the flow of vehicles along the road. In roads where vehicular flow was low, ramp-steps could be placed to multiply the impact of ever y individual vehicle. Juliana completed Grade Twelve in 2017 at Kansensi Secondary School.

Chicken plucker

Michael Mukabila, a student of Design and Technology at The Technical and Vocational Teachers College (TVTC) designed a manual chicken plucker. The manual plucker was meant to help people dress chickens efficiently even in case of power outages. The plucker can dress three chickens per turn. It can dress the chickens within 30 seconds, bringing efficiency to chicken dressing.

Innovation is crucial for the development and deployment of technologies. A widely deployed model to understand technology builds on the concept of the technology life cycle. The life cycle of technologies can be divided into a number of steps – from invention, through Research and Development (R&D) and market development, to commercial diffusion. Different processes can be discerned at each stage of the life cycle and different instruments can be deployed to promote innovation.

It has been established that patents are crucial for technological innovation in the context where they apply. They can be used to generate revenues (from licenses), encourage synergistic partnerships, or to create a market advantage and be the basis for productive activities. As such they create strong incentives for innovation in market-based economies. It has many advantages for inventors and society as a whole, which can benefit from the inventions.

Caution to innovators

Over disclosure of their innovations can result into others stealing their ideas especially when they are in their infancy and unpatented. Sometimes, reverse engineering can be applied to seem as though the new innovation is different from the originators, when it is not. Some companies invest huge sums of money for innovation spies who grasp the concept and commercialize it at the loss of the owners. Certain information should be kept away from the public no matter how tempting it is to disclose it.

Skills insecurity in Zambia: what is going on, why?

By Clive Mutame Siachiyako

Global estimates are that 75 million of the world’s young people are unemployed. About 150 million of that number is underemployed. This does not only represent a huge loss of productive capacity (as people in the prime of life are turned into dependents); but it is also a potential source of social disruption and a daily source of individual angst. Similarly, industry complains that it cannot get hold of the right people. More than a third of employers worldwide had trouble filling jobs (Economist.com). Skills shortages are pressing the Zambian industry as well.

 Being a landlocked country, Zambia sits on many opportunities and risks. Among the risks is the skills insecurity. Bordered by 8 countries, Zambia is a fertile ground for skilled persons to come and apply themselves with their skills; make money and send the money back home [capital flight]. Capital flight is depriving the country capital for reinvestment and increased income levels. A number of factors contribute to Zambia’s skills insecurity. Among them is inadequate investment in technical and vocational and education and training (TVET). Much of the attention has been on basic education, general education and university education. According to the economist.com findings, many governments are pouring money into universities, and universities are competing in singing their own praises. As a result, parents and their offspring have shunned vocational schools. Many students chose to go to academic schools, yet vocational schools give them more chance of finding work.

Meanwhile, many of the economic activities in Zambia [and globally] are driven by artisans, technicians and technologists. They are hands-on persons. Their training focus less on theoretical abstracts. Countries that have aptly invested in TVET has remained strong and viable in value addition, productivity and efficiency. For example, Germany investment in TVET has seen the country making huge strides in grassroots economic progress among citizens. South Korea borrowed the Germany model and under the Meister School Model.

Poor perception of TVET coupled with lack of career pride has pushed Zambians off TVET. They go for white collar training where they will work in offices and wear suits. They do not want to get dirty to generate income. They want others to do it. And that “others” are foreigners. The foreigners come and grab even jobs that could be done by Zambians. They mint gold and the gold is sent back to improve their home country economies. For example, Zimbabwean skilled persons in construction do much of the quality work in construction and the proceeds of the work go to run the Zimbabwean economy. Zambians have remained yearning for white collar jobs that are in short supply or nonexistent at all.

