Supporting reforms in the education system

Project description

Title: Financial Contributions to Engineering Capacity Building Programme (ECBP) in Ethiopia
Commissioned by: German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ)
Country: Ethiopia 
Lead executing agency: Federal Ministry of Education
Overall term: 2012 to 2019

Context

The acquisition of relevant skills is a prerequisite for employment and productivity at work. The Ethiopian Growth and Transformation Plan (GTP) therefore assigns a key role to education for boosting economic growth. Other aims include achieving development goals and making Ethiopia a middle-income country by 2025. While the country has made great progress in the expansion of university education and technical and vocational education and training (TVET), quality lags behind. 

The key actors of the TVET and university sectors are not sufficiently able to align either the educational content to the needs of the private sector, or the education system to the requirements of the economy in the near future.

Objective

The deployment of international long-term and short-term experts at TVET institutions and at higher education establishments focusing on engineering is helping to improve the quality of higher education and TVET.

Approach

The programme has introduced new, practice-oriented curriculums for doctoral programmes at universities, thus improving the teaching quality at these institutions. The implementation of more than 100 courses offered by international partner universities has improved the quality of the courses of study. Research and study visits to European universities substantially improved the technical training of 53 doctoral candidates. The new courses of study at the partner universities have been set up and are already offered by all universities. 

In the area of TVET, the programme has supported the training of vocational teachers through the deployment of international teaching staff at the national training institute. Moreover, it has reformed the assessment system for instructors at vocational training colleges. Almost 5,000 teachers (including more than 1,000 women) have received their certification. A total of 2,500 assessors are now authorised to carry out technical assessments for TVET students and those persons already in employment.