RESEARCH ARTICLE | OCTOBER 26 2016

Improving the quality and competence of technical

vocational education and training output through vocational
school cooperation with industry: A case study of Uganda
Kirya Mateeke Moses

AIP Conference Proceedings 1778, 030060 (2016)

https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4965794

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 Improving the Quality and Competence of Technical
Vocational Education and Training Output Through
Vocational School Cooperation with Industry: A Case Study
of Uganda
Kirya Mateeke Moses1,a)
1
Makarere University, Kampala, Uganda

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a)
Corresponding author: kiryamosesm@gmail.com

Abstract. Quality education is a strong foundation for preparing and improving the quality and competence
of every nation’s human resource development which is an asset for global economy competition. Technical
Vocational Education and Training (TVET), on the other hand, is the master key in this education sector in
this twenty-first century. Due to global competition, a nation’s competitive advantages lies much in the high
quality and competence of its manpower which is a result of quality education more so TVET. Similarly, the
quality and competence of TVET output is also revealed through the nature and strength of its cooperation
with the industries in relationship with the labor market needs cooperation as the link/partnership
relationship between the vocational school with industry /world of work is crucial in building the quality and
competent TVET products which can impact and fit the industry needs. This cooperation forms of industrial
student’s training, student’s tours, workshops and seminars, execution of joint projects between the schools
and the industrial world. Like other nations, Uganda recognizes the importance of adapting TVET in
producing proficient workers and making such education more responsive to socio-economic requirements,
the country doesn’t have coherent policy to link that education to industrial world whereby the existing
linkages are very weak and on ad hoc basis which calls for tangible, imperative actions including
preferential affirmative initiatives to accelerate actions in this sector. Therefore, this paper analyses the
Uganda’s current vocational school cooperation with industry, TVET shortcomings due to such cooperation
in reference to other developing countries.

INTRODUCTION
The Republic of Uganda is a landlocked country situated in the eastern part of Africa bordered with
countries such as Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, South Sudan, and Democratic Republic of Congo with average area
coverage of about 240 Square km with an estimated population of 34 million people (UBOS Census, 2014) [1]. 52%
of their populations are under the age of 15years which makes the first country with the largest population of young
people in the world according to UBOS 2012 report revealed by New Vision the country’s leading Newspaper
reporter on 14th December 2012. It is also an agro-based country with over 85% of its population employed in
agriculture, 13% in the service sector and 5% employed by industrial sector (1999 Statics World Fact Book) [2][3].
The vocational school also referred to as trade school or vocational college is a post- secondary
educational institution designed to provide technical skills or vocational education required to perform tasks of a
particular job. They are traditionally distinguished from four-year college by their focus on training for job-specific
to students who are typically bound for one of the skilled trades rather than providing an academic training for
students pursuing careers in a professional discipline. Vocational Education is part of tertiary education and

Proceedings of the International Mechanical Engineering and Engineering Education Conferences (IMEEEC 2016)
AIP Conf. Proc. 1778, 030060-1–030060-5; doi: 10.1063/1.4965794
Published by AIP Publishing. 978-0-7354-1440-2/$30.00

030060-1
training that provides accredited training in job related and technical skills covering a number of careers and
industries such as trades and office work, retail, hospitality, and technology.
Cooperation refers to the relationship and interactions between the school learning activities and the
activities of the industry as in relation to the competency and high-quality performance. According to online
encyclopedia ‘Wikipedia’ Competence refers to the standardized requirement for an individual to properly perform a
specific job [4].
The current TVET in Uganda is an overlapping three-tier system: craftsman offered in Technical schools
and institutes, technician level offered in technical colleges and Uganda Polytechnics and graduate engineer’s level
in University programs. Currently, formal TVET system consists of Technical Schools, Technical Institutes,
Technical colleges, Uganda Polytechnics, Kyambogo, National College of Business Studies and Uganda Colleges of
Commerce [5].
1(a). The country has 24 Government aided Technical School, operating currently under the Ministry of
Education and Sports among which three of them are Farm Schools aimed at training the craftsmen (artisans).
Technical School offers 3years course in Carpentry and Joinery, Block-laying and Concrete Practice, Tailoring and
Tropical Agriculture to Post Primary graduate leading to an award of Uganda Junior Technical Certificate (UJTC)
with a current enrolment of approximately 5000 students where approximately 10% of which are females.
1(b). There are 30 Government aided Technical Institutes that admit students from Post-Secondary level