Obsoleteness of equipment and lapses in curriculum have played a role in TVET falling standards. Technology has improved by many strides, yet the investment in TVET equipment has remained sluggish. The sluggishness has affected the quality of TVET and its value to the economic progress in the country. Industry-training weak collaborations affect curriculum relevance to the industry. Much of the curriculum is overtaken by industry requirements. The result is skills mismatch and gaps when learners get into the industry. The industry lose time in retraining the graduates for them to be useful to the labour market. Skills mismatch has resulted into close 200 million persons globally to be jobless (https://www.un.org/). Zambian industry has equally complained of graduates not meeting expectations. Some argue that “it takes 2 years for us to retrain them for them to be of value to our operations”. This entails that what the training sector is doing in not in tandem with labour market needs. The two sectors are operating in different universes each doing what they think works. This poor industry-training collaboration has had a toil on improving TVET.

Curriculum lapses and obsolete equipment make persons churned out of the TVET sector to be irrelevant to the industry. The industry cannot find right skilled persons it needs. Yet training institutions are churning out graduates in big numbers annually. Some industries have been pushed into forming their own training wings to ensure apt training in imparted on the learners. Their loss of confidence in the training sector is also weakening the need for quality collaborative actions in improving the TVET sector. The Zambian industry equally has its lapses. It is generally weak compared to 8 neighbours and peripheral countries like South Africa. The collaboration between training and industry get a raw deal with the infancy of the industry. As a result, the training sector does not get the required input in curriculum development and reviews for the betterment of the TVET sector and Zambia’s skills base. In some instances, industry representative are not appropriate. For example, for a curriculum in Heavy Equipment Repair (HER), a human resources person represents the industry. Although the person may be from industry, their technical knowhow limitation negates to the core of industry-training collaboration. The weakness of the Zambian industry makes Zambia skills risky horizon for foreigners to jobs and work that should be done by local people.

Risks arising from skills lapses: 

Import of labour: One of the risks is import of labour. Many foreign investors bring skilled persons from their countries to meet the skills gap on the Zambian market. The problem at times is not about lack of skilled persons, but ill-skilled persons either because they were trained on old equipment or used inadequate curriculum. The world has progressed and without Zambia investing in modernising curriculum and training equipment, foreign investors will import labour to get a Return on Investment. Investors are not holidayers. They get into a country to make money. They need skilled persons to get things moving to get a return on investment. Thus, even if Zambia want to create jobs for citizens from foreign direct investment (FDI), without supplying appropriately skilled persons, investors will pay little or no attention to job creation goals without skilled persons to drive the investment mission. Foreigners will come and get jobs even in folk lifting if Zambians do not have appropriately skilled persons.

Capital flight: When investors come with skilled persons outside Zambia, capital is flown back to home countries by those skilled persons actualizing the investment. For example, when government says “20% of each contract goes to Zambians,” but without aptly skilled Zambians to match the investor’s investment actualizing speed that will not happen. Zambians will be relegated to trading and shouting “boma ilanganepo” [government should look into this and that]. A National Council for Construction (NCC) and Zambia Institute for Policy Analysis & Research (ZIPAR) research in 2017 showed that firms involved in specialised activities faced difficulties in finding workers with skills profiles that matched job requirements. The mismatch between skills and job requirements was perceived to increase the employment of foreigners even in low-skill jobs in Zambia. The Survey stated that “the construction sector is plagued with a great need for training either due to significant skills and job requirement gaps or service delivery standards in the market were rising”. The Survey further highlighted the need for employee training in formal and on-the-job technical skills the construction industry because the gap between skills acquired in learning institutions and the nature of jobs available in the labour market was growing.

It also showed that “the training environment limits graduates to walk in and make a contribution without retraining. When industry assesses competences, it is looking at a graduate being able to demonstrate to us that she/he understands and are able to operate certain equipment to a large scale.” In short, Zambia is faced with a crisis in skills, disadvantaging local people in getting jobs in sectors like construction; “resulting into 80-90% invested money in the sector (by government) being taken by foreign contractors.  There's need to retain the money government is investing in state-of-the-art infrastructure (schools, roads and stadia) development for sustainable economic growth.”The mismatch between skills and job requirements was perceived to increase the employment of foreigners even in low-skill jobs in Zambia. The companies with contracts in the sector thus sold their contracts to foreigners for commission. They settle for peanuts yet the construction sector is the money spinner that Zambian contractors can benefit in remaining viable in business for a long time. Contract vending has make Zambian contractors weak and opens spaces for foreigners to do construction works and money sent to their homeland.

