East Africa Skills for Transformation and Regional Integration Project (EASTRIP)
The Project Development Objective of EASTRIP is to increase the access and improve the quality of TVET programs in selected Regional TVET Centres of Excellence and to support regional integration. The project supports the development of highly specialized TVET programs at diploma and degree levels for training of technicians and TVET faculty, as well as industry recognized short-term training, targeting regional priority sectors in transport, energy, manufacturing, and ICT. To achieve the PDO, the project will focus on three areas: increasing access to TVET programs, improving quality and relevance of TVET programs, and supporting regional integration.
The East Africa Skills for Transformation and Regional Integration Project (EASTRIP) is a five-year project funded by the World Bank and the Governments of Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania to increase access and improve quality of TVT programs offered by the selected Regional Flagship Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVT) Institutes (RFTIs).
The project was launched in June 2019 with USD 293 million investments from the World Bank and the Governments of Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania.
The Project seeks to address skills shortage and mismatch, by providing technical, financial and industry partnerships to improve the relevance and quality of training programmes in the 16 selected Regional Flagship TVT Institutes.
The project supports the development of highly specialized TVT programmes at diploma and degree levels for training of technicians and TVT faculty, as well as industry recognised short-term training, targeting regional priority sectors in transport, energy, manufacturing, and ICT. Later on, tourism has integrated from Ethiopia side.
The 16 Regional Flagship TVT Institutes, 7 in Ethiopia, 5 in Kenya, and 4 in Tanzania will become TVT Centers of Excellence (CoE) providing skilled workers in priority sectors required by the economies in the region. These RFTIs are expected to become TVT Centres of Excellence that trigger and guide continental wide TVT reforms.
In addition, the project’s institutional beneficiaries include the ministries of education and national TVT agencies, more specifically, the Ministry of Skills and Labour and the Federal TVT Agency in Ethiopia; the Ministry of Education (MoE), TVT Authority, and Curriculum Development Assessment and Certification Council (TVT CDACC) in Kenya; and the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MoEST), National Council for Technical Education (NACTE), Vocational Education and Training Authority (VETA), and Tanzania Commission for Universities (TCU) in Tanzania.
Through the project, the World Bank and the Governments of Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania have committed to provide support and resources to create and implement policies that allow TVT institutions to re-engineer their learning platforms and modes of delivery to meet the dynamic and ever-changing skills requirements of the marketplace. The EASTRIP Project also facilitates regional integration by providing a regional platform to promote exchange of policies and practices, students and faculty mobility and harmonisation of occupational standards and qualifications.
The project is being implemented at three different levels, including RFTIs, Nationally at Ministries responsible for Education and TVT, and finally regional levels. The Inter University Council for East Africa (IUCEA) hosts the regional component of the project as the Regional Facilitation Unit (RFU).
The Inter University Council for East Africa (IUCEA) is a strategic institution of the East African Community (EAC) responsible for the development of higher education and research in the region. The IUCEA was competitively selected by the World Bank as the Regional Facilitation Unit (RFU) of the East African Skills for Transformation and Regional Integration Project (EASTRIP).
The RFU is responsible for coordinating the regional component of the project including supporting project implementation in the 16 Regional Flagship TVT Institutes and the three national TVT systems. It also includes harmonization of TVT occupational standards, in close collaboration with industries, and mutual recognition of qualifications in EASTRIP priority sectors including Manufacturing, Power and Energy, Transport and Infrastructure, and Information and Communication Technology (ICT). It also facilitates staff and student mobility exchange programs, and Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) of the project implementation.
African governments have embraced industrialization as part of the strategy for sustainable economic development and job creation. This has resulted in increased demand for skilled labour to support the growing sector of the economies. However, there is shortage of skilled labour to support key growth sectors of the economy. Skills shortage is particularly acute in the fields of ICT, transport, energy, manufacturing, and agriculture processing as well as tourism. While industry complains about lacking qualified workers, youth unemployment and underemployment is also prevalent.
The EASTRIP Project has focused on these critical sectors of the economy because it is believed that they are critical to spur industrialization and support economic development of the nations in East Africa.
Progresses made.
Project Implementation: Structures for ensuring effective project implementation have been put in place including establishment of a Regional Steering Committee
(RSC) with members from Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania, TVT institutes benefiting from the project have established full-fledged project implementation unit, and National Project Coordination Units at Ministries have been established. A full-fledged Project Regional Implementation Unit at IUCEA, as the EASTRIP Regional Facilitation Unit (RFU) has been established.
