Laos hosts Regional TVET Conference 2015

The Lao Ministry of Education and Sports (MoES) and the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) hosted the Regional TVET Conference on 14 and 15 December in Vientiane. The conference, titled ‘Supporting AEC-Integration through Inclusive and Labour Market oriented TVET’, aimed at providing a forum for exchange on national and regional strategies and policies in the field of technical vocational education and training (TVET).

A variety of key stakeholders, such as high-level policy and decision makers, bi- and multilateral donors and implementing agencies as well as representatives from the private sector, non-governmental or-ganisations and civil society shared and learned from good practices and engage in collaboration among other TVET professionals from ASEAN. The conference focused on four main topics, crucial for the further development of the TVET sector in Asia. These were TVET governance, inclusive vocational education, work process and employment oriented TVET, and TVET personnel. H.E. Dr Phankham Viphavanh, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education and Sports and Mr Thomas Silberhorn, Parliamentary State Secretary to the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, were to open the conference.

In a preceding press conference on Sunday, MoES Vice-Minister Kongsy Sengmany summarised: ‘This conference is very important for the TVET sector of Lao PDR. The topics and the results of the conference will contribute to TVET quality improvement as well as to the human resource development as a whole. In this occasion I would like to express my sincerely thanks to the government of Germany for their support to this conference and also thank all sectors for their involvement’. As ASEAN member countries prepare for the implementation of free movement of labour in the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), it is not only important to strengthen their national labour forces’ competencies but also to strengthen collaboration amongst each other, based on joint standards and mutual recognition.

The conference presented an opportunity to exchange on the impact of the upcoming AEC on the local and regional labour markets and the necessary reforms and adjustments of the national TVET systems. The private sector had the possibility to express expectations in the presence of ministry and development partner officials.

‘Vocational education is a key element on the path from school to employment’, BMZ Parliamentary State Secretary Thomas Silberhorn stressed. 'Our German model of "dual" vocational education has given us a lot of experience on measures that can prove effective in the TVET sector’. Germany is exporting its dual TVET approach to many nations in Asia, amongst them Lao PDR. The cooperation between Lao PDR and Germany aims to reform the TVET system to increasingly include disadvantaged groups and to focus more on the needs of the Lao labour market. Currently, Germany implements a variety of TVET projects. The largest one, Vocational Education in Laos (VELA), together with Switzerland and implemented by German technical cooperation agency GIZ (Gesellschaft fuer Internationale Zusammenarbeit), introduces dual-cooperative training to up to 2000 students and provides short courses to 10,000 youth, at least 70% from disadvantaged groups. 12 vocational schools and technical training institutions are directly supported by German Development Cooperation through technical expertise, equipment and financial support. The construction and the equipment of these schools will be mainly provided by German financial cooperation agency KfW.

This text is based on the conference press release