By Gladys Fred Kole
South Sudan’s Minister of Higher Education, Science and Technology announces plans to establish four polytechnic institutions in the country.
He made the announcement during the launch of the first-ever University innovation pod, UNIPOD Space at the University of Juba on Wednesday.
Chang emphasized the importance of Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) in improving the country’s educational programs.
The four polytechnic institutes will be built in Northern Bahr El Ghazal State, Unity State, Eastern Equatoria, and Western Equatoria States, he said.
“TVET is very important because we want to address issues facing our local industries that is why we are transforming four would-be universities into polytechnics that is, Aweil Polytechnics for sciences, Bentiu Polytechnics for oil and gas Yambio Polytechnics for Agriculture and Forestry and Torit polytechnics for engineering,” Mr. Chang highlighted.
Tertiary schools will be prepared to teach students practical skills on TVET programs, supporting local industries and allowing graduates to be employed by companies, the government or self-employed, he said.
Chang urged development partners to collaborate with other universities, such as Rumbek, Wau, Upper Nile, and John Garang, to provide similar activities to other public universities.
Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) serves multiple purposes, and its key purpose is preparation of youth with practical skills for work.
Work is broadly defined and therefore refers to both formal employment and self-employment. To support self-employment, TVET curricula often include entrepreneurship training.
The rapid technological changes demand that workers continuously update their knowledge and skills unlike in the past when a job could be held for life, it is commonplace to change vocations several times.
TVET enables flexibility in two ways, providing broad-based technical knowledge and transversal skills on which different occupations can be based meanwhile the second is providing continuing vocational training to workers.