Vocational education can be a game changer in Uganda

Vocational education and training (VET) is that part of tertiary education and training which provides accredited training in job-related and technical skills. It covers a large number of careers and industries like trade and office work, retail, hospitality and technology. Uganda is approaching a significant point in its history where high rate of unemployment is registered. The cost of living is increasing every year, which is something we need to worry about. The only solution to this is for the nation to focus on the curriculum review, the time for the nation to adopt a more positive attitudes towards technical and vocational education (Tech-Voc) and promote its parity of status or esteem with academic education.
Most Ugandans consider technical education to be for academically weak students. Parents take their children to technical institutes when they have failed to look for good schools and technical education become last choice. Today, most people believe that an academic education is the only route to a secure job and social prestige. This is why thousands of young people invest vast amounts of time and money re-taking academic examinations to make the proverbial five O-Level or A-Level hoping to get good grades. The result: Thousands of demoralised young people armed with white collar job aspirations, but without the skills to participate in the dynamic, competitive and globalised economy. They just sit and watch, while others become boda-boda riders or taxi-stouts, etc.
If the thousands of O-Level, A-Level graduates roaming the streets of our towns or cities is not enough to convince us that we need to change our attitude towards vocational education, then may be the high unemployment rates among university graduates with First Class academic degrees should.
The shift in attitude should begin with parents, policy makers and educators because they wield unbelievable influence on the development of vocational education.
Some parents even go as far as forcing their children to abandon practical skills training and vocation training in favour of academics, often times despite demonstrated passion and aptitude by their children. And yet, subjects like Fashion Design and Fabrics, Technical Graphics, Woodwork or even Metal Fabrication and so forth can enhance hand-eye coordination-a transferable skill that is not only vital to be a good surgeon, but also one you cannot acquire from a textbook.
One important shift is for all schools to open vocational education subjects to all academically inferior students. This will help in tapping into the vast potential of all students, including thousands of out of school children, who drop out because we cannot meet their educational needs. That our policy makers allocate insignificant resources for technical education is a reflection of their disregard for vocational education.
Furthermore, graduates of technical institutions do not have access to capital to start viable enterprises to take the economy to the next level. Our tendency to exclusively focus on academics means that we lose the numerous benefits from classes such as Art, where students learn to develop products from abstract ideas, collaborate or critique each other’s work without incident.
Technical education teaches broad-based and transferable skills such as self-awareness, communication and entrepreneurship that are not only applicable to many occupations, but also a requirement for participation in the new and dynamic global economy. If we embrace the positive attitudes towards technical education, this can then lead to innovation and success in many of our industries.
In a country with some students who will cheat examinations to get ahead, the importance of teaching integrity, responsibility, discipline, patience, and problem solving, which can be enhanced by vocational education, cannot be emphasized enough.

Mr Olema is a vocational education advocate. [email protected]