Crowding labour market by foreigners: Investors do not come to Zambia for sightseeing. They come make money on their investment. If they do not find the right persons to work with for them to realise a return on their capital [which they could have borrowed somewhere], they will look outside Zambia to find the right persons to drive their investment. Foreigners whom in their countries jobs are in limited availability will take up opportunities and crowd the labour market. Foreigners from different countries will be populate the Zambian labour force whilst Zambians stand on the fence watching in unemployment and poverty. It makes the Zambians vulnerable and they settle for casual work in areas of the economy where investors inject their money. The situation weakens Zambia’s economic situation due to non-participation of Zambians in different economic sectors.

Loss of businesses: Businesses thrive, inter alia, due to having apt persons to drive their goal. Without skilled persons, it becomes difficult to satisfy customer needs. Shortage of skilled persons [besides general labour], limits businesses growth and sustenance. But with skills risks, Zambian businesses loss business opportunities for a) failure to meet customer expectations b) poor material utilisation c) efficiency, d) lack of skilled persons and other factors. The business environment currently requires skilled persons who can competitively meet needs of customers, efficiently utilise resources [time, raw materials and human capital], innovatively add value to products/services, and other requisites that make a business more competitive. Generally, TVET cannot only support the socio-economic welfare of individuals, but it can also increase international competitiveness. Countries with adequate and quality skilled persons are more competitive in attracting investment as they have suitable human capital for investors to realise a return on their investment. The absence of skilled persons negates business opportunities that a country may be endowed with.

Dependency on government: Government cannot provide everything to citizens. Economic diversification requires many citizens to apply their skills in different economic activities. TVET embed entrepreneurship education and training (EET) in it. It seeks to trigger the entrepreneurial genie in learners for them to undertake entrepreneurial activities. Without skilled and entrepreneurial citizens, dependency on government increases. People will look to government on almost everything. Citizens take a back seat and waiting for manna to fall from government. That has never happened anywhere. Citizens must apply themselves in the economy.

Possible solutions

Investment in TVET is key. The investment should involve workshops, equipment, tools, human capital [lecturers in these institutions], infrastructure and other systems that make TVET efficiency. Investment in TVET is costly. It is different from theoretical based training like in teaching commercial subjects. Modern equipment costs good money. Sustainable funding of TVET is paramount. With apt investment of the Skills Development Fund government introduced, that can be smoothly achieved. Most of the TVET institutions can be become incubators of businesses and supply industry relevant skilled persons.

Career pride and perception of TVET graduates is cardinal. When industry appreciates and have positive perception of the skilled persons in TVET, the confidence of the graduates from the TVET sector will be raised. They will proudly and confidently present themselves to the industry. The industry mostly despise craftsmen and artisans. It erodes their confidence and worse pay them lowly. It deprives them of the income they need to remain viable. When they are appreciated and remunerated adequately, TVET graduates will have more value to the industry. No one wants to be looked down on, it eats into the morale fabric.

Quality industry-training collaboration inputs into the relevance and responsiveness of the curriculum used in TVET. When collaboration between industry and the training sector is loose, the quality of skilled persons gets affected. The curriculum will not meet industry requirements. The training sector will keep on doing what it feels is appropriate. The industry will be complaining about not having right skilled persons to help them meet their deliverables. Skills gaps and mismatches will emerge and will be difficult to meet without industry and the training sector working collaboratively in curriculum development. Curriculum is a valuable tool in training. It defines what should be taught, what should be assessed and how it will be assessed. It is pertinent that it is responsive and relevant to the modern labour market requirements.

Benchmarking with likeminded countries advanced in some skills areas. There are countries with workable TVET models. Germany and South Korean are some examples. They have admirable TVET systems under the Meister Programme. Strong industry collaboration with training institutions have paid for well for those countries. Samsung partners with KRIVET in investing and finding strategies to improve TVET. Countries with viable models can be studied and contextualized to the Zambian situation. Reinventing the will may be belabouring on the obvious. We can learn from each other and see what works for us and what does not for the betterment of enhanced skilled persons in the country.

