A few days ago, I watched a video of business mogul Dr. Cosmas Maduka, recall how he served his uncle as an apprentice for 6 years. He recounted how in the 6 years, he learnt accounting, administration, trade and other key skills necessary to succeed in business.
Similarly, I read about 30 year old Ben Newton, earning over £1m in top accounting firm Deloite. He rejected an opportunity to go to university for a place in an apprenticeship scheme. Twelve years later, he is a qualified accountant and a partner of a leading management consultancy.
Last week, I was speaking to a friend about the importance of the apprenticeship system and how it is very well suited for skills development, considering the current state of skills gap in many countries.
Last year, I was privileged to be the lead consultant on World Bank assisted project for a State goverment in Nigeria. We conducted benchmark studies and developed policies and plans for implementing a sustainable and impactful technical and vocational education training (TVET) system as part of the state’s transformation and empowerment initiatives.
The UK apprenticeship system is typically 1 to 6 years, with qualifications ranging from equivalent to O’Levels to Master’s degrees. Germany has a well developed TVET system which is embedded into their secondary school system where students are distinguished by academic and technical vocational paths early on their educational journeys.The government regulates the TVET sysyem. It is however, the responsibility of the private sector to provide the job placements.
A good TVET system bridges the gap between education and the workplace, creating a pipeline of technically skilled workers for the workplace. Some may ask, isn’t this what the school system should do anyway. One would think so, but majority of tertiary level schools are unable to bridge this gap and the resultant problem can be seen in the quality of graduates produced by many of the institutions.
A key economic benefit of the TVET system is the impact on unemployment. Countries that implemented school-based vocational training or have no VET system are typically confronted with high rates of youth unemployment (Busemeyer 2012, pp. 6, 9).
We speak about unemployment rising but not enough is being said about the rising unfillable vacancies owing to the unavailability of skilled workers in many sectors.
Skills shortage is a bigger issue…we need to close the skills gap.
A number of organisations are doing a lot of this via internal academies. I see lots of opportunity for industry led collaboration.
The skills market is the future of jobs and a reactive approach will leave many organisations with a handicap, unable to perform critical business activities.
Skills are required more than ever.
Your thoughts?
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