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(with passes in Maths, Physics, Chemistry and English) and UJTC holders and offer 2 years craft courses in
Carpentry and Joinery, Block-laying and Concrete Practice, Motor Vehicle Mechanics, Tailoring and Cutting,
Plumbing, Pottery, Leather work and Agriculture Mechanics and Electrical Installation where successful candidates
are awarded Uganda Craft Certificate (Part I) or Advanced Craft Certificate offered by some institutes. Besides
Technical institutes, craftsmen at this level are also trained by the Polytechnic and the Uganda Technical Colleges
with the estimated total enrollment of 6000 craftsmen.
2. Technician Training is offered in 4 Uganda Technical Colleges (UTC) which train Ordinary Diploma
Technicians, and Uganda Polytechnic Kyambogo (UPK) concentrates on training Higher Diploma Technicians.
Both UTC and UPK recruit students from advanced secondary level for 2years programs leading to an award of
Ordinary Diploma in Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Building and Civil Engineering, while
Polytechnic offers Science Laboratory Techniques, Industrial Ceramics, and Architectural Draughtsmanship in
addition. After a 2years field experience, Higher Diploma is awarded to the Ordinary Diploma holders in Electrical
Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, and Civil Engineering while 1year Certificate course is offered Technical
Teachers Training. The estimated students’ enrolment currently stands at 2,200 for Ordinary Diplomas and 100 for
Higher Diplomas. Besides the pure technical subjects, business technicians are also trained in 5 Uganda Colleges of
Commerce and Business Studies (UCBS) with a current enrolment of students estimated at 4000. These institutions
also admit students who hold Uganda Advanced Certificate of Education offering them both full-time and part-time
courses which run for 2 years in courses like business studies, secretarial studies, accounting, stenography, catering
and marketing leading to an award of Ordinary Diploma, while Higher Diploma course in marketing is also offered
for 3 years.
3. Engineer’s level are trained by Faculty of Technology of Makerere University in all Engineering
disciplines at both Diploma, Bachelor degree and master levels.
In order to accelerate the vocational training in the country, Ugandan government established a
Directorate of Industrial Training (DIT) in the Ministry of Labour in 1974 which operates five training centers
which include: Nakawa Vocational Training Institute, Lugogo Vocational Centre, YMCA- Jinja, IDA- Jinja and
Masulita Vocational Centre which are supplemented by the private vocational centers which exist in the country.
DIT is responsible for apprenticeship training, industrial training, skill upgrading and updating courses,
trade testing and certification. Its aims and objectives are to develop, promote, and operate an efficient and effective
system of Industrial Training on a national and local basis for continued and sustained development of manpower in
Uganda. Therefore under its supervision, candidates are required to take Trade Test II (Craftsman trade test) and
then after 2 years, candidates can sit for Trade Test 1 or Master Craftsman Trade Test. The Industrial Training
Council was established by decree in 1974 is to ensure quality, effectiveness, and efficiency of the training
programs. Parallel to TVET, general technical education consisting of Metalwork, Woodwork, Agriculture,
Technical Drawing, electricity and basic electronics, home economics, and commerce are offered as part of the
curriculum in secondary schools.