Conclusion

Currently the picture is bad. Chinese investors bring Chinese skilled persons. Zimbabweans are carrying out most of the construction works in Zambia.  Tanzanians are tiling houses and other buildings. And residents of other neighbouring countries taking their part. They have the skills and right attitude to get things moving. Zambians mostly lack apt skills and mindset towards work. The pursuance of white collar jobs is ruining Zambians. It is making most citizens crybabies. Skills rule the world. There is no country that developed without skilled persons. Ground Zero for example was built by artisans and technologists. They were the ones who laid each brick, each metal and other wares to get things in place. Zambians cannot afford to folding their arms waiting for “boma to do something”, it is too risky to behave in such a manner because the “train does not wait for a smoker”. The country will remain behind and loss out on its economic targets.

Preparing and training youths for the 21st century industry requires combined inputs of government, the industry and private sector. Government needs to put in place appropriate policy frameworks and implementation systems for relevant vocational training. Policy frameworks; (i) define funding strategies for vocational training and implementation strategies are made, (ii) training pathways designed and modes of implementing them devised (to increase access to vocational training), and (iii) industry interaction (for hands-on experience to learners) spelled out and modes of carrying them out well defined, as well as other initiatives to ensure that vocational graduates are properly nurtured for the modern labour market.

In addition, the industry needs to create a haven for nurturing vocational training in different sectors of the economy. The industry detects skills needs as soon as they arise, thus can signal them to the trainers and help learners acquire such competences through industrial attachments and other industry interaction modes strategically made to bridge skills lapses in most young graduates.

The industry can also devise funding strategies towards sectoral skills.  Each sector needs certain skills to increase its productivity. Each industry needs a certain quantum of human capital to achieve projected growth targets. Training right numbers of skilled, energetic and relevant personnel for each industry is a costly undertaking. Shared input in training such a pool of human capital is indispensable. Training the right clusters of skilled youths with the right calibre requires government, sectoral and industry input for attainment of collective goals (of having empowered youths –government goals; and having relevant, innovative and dedicated personnel on the job for increased productivity –goal of the industry.)

The role of the parent becomes very paramount in developing such a calibre of vocational graduates. Parents influence career choices of their children and who they end being in their lives. Homes are largest investment and greatest havens of creating great minds and stunted-dependent minds. Therefore, a new approach to career guidance is unavoidable in this era, especially with the failed old education system mainly focused on theory, which has been the major characteristic feature of mostly universities.

It is very risky today to simply say to a child, “study hard and look for a job.” A child today needs a more sophisticated education, and the current system is not delivering the goods. Vocational training has proved to be one of the tools in developing a new crop of youths who innovate, work hard, who use their intellect and hands to create value, who are financially competent, self-reliant and look-out for “how they can create employment (or how to come out of the ‘employed status’ when they still have the strength to create wealth for themselves), and not who can employ them until they retire.’

Parents can help the world have a class of youths whose mind is not fine-tuned towards "entitlement” mentality (i.e. pension, health policy, etc.). Things parents put in the ‘brain chips’ of their children has a huge impact on who they become in their lives. Career ‘worlds’ parents create in the minds of the children often determine the career they pursue. Unfortunately, the two (parents and today’s children) are living in very different times. In the 60s getting good grades at school, going to university and looking for a secure job in government, and waiting for entitlements made sense; but it is not workable anymore. Youths should be allowed to explore their inner-self to pursue careers that enable them fit in the world of today, not the non-existing world of the old age.

Gone are the days too when industry waited for government to training human resource for them. Industry currently require sophisticated and focused graduates who are ready to get ‘dirty’ (use their practical skills and intellect) to contribute towards personal and national development. Combined input of the industry, government and parents in sharping today’s pool of human capital can achieve a lot in addressing some of the youth unemployment challenges.