National Capacity Building Programme to Enhance a National Skills Development programme

Etio (formerly Tribal Education Services) led the capacity building of a team of 20 local professionals in a country in the Middle East who work in a key national agency responsible for supporting the upskilling of nationals. A full capacity building programme was designed to support the agency employees in understanding a skills-based approach to education and labour markets including technical aspects of how to embed skills into curriculum and assessment and how to utilise skills frameworks and standards as a tool for communication between education and employers.

The capacity building programme was developed over a 10-month period and featured a number of key components.

1. An individual development plan (IDP) was designed around the job specific competencies that needed to be developed based on a simple assessment of the team and their prior background. This IDP included a combination of training courses, self-directed learning, on the job coaching and job shadowing.
2. Weekly ‘knowledge sharing’ sessions allowed the Etio consultants supporting the project to have a structured conversations with the team around different technical aspects of education work to help them understand the education sector and how education can work in other countries to support the skills eco system. Likewise, Etio consultants learnt more about the teams experiences and context to allow Etio an important learning opportunity.
3. The employees attended a live online training course by a credible international provider in Skills Development to understand the principals and methodologies commonly used for national skills development.
4. A formal assessment of the work the employees did in sector skills scoping reports allowed the Etio team to align the methodologies taught in the formal learning course with the work of the team and help improve the quality of the reports based on best practice.
5. A ‘professional discussion’ assessment allowed the Etio team to assess the levels of knowledge and application of knowledge of each employee to align the teams’ skills to new job roles to identify the best fit for different jobs.

Additional opportunities for job shadowing and self directly learning were identified and included based on individual need.

The impact of the capacity building programme saw a significant increase in the knowledge and skills of the team in a short time. Once the Etio consultants left the project, the local employee team had a solid foundation in the principles and methodologies of skills development leaving a sustainable continuation of the work.