”This focus on curriculum development is essential to achieving the project’s goal of improving the overall quality of vocational education and training”. Zantchito TA Project Deputy Team Leader Dr. Dick Maganga made the remarks in Salima on 28 May 2024 during the opening of a four-day Curriculum Development Workshop for the country’s four Centres of Vocational Excellence (CoVEs) which was facilitated by TEVETA.
He noted that CoVEs were different from ordinary technical colleges and that it was anticipated that the quality of services in the CoVEs would be higher. This meant that some procedures and standards would be different. The workshop was therefore going to mark the start of this.
Dr. Maganga said: “The curriculum development workshop was important because all the training that the CoVEs will be offering depended on Curricula. Similarly, staffing in the CoVEs and the provision of equipment to the CoVEs both depended on curricula. Finally, it was important that the CoVEs understand and agree the curriculum development process so that the required curricula can be developed quickly”.
He expressed the hope that by the end of the workshop, each CoVE will have a clear plan with timelines and preliminary budget for completing all the curriculum development work and an implementation plan.
“We want to raise the bar in as far as skills development in this country is concerned, so let us utilize this opportunity to come up with the best curricula, moving away from the business as usual approach where one can say we have done this before and there is nothing new. We are breaking new ground as CoVEs, therefore let us be innovative as we contribute to the development of our country”, Dr. Maganga added.
TEVETA Regional Service Centre Manager, Joseph Sambaya described the workshop as critical to ensure the TEVET curriculum customisation process for the CoVEs is achieved.
He urged the participants not to lose focus on the broader national aspirations as espoused in the Malawi 2063 in line with the Malawi Implementation Plan 1 (MIP-1) and the Agricultural Commercialisation, Tourism and Mining (ATM) strategy.
He said: “The industry is concerned that the TEVET graduates largely do not respond to their needs which forces them to send the graduates for further training which is time consuming and costly. Therefore, let us work on bridging the gaps to make the training impactful”.
The CoVEs that are working on developing the curriculum are the Marine Transport COVE at Salima Technical College, Renewable Energy COVE at Mzuzu Technical College, Tourism COVE at Malawi Institute of Tourism (MIT) and Agricultural Mechanization COVE at Lilongwe Technical College.
