Competency-Based Training
- A potential tool to transform technical and vocational education and training
The Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) system in Ghana is supposed to be going through a transformation as recommended by Government White Paper (October 2004).
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The white paper states that there should be a radical transformation in the quality of TVET graduates that TVET providers produce and the TVET should be seen as a credible alternative to general education. This radical transformation to make the TVET a credible alternative to general education is still a dream.
In pursuit of this radical transformation, a National Council for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (COTVET) was established. This new radical transformation has to introduce the Competency-Based Training (CBT) concept as a mode of delivery in the TVET system in Ghana.
TVET is used as a tool for meeting often conflicting economic and social goals. It is also used as a poverty alleviation tool in many countries. Demand for TVET is motivated by economic goals’ stems from the income that accrues to those individuals, enterprises, communities, regions and the nation at large that possess superior or quality skills and knowledge with strong attitudinal change. Demand for particular goods and services in the global and domestic economy also translates into demand for particular skills. CBT is one means of acquiring such skills and we believe this is why every encouragement should be given to COTVET and its Project Support Unit (PSU).
Competency-Based Training
This COTVET Competency-Based Training (CBT) programme is an exciting new unitised, outcomes based qualification that is being developed in partnership with leading employers. This new programme will provide the kind of workers that industry demands. It will also prepare individuals for self-employment.
The qualification aims, through strong business/ industry support and partnership, to provide a workforce, tuned to meet the changing needs of employers. In particular, this new programme is designed to produce employable and trained workers with knowledge, attitude and skills assessed and quality assured to international standards.
The CBT certified learner will develop a range of skills, knowledge and understanding of their vocational or technical area. In addition, the qualification is designed to develop a wealth of transferable generic skills, including communication, numeracy, information and communication technology, personal and interpersonal skills, entrepreneurship and problem-solving.
This paradigm shift from the current traditional technical and vocational education and training to CBT will encourage lifelong learning and help develop learner’s competencies. The programmes are unitised so an employee can do specific units which are needed for skills upgrading in a particular job. The employee will receive a qualification that is recognised by employers because industry representatives generate the Occupational Standards that are used to develop the programmes, support the training of the learners through the Workplace Experience Learning (WEL) and also play the role of external verifiers to quality assure the assessment evidence for certification.
The COTVET CBT programme will provide a bridge between the industry clients and the providers of technical and vocational education and training. The occupational standards will be an enduring means of articulating industry training requirements, thereby increasing the relevance and job specificity of technical and vocational education and training efforts.
The CBT, when applied effectively, will be an effective means of giving greater prominence to work-based learning and providing a means of formalising this learning in the workplace with the attainment of qualifications. It will also increase Ghana’s skills pool by enabling those involved in CBT to acquire COTVET Qualification Framework credentials.
Efficiency and effectiveness in education and training
To make technical and vocational education and training more efficient and effective, the programme should be broken down into small manageable chunks. This bit by bit method of education and training help to address the different needs and abilities of individuals. This method is what CBT offers and has the potential to make TVET learners develop their innovative and creativity skills.
The unitised method makes education and training more flexible, effective and accessible to many because, programme materials are usually broken down into a number of units, which allow learners to master one section before progressing to the next. This flexibility allows learners to learn at their own pace and when they have mastered the unit, present themselves for assessment.
As the CBT programme is unitised, mastering a learning outcome or competence become easy. The reason being that the learner becomes aware that the learning is at his or her own pace.This in a way motivates the learner and breaks away the fear of not coping with the programme and makes learning efficient and cost effective; this is the reason why the CBT is becoming popular worldwide.