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 Current Shortcomings of the TVET in Uganda
The main challenges of vocational institutions in Uganda are: lack of adequate funding, inadequate, old
and obsolete materials, lack of instructor training programs, lack of institutional set-up for the development of
training programs and the necessary related instructional support materials where the course content is always left to
individual centers to formulate, too academic and theoretically oriented education system at all levels where over
much academic learning concentration and passing examinations has been emphasized neglecting knowledge and
skills needed to solve life problems. The negative attitude towards TVET, the weak linkage between TVET service
providers with the industrial world of work. Consequently, due to these problems in correlation with others external
factors has lead decline in the quality of education, particularly technical education, noting that business, technical,
and vocational institutions play a vital role in the training process of the badly needed technicians and artisans for
the rehabilitation and development of the nation which forms the embryo of this paper to verify whether the linkage
of Vocational High School (VHS) Cooperation with Industries can lead to the Quality and Competence
improvement in the TVET Output in Uganda [6][7].

Why the School Cooperation with the Industry so important?

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For preparation of effective curriculum that integrates both theory and practical where students practice
in industry what they have learnt during school based (classroom & laboratory) training, introduction of students to
the world of work enabling them to become productive and fit in the labour market needs, cooperation creates
institution awareness of the job opportunities for which they have to train the students. Similarly, the industry also
becomes aware of the ways they can benefit from the training institutions, especially during the recruitment process.
Execution of joint projects, selection of apart instructors as well as assessing the education success in a relationship
with the employer's requirements. Furthermore, cooperation with the industry provides a dual learning model system
that enables the students to gain double knowledge theoretically and practically.
Although some students have been encouraged by their performance, results have not been evidenced in
Uganda like in other similar developing countries like Indonesia, Malaysia, Tanzania, Kenya hence more efforts are
required just like in Indonesia where there is a strong link between vocational schools and industry.

Some Vocational School Cooperation with Industry in Reference to Other Developing

Countries (Indonesia, Kenya, Malaysia, and Tanzania)
In Indonesia, According to Asian Development Bank projects reviews in VET across Asia and Pacific
(ADB 2004), reveal that industry cooperation with VET providers is the basis of successful training. In Indonesia,
vocational schools rely much on industry partners like Chambers of Commerce, local government and local business
community in matching with the demand. These partners are included on the school committee board to advise on
the course content (curriculum), provide the instructor and work placement opportunities like internship vacancies,
provisions of learning materials like equipment, scholarships, and others. Vocational schools in Indonesia have
increased their cooperation with industries to an international level including industries like Caterpillar, Cisco,
Nivea, Philips and others. These help in work internship for students, certification and job opportunities as well as
assessing students’ practical skills [8].
The nature of this cooperation can take any form among which the following should go unmentioned:
Dual system program, internship, work-based learning, apprenticeship/on-job training and factory teaching are some
of the common learning models and cooperation forms, and it is mandatory for any SMK to cooperate with industry
in Indonesia.
In Tanzania, there a strong linkage between VET schools with industries especially in Manufacturing
and Tourism industries as they cover almost the all the fields of the profession in the country. Dual apprentice,
internship, On-job training are the major form of industrial cooperation with the schools. Informal sector training is
at a fast growth for Nguvu Kazi Groups which trains TVET knowledge and skills to young people.
In Kenya, the research shows that there is a strong link between the vocational schools and the industry
because of: integration of industry’s training committees through the Industrial Training Act in developing and
design the curricula for the training programs, Individual attachment of Vocational school trained program with
industries where trainees are attached to industry according to their areas of specialization for a period ranging from
3months to 1year though no clear nature of cooperation in the form of learning models, for example, the Jua Kali
voucher project supported by World Bank in over 25,000 entrepreneurs participate [9][10].

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 Similarly, Malaysia also applies the dual system of TVET due to the need of competent workforce
through Malaysian-German Chamber of Commerce and Industry, German-Malaysian Institute in cooperation with
Department of Skills Development of the Ministry of Education (MOHR) in which 75% practical and 25%
theoretical training was implemented in 2014. From these results, it is evident enough and worthy concluding that
there is a close link and partnership between vocational schools and industry in Malaysia [11].

