An Empirical Study of The Planning and Implementation of Competency Based Education and Training in Vocational Education Training Centers in Namibia: The Case of Namibia Training Authority

ABSTRACT

Namibia is currently undergoing a dramatic reform of its overall development strategy through its national statement, Vision 2030. As part of the response to make Vision 2030 a reality, the government came up with an Education and Training Sector Improvement Programme (ETSIP), which represents the education and training sector’s response to the call of Vision 2030. Its key purpose is to substantially enhance the sector’s contribution to the attainment of strategic national developmental goals and to facilitate the transition to a knowledge-based economy. The emphasis, according ETSIP, is on enhancing the quality of life for all and that calls for the intended rapid economic growth to be accompanied by equitable social development, according to Vision 2030. These twin goals of growth with equity are to be pursued within a broader strategic framework of transforming the economy into a knowledge-based economy (ETSIP, 2006). However, a critical impediment to the acceleration of growth, according to ETSIP, is the sluggish and sometimes even declining productivity in some of the sectors. This could be ascribed to the shortage of skilled workers on various levels and of various areas within industry. Without acceleration of economic growth, it is difficult for Namibia to create jobs to curb the current 51% unemployment rate, especially jobs that signal productivity growth, reduce poverty and attain equitable social development. Employers note the shortage of qualified artisans and technical staff as a constraint on increasing their productivity (ETSIP, 2006). One way of addressing this burning issue of skills shortages and unemployment, by the Namibian government, was the establishment of The Namibian Training Authority (NTA) under the Vocational, Education and Training Act (2008), with the aim of taking over management and direction of Vocational Education Training (VET) in Namibia. One of the strategic objectives for the restructuring is to improve the quality of VET, by establishing a Competency Based Education and Training (CBET) Programme (NAMCOL, 2011).