APACC

QUALITY ASSURANCE IN TECHNICAL EDUCATION

Delivered by:

Mr. Wijayananda Ellawala
Additional Secretary (TVET) Development
Ministry of Skills Development,
Vocational & Technical Education
Sri Lanka

Technical and Vocational Education & Training (TVET system) is recognized today as "Life-long Learning & Training" as a bridge to the future development.

The new trends & challenges of the 21st century have been identified:

Globalization and free market economy
Revolution in information & communication Technology
Rapid changing technology & its influence to the products & services
New trends towards the labour market demand & Migration of work force
Knowledge based society & the need for a new human-centered development paradigm etc.

Due to the facts, TVET system has been recognized as an integral component of Life-long learning & it has an important & crucial role to play in the new world.

A process towards the rapid development of the TVET sector in Sri Lanka has been given utmost priority by every government.

The main objectives of the current TVET Development Programs have been identified:

To encourage all citizens, especially the youth to develop to the best of their potential.
To produce a competent & flexible labour force that leads to productive employments & socio-economic development of the country.

The reforms have been implemented in the recent past and many new initiatives have been undertaken to improve the quality of the TVET Courses and to establish a Unified National TVET System.

A National Vocational Qualifications (NVQ) framework has come into effect and it has the key features of establishing National Skills Standards in respect of each trade use of Competency based-curriculum, nationally accepted assessment criteria and awarding of a unified certificate by training providers.

As the private sector has been identified as an engine of economic growth, private sector training providers are encouraged, and public & Private partnership programs are promoted by the government.

Mostly government shall play a facilitating role and undertakes the responsibilities of regulatory functions, standards setting monitoring, and evaluation and create a favorable policy environment with regard TVET implementation.

To ensure high quality and standards of TVET programmes at various levels in Sri Lankan TVET sector, it has been highly recognized the requirement of a Quality Assurance System. Many initiatives have already been taken in this context and further QA system will follow a two tier system.

Firstly it will focus on well-developed and better equipped training institutions, which some of them are prepared to meet international standards such as ISO-9001-2000.

Secondly, the rest of the training institutions will focus on a well-designed, robust self regulation, self assessment and evaluation supported by a reliable system of external audit and evaluation.

It has been identified that TVET courses offered by all training providers must be accredited by the TVEC in order to meet the National Skills Standards and criteria set by the TVEC.

All training institutions and centers shall establish a Quality Assurance Unit which will be responsible for Quality Assurance.

Quality

It's about implementing a process to assure the keeping of standards & quality of Technical and Vocational Education.

Fitness for use
Improved productivity
To meet customers satisfaction + Continuous improvement + Improved system of Quality

Achievement of customer satisfaction and internal efficiency & effectiveness

Quality Objectives

Maintain an improved quality & standards of training
Use measurements as the basis for continuous, Quality assurance and improvement process.
Establish the Quality assurance standards & the requirements
Make assurance to the public on maintenance of high quality and standards of the training courses of the TVET institutions.
Encourage further improvement and innovations in response to national & international market needs.

Quality Development Approach

Determining of the needs and expectations of the customers
Establishing of
- Quality Policy
- Quality Objectives
- Core Processes
- Responsibilities of the training institutions
Determining and providing necessary resources & facilities to reach the quality
Establishing and application of Methodologies to measure the efficiency and effectiveness of each process.
Determining means of preventing nonconformities and elimination of their causes.
Establishing and applying of a process for continual improvement of the quality.

Quality Assurance Policy

This indicates total commitment and dedication to deliver High Quality Training oriented towards meeting the expectation of customers.

Tertiary & Vocational Education Commission, the Apex body of the Sri Lankan TVET sector has laid down the Quality assurance policy to:

Establish a coherent and robust Quality Management System by training institutions who are delivering Accredited Training Courses.
Ensure the capability of training providers to establish and maintain a suitable environment fit for delivering of training at specific standards.
Ensure that training provider has appropriate & adequate good governance and management to achieve its goal & objectives.
Ensure that the scope of Quality Management System shall encompass the training provider's current and intended delivery of education & training. (Local, National & International courses)
Ensure that the training providers should have Quality Management System including all the processes identified by the TVEC.
Ensure training provider continually improve its processes.

Expectation from the Training Provider

A Quality Training provider is providing
- An effective training
- A sound and stable learning environment
A Quality provider shall have goals & objectives that are appropriate and measurable with a vision in achieving these goals

Quality Management System (QMS)

Quality Management System (QMS) shall ensure that the training provider has the capability:

To establish and maintain suitable environment favorably fit for delivering of training to a specific standards of high quality and
With the continuous improvement of the system of training delivery

"Process driven Quality Management System"

QMS of the training providers has been described: all policies and procedures to deliver training as per given below.

Purpose and Goal - Clearly defined written statement of the purpose & the goals
Quality Management System - QMS ensures that training provider has adequate & appropriate good governance & management to achieve it’s goal objectives.