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

The findings from several types of research show that Uganda though recognizes the importance of
TVET cooperation in improving the human resource quality, it does not have a well-conceived and coordinated
policy governing co-operation between vocational institutes and Industry as different institutions engage in co-
operative schemes based on their own guidelines and initiatives with no recourse to any established procedures.
In reference to similar developing countries, Uganda has a long way to struggle to bridge this taking
lessons from these countries like:
In Indonesia, the improved TVET output quality has been due to the close relationship between SMK and DU/DI
through Dual system, work-based learning, internship, apprenticeship programs with support of the Ministry of

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Education and Culture. Similar results are evidenced from Malaysia in which 75% practical to 25% theoretical
training is emphasized, and Kenya also has a similar trend that has improved the quality of its human resource
development.

CONCLUSION
The role of vocational schools’ cooperation with the industries cannot be marginalized in this socio-
economic and technological era as such cooperation cannot be separated from the broader concepts of national
development, manpower requirements, industrialization, technology acquisition and research. Due to global
competition, the nations’ competitive advantages is found manifest through the high level of quality and competent
manpower which is as a result of quality education more so TVET. Similarly, the quality and competence of TVET
output is also revealed through the nature and strength of its cooperation with the industries in a relationship with the
labor market needs.

SUGGESTION
Vocational schools can improve their cooperation with industries according to the conclusion by: (1)
Implementing the learning model applicable in both places like work based learning, teaching factories,
apprenticeship, on-job training, internship etc. (2) Industrialist personnel/experts should be on school committee
boards to advise on the learning content through developing appropriate curriculum. (3) A strong regulatory
framework for training standards, curricula, qualifications, and funding. A suitable qualifications framework and
inspection system will provide the necessary quality assurance and control mechanism within a diverse system for
quality TVET delivery. (4) More research is required to indicate what factors influence the linkage between the
Vocational High schools’ cooperation and the Industry since limited research is addressed towards this theme, so I
recommend this to be my research topic for my final thesis.

REFERENCES
1. Uganda Bureau of Statistics, Uganda National Population Census Final report 2014.UNESCO
2. CIA. 1999. World Fact Book Statics. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-
factbook/geos/ug.html. Download by 21/9/2016.
3. http://www.newvision.co.ug/new_vision/news/1311368/uganda-population-world. Download by
21/9/2016.
4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Competence. Download by 21/9/2016
5. ADB, 2008b. Report and Recommendation of the President: Vocational Education Strengthening Project,
Manila; ADB, 2004a. Improving TEVT: Strategies for Asia. Manila).
6. LUGUJJO, E and MANYINDO, B. "Pilot Project on Cooperation between Technical and Vocational
Education Institutions and Enterprises in Uganda." (BREDA) Dakar, October, 1993.

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7. MANYINDO, B. and LUGUJJO, E, "Co-operation between Educational Institutions and Enterprises in
Technical and Vocational Education in Uganda." A paper presented at UNESCO/UNEVOC Seminar,
Berlin 02-12, May 1995.
8. Ministry of Education and Culture. 1997. Skills Ahead of 2020's Era Globa l. Jakarta: Department of
Education.
9. Kerre, B.W. (1996). Kenya: Cooperation in Technical and Vocational Education. In UNESCO International
project on Technical and Vocational Education, Establishing Partnership in Technical and Vocational
Education: Co-operation between Educational institutions and Enterprises in Technical and Vocational
Education (pp 94-99). Berlin: UNESCO.
10. Republic of Kenya. (1999). Totally Integrated Quality Education and Training: Koech Report of the
Commission of Inquiry into the Education System of Kenya. Nairobi: Government Printer.
11. Department of Skills Development of the Ministry of Human Resources and the German-Malaysian
Institute. http://www.malaysia.ahk.de/en/.

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