Studytour Ethiopia, A-TVET’s

NUFFIC sponsored the project titled “Study of A-TVET training methods and curriculum development for Agribusiness for Ethiopian experts in Agricultural Vocational and Educational Training” in 2011.The project comprised of a study trip to The Netherlands to learn about training methods and curriculum development for Agribusiness by Dutch Agricultural Technical and Vocational Education and Training ( A-TVET). The Project was supported under the Dutch bilateral cooperation programme, in the higher education sector in general or in cross-cutting themes. Agriculture is one of the pillars of the Dutch bilateral cooperation programme in Ethiopia and the overall objective of the cooperation is to strengthen the capacity of agricultural education and training institutes (HE and TVET) to deliver quality, gender sensitive, education and training, and to do relevant research.

Studytour

A five day study trip was conducted in the month of May 2011 for eight Ethiopian experts in Agricultural Vocational and Educational Training to learn about the principles of the Dutch agricultural education system. During the study trip they visited in total seven different organizations including three Universities of applied sciences, one AOC (Agricultural Education Centre), a practical training center in agriculture, one ROC (Regional Education Centre), and IVA (Institute for Labour market research, linked to Tilburg University).

Visit to PTC+ in Barneveld: Arrival

Visit to PTC+: Explanation by expert Helmich van Rees

The objectives of this Nuffic funded study trip were to:

• equip leadership of 2 A-TVETs to better articulate their demands in teaching methods and curriculum development in Agribusiness
• offer exploration opportunities for staff of the selected A-TVETs from Ethiopia on:
  • current training provision of A-TVETs in NL and Ethiopia
  • how institutes maintain contacts with the private sector, innovate curricula and training methods and mainstream gender practices
• assess the organizational and institutional change processes needed to introduce new practices in Agricultural education and training in Ethiopia.

Visit to ROC in Ede: Ethiopian study group and studytour facilitator Lambertus Vogelzang

During the study trip the participants explored strategies and practices of the Dutch and Ethiopian agricultural education institutes by interacting with the private sector. They also undertook a comparative analysis with regard to the current training provision in Ethiopia and the organisational and institutional change processes necessary for innovative new practices in Agricultural education and training.

Ethiopians discuss about learning and action points

Visit to Stoas/CAH school dairy farm: Explanation by expert Arie de Jong

They selected strategies and practices suitable for Ethiopia so as to formulate requirements and prerequisites at institutional level to implement the selected strategies and practices. Ultimately they designed a change plan identifying what needs to be changed to fulfill the requirement and prerequisites and if that fits in the existing strategies and policies. They also formulated the support needed to initiate and complete the above change process. At every education institute they visited in The Netherlands following points were discussed:

• How are the links with the private sector set up and maintained ?
• How does the institute know the requirements on the labor market ?
• How are training programs adjusted to market needs ?
• Which strategies are used to attract private clients ?
• Which training methods are used and why these ?
• How is gender main-streaming organised ?

Visit to ROC in Ede: Explanation by expert Hans Krijgsman

Visit to Rondeel: A sustainable chicken farm

Possible interest for others

Various agricultural vocational education institutes, Governments of various countries across the world can be benefitted by similar study tours for establishing and efficient functioning of their agricultural vocational training institutes.

 

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