QMS should provide a description of overall system including details of:

Organizational structure
Responsibilities
Resources
Evaluation & review process
Continual improvement

15 Core Processes

Quality Management System with 15 core processes has been introduced to the Sri Lankan TVET sector. It is compulsory for:

QMS installation of institutions
Requirement of a registration
Necessary for accreditation of courses

Process of development, delivery & evaluation of training programs

In this process training provider has to provide evidence of policies responsibilities, resources procedures and evaluation & review process in his documentation with the approval of his clients & stakeholders.
Process of Resource Management

Adequate and appropriate financial & administration resources to enable all necessary activities to be performed. Also necessary resource requirements for students

Process of Resource Management includes:
- Financial, Administration
- Human Resource
- Physical Resources
- Infrastructure
- Work Environment
Process of Staff Selection, Appraisal & Development
Process of Student Guidance & support.
Process of Student Entry & Registration.
Process Students Assessments on site.
Process Students Assessments off site practical or work based components
Process of Reporting inclusive to TVEC
Process of Validation of Courses
Process of Internal & External Communication
Process of Internal Monitoring & Measurements
Process of Internal Auditing
Process of handling of Complaints & Non Conformances.
Process of Documents & Records Control.
Process of Corrective or Preventive action.

The mechanism of evaluation shall have inputs from clients and stakeholders
The documentation shall identify the range of performances or Quality Indicators which are used by the establishment to help the evaluation Process and also establish Self Evaluation methodology.

In this context a self-evaluation process would help the training provider to identify areas short comings where they need to make improvements.

Further the above processes are expected to focus:

Primary focus on clients and potential clients
Customer satisfaction & feedback in all aspects
Focus on core business-development & delivery of demand driven courses
Continual improvement of the Quality of product & services.
Linking network with partner institutions
Leadership at all levels
Improve the internal efficiency & external efficiency, etc.

Implementation of Quality Assurance System will be a factor in assessing the Quality and Suitability of training providers for registration.

Accrediatation

The goal of accreditation is to develop and sustain the Quality of the Educational & Training Services offered by an institution.

Further it would enable the success of programs or institution.
Institution will improve the Quality, productivity on an internally-driven initiative.
Accreditation is considered to be a management tool for continuous improvement.
Will get recognition by external institutions

Accreditation is a Mechanism to achieve:

Quality Assurance - determine that institution or program meets established standards of Quality and Performance.
Assist institution in determining the acceptability of transfer credits
Help to identify institutions and programs for the investment of public an private funds
Protect an institution against harmful internal and external pressures
Creating goals for self-improvement of weaker programs and stimulating a general raising of standards among education institutions
Involve the faculty and staff comprehensively in institutional evaluation and planning
Establish criteria for professional certification and licensure and for upgrading courses offering such preparation
Provide consideration as basis for determining eligibility for government assistance

Accreditation Principles

An accredited institute effectively organize its human, financial and physical resources towards the accomplishment of its philosophy and objectives
Accreditation is less of a competitive effect among member institutions
Accreditation provides institutional growth

Sri Lankan Situation

TVET in Sri Lanka dates back to 1893 with the establishment of Maradana Technical College, since then several other training providers in Public sector, Private sector & NGOs have been come into the operation at different times

The main TVET Providers of the PUBLIC SECTOR:

Department of Technical Education and Training (DTET)
National Apprentice and Industrial Training Authority (NAITA)
ocational Training Authority (VTA)
National Youth Services Council (NYSC)
Sri Lanka Institute of Advanced Technical Education (SLIATE)
Ceylon – German Technical Training Institute (CGTTI)

These Institutes conduct training courses from basic craft level to certificates and Diploma level, annual total strength is around 60,000 per year. It is estimated that over 4000 private & NGO training Institutions operating in the country and only 750 Institutions has been registered under the TVEC.

In both sectors most of the training courses have not been developed in a systematic manner. Majority of them have not been developed carefully identifying labour market demand, required training standards and competencies & there is no uniformity or accepted training standards at certification.

The cost of certain courses has been increase by large margins without proper attention to quality and relevance.

Due to the fact that various initiatives and programs have been undertaken by the ministry in order to overcome the current deficiencies & to reach the high standards and quality of the TVET programs.

New initiatives of TVET sector :

Operation of skills development project in order to improve the quality and relevancy of TVET courses.
Promote the private sector and NGOs for the registration of TVET programs.Promote all TVET Institutions to obtain necessary
Requirements such as quality management and quality standards ect. For the accreditation of courses.
Establishment of unified TVET system through the establishment of National Vocational Qualification (NVQ).
Promote the Public – Private sector partnership and other initiatives to improve the TVET sector.

Conclusion

Today it is very important to promote Quality excellence in public & private TVET institutions.

It is intended to establish a national system of high quality TVET programs; focusing towards the human potential development, productive employments, industrial growth of the countries & socio-economic development, etc

Therefore establishment of QAS through QMS with 155 core processes & recognizing and implementation of accreditation process is very important in TVET implementation.