Enhancing TVET Financing Mechanisms in the Arab Region with UNESCO
In today’s Arab world, the employment and labour market conditions have remained challenging over the years. As the region is confronted with volatile socio-political unrests, armed conflicts, humanitarian crises, and population displacement, the fragility and volatility in societies impact the vulnerable groups of the population, particularly the youth. They experience labour market barriers that impede their ability and potential to engage in productive activities, and TVET is always regarded as a powerful tool to prepare people for the labour market and provide lifelong learning opportunities.
As part of its endeavors to enhance the capacity of all relevant stakeholders to strengthen TVET financing, the UNESCO Beirut Office organized an Online Capacity Building Workshop of Financing Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) in the Arab Region from November 9th to 10th, 2021. The workshop welcomed around 40 participants coming from 13 countries in the Arab region.
This artcle therefore, spotlights the key takeaways of the workshop how TVET systems needs to change to overcomes many underlined challenges such as system fragmentation, outdated infrastructure at TVET schools/institutions, low participation of private sectors, limited compatibility between the TVET programmes and labour market needs, obsolete and unrelevant programmes and curricula to labour market requirements. Since financing plays an essential role to achieve this goal, and it does not only matter how many resources are required, it also underscores the importance of planning on how to allocate and diversify the funds.