Technical and Vocational Education as the Lifeblood of Development
Prof. Fathia Al-Hamadani
Technical and vocational education is one of the most important sectors that are concerned with training people and enabling them to possess the various skills necessary to keep pace with the developments of the current era in the field of knowledge and technology. These changes impose the necessity to provide human cadres, with high-quality skills and capabilities in a variety of fields on a basis commensurate with the actual needs of the labor market, and to provide many services to societies in various development fields. Therefore, many countries of the world mobilize a variety of resources to achieve the goals of technical and vocational education, which will reflect positively on its role in the development process.
Technical and vocational education is the ideal gateway for investing human resources as it attracts a lot of public education outputs. It is one of the formal education systems that extend between (2-3) years. It includes one aspect of the educational process that focuses on practical education through the study of technologies and sciences related to the theoretical aspect of various programs to acquire skills and trends, and areas of understanding and knowledge of a practical nature in relation to professions and businesses in various sectors of economic life. With the aim of providing students with a number of diverse skills and experiences in the fields of economic development, many countries have been keen to provide technical institutes with professional, commercial, industrial, agricultural, marine and other fields. Vocational education is a renewed education that keeps pace with the changes of the times and its requirements in various aspects of human life and its needs in the fields of marine, agricultural, veterinary, industrial, electronics engineering, equipment, crafts professions which represent a lot for individuals at the level of daily life, and other professions and economic fields that play a role in the economic renaissance of countries through their outputs playing its role in the various fields of economic development and the employment of manpower in various fields of national development plans that are prepared in light of the needs of societies and work on the implementation of private or governmental projects or governmental projects. Thus, technical and vocational education plays an important role in achieving comprehensive development so that societies witness a decrease in poverty and unemployment levels, an increase in the level of national income through internal or external investment returns, and an improvement in the standard of living of many individuals, with an effective and indirect contribution to political, economic and social stability. This in turn provides many opportunities for creativity in various fields of development, and it can thus be said that vocational and technical education represents the multilateral ground for development.
The renaissance of the vocational and technical education sectors requires working on already existing strategic plan to identify the needs of the labor market in the future. In the light of such plan, projects, programs and operational plans necessary to achieve the objectives of this type of education related to the comprehensive development of all aspects of the economy, work on preparing academic programs appropriate to the changes taking place in the labor market, and providing specialized academic cadres to play their role in the process of developing students’ abilities and skills, while providing the structure Infrastructure, including equipment, laboratories, workshops, technicians and other logistical requirements for the technical and vocational education sector. Such a plan helps prepare projects, programs and operational plans- necessary to achieve the objectives of this type of education related to the comprehensive development of all aspects of the economy- and also helps make academic programs appropriate to the changes taking place in the labor market. Moreover, it helps provide specialized academic cadres to play their role in the process of developing students’ abilities and skills and the infrastructure, including equipment, laboratories, workshops, technicians and other logistical requirements for the technical and vocational education sector.
The technical and vocational education sector in Yemen witnessed a remarkable quantitative development during the pre-conflict years, as the number of institutes reached (161) for the year 2014, attended by about (66,005) male and female students in various disciplines. These numbers are considered small in a society characterized by an increase in population and aspiring to achieve comprehensive development. In addition to the above, the reality of these institutes faces many imbalances affecting the quality of their outputs. Along with the poor financial resources allocated to these institutes, there are also a weak infrastructure such as old buildings, laboratories, equipment, curricula and specializations, which are no longer commensurate with the needs of the current labor market in a large way and thus require modernization to play its role in the development process effectively. Technical and vocational education is the facade for countries to achieve development. Therefore, it must be among the preparation priorities for any government program as the aim of technical and vocational education is to achieve comprehensive development by empowering its members for all its different components, and in a way that contributes to its construction and development.
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