Training: Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) graduates are finding it difficult to get employed while those who are employed fall short of their employers’ expectations.

One of the reasons why most of them are left without jobs after their training is the lack of a proper curriculum in private training institutes, labour ministry officials said.

The ministry’s national human resource development advisory focusing on TVET 2015 recommended increasing the number of accredited TVET programmes in the training institutes.

The advisory stated that while there are more than 90 TVET providers in the country offering 300 different programmes, only a handful are accredited.

“While accreditation is not mandatory, low number of course accreditation directly correlates to quality of TVET graduates,” it stated.

To help TVET centres produce better skilled trainees, the labour ministry organised a Competency Based Curriculum Development Training programme. The programme is aimed at developing the proficiency of private training institutes.

The six-day training programme, which ended yesterday, was aimed to improve and professionalise the quality of TVET system through the development of curriculum.

The training also focused on ensuring that the employees and vocational graduates deliver a standard level of performance that any employer desire to see at their workplace.

A total of 25 participants from private training institutes in the country attended the programme. Participants were introduced to the basics of curriculum development process, conducting task analysis, module design and development, interpretation of national competency standard and curriculum validation and endorsement process among others.

Human Resources Department’s director Kinley Wangdi said an absence of proper curricula during trainings is the reason why many jobseekers are left without employment.

The director said that with increasing number of jobseekers annually, the need to develop more competent curriculum must be the priority for all training institutes in the country.

“National competency standard is the destination and curriculum is the journey that will lead to that destination,” he said. “Curriculum developers are the road towards that journey and destination.”

One of the participants, Pema Lhamo from Technical Training Institute, Khuruthang, said that the training this year was more comprehensive. “We learned the need to upgrade the curriculum along with technological advancement is crucial to help individuals get employed.”

Younten Tshedup