Collaboration with Industries: Collaboration between TVT institutes with industries and other productive sectors is a strong requirement for the EASTRIP Project. Most of the 16 TVT institutes have established Industrial Advisory Boards with private sector representatives. The institute have also signed Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) with industries to collaborate on curriculum development and industry attachment.
Construction of ultra-modern training facilities for TVT institutes. The project has provided technical and financial support to TVT Institutions from Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania to establish TVT Centres of Excellence with the construction of ultra-modern training facilities. Each of the institutions is at various stages of construction.
Harmonisation of TVT Qualification. The process of harmonising TVT occupational standards and qualifications frameworks is underway. Harmonization of TVT qualifications and occupational standards is expected to create an enabling policy environment to enhance skills development and service delivery among TVT institutes in the East African Region. A draft regional TVT qualifications framework has been developed and is currently under discussion. A number of stakeholder engagements have been held to ensure that the final document will include views of majority of stakeholders in TVT in the region. Once developed and implemented, the regional qualifications framework will facilitate mutual recognition of TVT qualifications in the East African region, which will in turn encourage movement of skilled labour in the region. This will promote regional integration and facilitate implementation of the EAC Common Market Protocol.
Support to Technical and vocational Institutes to respond to COVID-19. During the Covid-19 disruptions, EASTRIP supported 16 selected TVT Institutes to develop e-Learning platforms to facilitate continuous learning during COVID-19 and in the long term. The RFU provided both financial and technical support to develop specifications for setting up eLearning platforms and modern ICT infrastructure.
Scholarships for tutors from TVT Institutes: The Chinese Government through the Ministry of Education signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Inter University Council of East Africa (IUCEA), and the World Bank to provide 100 post graduate scholarships to tutors and lecturers in the selected 16 Flagship TVT Institutes in East Africa. Every year about 20 faculty members from the EASTRIP colleges will be selected to pursue relevant technical and engineering master’s or Ph.D. degrees in top Chinese universities and technical colleges it is strongly believed that the scholarships will help build long term core capacity of TVT institutes to enhance the sustainability of the EASRIP support to TVT institutes.
Expected Results:
• By the end of the project, the 16 flagship institutes will have at least doubled their capacity to collectively enrol 20,000 students on an annual basis in both long-term and short-term training programmes.
• Cumulatively, the project will have directly benefitted close to 60,000 students. It is also projected that at least 30% of the enrolment will be female students.
• At least 310 staff will benefit from industrial attachment programs and 230 staff will benefit from foreign exchange program at the end of the project.
• Furthermore, the project will indirectly benefit all students who are enrolled in the flagship TVT institutes due to the improved management, teaching, and infrastructure.
• Finally, the project will benefit students and faculty who are in non-project TVT institutes that have partnership arrangement with the flagship TVT institutes.
• Employers in the targeted industries will also benefit from an expanded and more qualified pool of skilled labour.
EASTRIP at the Tourism Training Institute
The Tourism Training Institute has not been a member of EASTRIP family at the outset in 2018 when the project was conceived; however, due to the vacuum created in the exclusion of Ethiopian Railway Academy, the Institute has been considered for replacement. Unlike the Seven TVTIs representing Ethiopia, the Tourism Training Institute has incorporated both Tourism and Hospitality to make up the project priority areas. In this sense, it encompasses the all programs/occupational standards under his jurisdiction. These are;
• Tour Operation Service
• Tour Guiding Service
• Front Office Service
• Housekeeping and Laundry Service
• Culinary Arts
• Food and Beverage Service
• Food and Beverage Control
• Pastry, Bakery and confectionery
Currently, the Institute has on-boarded a strong Technical Industry Advisory Board in light of the need to strengthen the Institute – Industry Collaboration as well as to infuse the industry expertise from the industry side.
At the Institute level, the following Disbursement Linked Indicators (DLIs) are stipulated as a mechanism for the achievement of the project development objectives.
DLI 2.1:
• Number of student enrolment at RFTIs in programs aimed at meeting skills needs of priority sectors.
DLI 3.1:
• Number of demand-driven programs developed and accredited by national TVET accreditation agencies or certified by industries.
DLI 3.2:
• Number of teaching staff in regional flagship TVET institutes who have industrial attachment.
DLI 3.3:
• Number of teaching staff who undertake exchanges in TVET institutes in another country
DLI 3.4:
• Number of MoUs signed with industries and partner institutions
DLI 3.5:
• Tracer Study Conducted Annually
It has been close to a year since the inclusion of TTI to EASTRIP family and only a few months since the formation of PIU (Project Implementation Unit), and the Institute is exerting its best capacity to actualizing the project activities.
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