Trudi van Wyk Alison Mead Richardson Education Specialists Commonwealth of Learning Flexible Skills Development eLearning Africa, May 2011, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania UNESCO-UNEVOC ICT in TVET summit

Strengths 20 year track record strong leadership partnerships with countries To help Commonwealth governments and institutions to expand the scope, scale and quality of learning by using new approaches and appropriate technologies COL’s Mission

COL Funding Voluntary contributions from Ministries of Education of member countries Major contributors: CanadaIndiaNew Zealand NigeriaSouth AfricaUnited Kingdom 40/54

COL Programme Structure Education Open schooling Teacher Education Higher Education VUSSC Livelihoods & Health Skills Development Learning for Farmers Healthy Communities Integrated eLearning

COL Flexible Skills Development Partnership with CAPA Supporting development of skills in ICT in TVET Change management and organisational development Policy and strategy Technology Media & technology in TVET teaching

Characteristics of TVET in Africa Full-time, face-to-face programmes Pre-employment training for secondary achievers Small numbers benefit Many disadvantaged learners ICT in TVET Necessary for expanded access Quality improvements Improved efficiency and increased income Greater ICT skills of teachers and staff

Why Flexible Skills Development? We believe that the appropriate use of ICT can: help institutions to be more efficient Improve the teaching and learning experience Make it possible to offer new courses to new learners Increase access to TVSD Impact positively on skills training for the informal economy

Why the informal sector? Sub-Saharan Africa 60% of population is < 25years 90% of work is in the informal economy Governments are achieving great successes in EFA Goal 2 – UPE Governments need support to address EFA Goal 3 and Goal 6

Ensuring that the learning needs of all young people and adults are met through equitable access to appropriate learning and life-skills programmes Education for All Goal 3

Improving all aspects of the quality of education and ensuring excellence so that recognized and measurable learning outcomes are achieved by all, especially in literacy, numeracy and essential life skills Education for All Goal 6

Overall purpose of FSD To increase access to skills development Informal sector and other disadvantaged learners To improve quality in TVSD To contribute to poverty alleviation

FSD activities – progress Introductory workshops – Zambia, Kenya & Nigeria Identification of 10 key institutions – Baseline report Online Community Learning Network Online managers & policy makers’ training Support for management of technical infrastructure Online training for teachers in flexible approaches

FSD Key Institutions

Online TVET managers & teacher training courses

Educational social media platform Build a community of practice Resources Discussions Opportunity to share and provide evidence Institutional group spaces

CLN – content focus Planning and policy making Organisational management and change Technical infrastructure and resources TVET teaching with technology 165 members 80 discussions

FSD activities to come Online teacher training Materials development training National policy workshops Course design for the informal sector workers TVET course materials

Monitoring & evaluation Important activity for COL and for CAPA Needed to document the process Formative evaluation Baseline study Institutions are partners in M&E Capacity building for M&E

Aiming for: Development of flexible approaches, programmes and teaching which enable us to give The COL FaB stamp of approval!

Thank you