Context
The development of a market economy in Laos goes hand-in-hand with stable economic growth. However, a shortage of skilled workers is hampering the country’s continued economic development. Against the backdrop of the launch of the ASEAN Economic Community in 2015, the Lao Government is therefore keen to develop a highly skilled labour force by improving the quality of vocational education in the country.
Two main factors are responsible for the shortage of skilled workers. On the one hand, the country’s technical vocational education and training (TVET) sector has a bad image due to its irrelevance in terms of employers’ needs; as a result, young Laotians are increasingly turning towards academic education. On the other hand, the curricula of the 22 public vocational schools supervised by the Lao Ministry of Education and Sports around the country are often too theoretical, and the teachers lack essential technical and pedagogical skills. There is also a general lack of well-trained teaching and managerial staff in vocational schools.
The lack of appropriate qualifications on the part of vocational education staff is largely due to the ineffective nature of teacher training, which fails to meet international quality standards for practical, needs-based vocational education and training. The limited number of available places in the TVET teacher training institutions further aggravates the shortfall in the number of vocational teachers.
Objective
Education and training of vocational school teachers have improved in both qualitative and quantitative terms.
Approach
GIZ’s TVET teacher education programme supports the improvement of vocational school teaching in Laos through the following measures.
• Provision of advice on improving the quality, and increasing the availability of vocational school teacher education. In this respect, the programme is advising the relevant institutions in the Ministry of Education and Sports, the Vocational Teacher Education Department (VTED) at the Faculty of Engineering, and the Vocational Education Development Institute (VEDI). Priorities include the development of a regulatory framework, adapting academic regulations, drafting new standards, reviewing curricula and establishing appropriate monitoring processes.
• Promotion of partnerships with the private sector, and with other international and regional projects in the vocational training sector.
• Measures to improve the standard of teacher training by integrating practical training units in companies or holding training workshops for student teachers; and by organising practical training semesters at the end of their studies, with the time divided equally between a vocational school and a private company.
Results achieved so far
The number of students enrolled with the Vocational Teacher Education Department rose from 14 at the end of 2009, to 70 in late 2012. Of these, almost 50% were women.
A new TVET law has been adopted, and standards for vocational teachers have been enacted. More practically oriented, revised curricula based on these standards have been submitted to the Ministry of Education for approval.
To support the use of the more practically oriented curricula, a set of manuals has been developed for practical instructions in four priority occupational fields. Teachers and students have received training in the use of these manuals.
Several workshops and classrooms at the VTED have been renovated and equipped. Examples include an IT laboratory, and electrical and mechanical workshops. These facilities ensure teachers receive a more practically oriented education.
A set of documents has been produced to support the organisation of industrial internships for student teachers. These have been submitted to the Ministry of Education and Sports for approval.
A programme of further education has been developed. Ten TVET professionals have so far been selected and sent abroad to participate in this one-year course, which will prepare them to act as multipliers and contribute to improvements in the overall quality of vocational teacher training.
Lecturers and students of vocational teacher education institutions have benefited from training for the teaching of students with disabilities.
Policymakers and private-sector decision makers have attended study trips to Germany, where they could familiarise themselves with the vocational training system and learn how German employers are involved in the system.