Title: Human Capital Development eStrategy for Africa: The Need for Public Private Partnerships
1Human Capital Development e-Strategy for Africa
The Need for Public Private Partnerships
- A Presentation by LTA Facilitators
- (Delivered by Mr. Tunde Ezichi, FNCS, CITP)
- _at_
- LEARNING TECHNOLOGIES AFRICA 2008 Conference
Abuja Sheraton Hotels Towers, Nigeria - 8 10 September 2008
2INTRODUCTION - 1
- STIMULATING AFRICAN ECONOMIC GROWTH
- ATTAIN DESIRED LEVEL OF COMPETITIVE K-BASED
ECONOMY - REQUIRES HUMAN CAPACITY WITH NECESSARY E-SKILLS
- NEED COORDINATION OF NATL INTL POLICIES
- ALSO ACTIVE PARTNERSHIPS BETWEEN
- PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS
- PRIVATE COMPANIES
- OTHER SOCIAL PARTNERS
3INTRODUCTION - 2
- KEY ISSUES
- PUBLIC PRIVATE PARTNERSHIPS (PPPs)
- MULTI-STAKEHOLDER PARTNERSHIPS (MSPs)
4CHARACTERISTICS OF KNOWLEDGE-BASED SOCIETY
- INNOVATE OR FALL BEHIND!!
- SOUND WARNING IN INCREASINGLY COMPETITIVE GLOBAL,
KNOWLEDGE-BASED ECONOMY (K-ECONOMY) - GROWING AFRICAS ECONOMY DEPENDS ON
- GLOBAL COMPETITIVENESS OF BUSINESSES
- QUALITY OF K-HUMAN CAPACITY
- FIRMS INDIVIDUALS MUST BE COMMITTED TO
LIFE-LONG LEARNING - ACQUIRING, GENERATING EXPLOITING KNOWLEDGE ARE
KEY FOR INDIVIDUALS EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS
5EDUCATION/TRAINING PARADIGM SHIFT
- MONOPOLY OF FORMAL LEARNING INSTITUTIONS GIVING
WAY AROUND THE WORLD - CHANGING SOCIAL, ECONOMIC POLITICAL REALITIES
NOW BLUR DISTINCTIONS BETWEEN TRADITIONALLY
SEGREGATED SYSTEMS OF - GENERAL EDUCATION (PRIMARY/SECONDARY)
- HIGHER/TERTIARY EDUCATION
- VOCATIONAL TRAINING
- EDUCATION TRAINING SYSTEMS NOW BASED ON
- NEW LEARNING PHILOSOPHIES, APPROACHES CONTEXTS
- CATERING FOR NEW LEARNER PROFILES NEEDS
6PARALLEL UNIVERSES
- DISTINCTIVE REALMS OF LEARNING NOW EVOLVING INTO
PARALLEL UNIVERSES PARTICULARLY IN ICT
EDUCATION BETWEEN - INFORMAL
- INDUSTRY-BASED
- FORMAL GOVERNMENT SUPPORTED
- RISE OF AUTONOMOUS STANDARDS EMBODIED IN
INDUSTRY-BASED TRAINING CERTIFICATION GIVES
RISE TO SUBSTANTIAL UNCERTAINTY ABOUT
STANDARDS - WHAT TO SET
- HOW TO VALIDATE SUCH
- HOW TO STRENGTHEN COHERENCE BETWEEN DIFFERENT
APPROACHES - MSPs FOR EDUCATION TRAINING OFFER POTENTIAL TO
BRIDGE PARALLEL UNIVERSES
7THE CHALLENGE AHEAD
- TO MEET NEPAD INTIATIVE, AU CHALLENGE IS TO
ENHANCE EFFORTS FOR HIGH QUALITY EDUCATION
TRAINING PROVISION FOR - LIFE-LONG LIFE-WIDE BASIS LEARNING SATISFYING
THE FOLLOWING - INCREASING ACCESS IMPROVING QUALITY
- maintaining positive diversity and ensuring
coherency, flexibility and stability - REQUIRING state regulation and institutional
autonomy - Meeting individual needs while responding to
those of society and the economy - Question How can the government, industries and
educational - institutions create innovative partnerships
that reinvent - ways to provide people the capabilities they
need to - actively and continuously participate as
partners of - economic growth in a knowledge-economy?
8Partners of economic growth
- MSPs to bridge the parallel universes
- Partnership must carry message that workforce
development is economic growth - To provide individuals the knowledge they need to
participate as partners of economic growth in a - k-economy, a potential partnership must also
find impact-laden, effective, and efficient ways
to enable knowledge flow between industry and
educational institutions - By utilising and combining the respective
strengths and resources of the different actors,
and compensating for each others respective
weaknesses, partnerships represent an important
new strand of public policy development
9PARTNERSHIP DIGITAL OPPORTUNITY INITIATIVE
- FOR NATIONAL, REGIONAL OR SECTOR LEVEL ICT
BENEFITS, MUST CREATE NEW COLLABORATION FORM
INVOLVING PUBLIC/PRIVATE SECTOR ACTORS IN MANNER
THAT IS - INCLUSIVE
- OPEN
- PARTICIPATORY
- MSP STRATEGIES VARY BETWEEN COUNTRIES BECAUSE OF
different circumstances, priorities and financial
means - COUNTRIES should therefore
- adopt different strategies accordingly
- HAVE COMPREHENSIVE FRAMEWORK TO DETERMINE
STRATEGY - HAVE COORDINATED ACTION TO YIELD MORE EFFECTIVE
RESULTS
10BENEFITS OF MSPs OR PPPs
- MSPs OR PPPs
- ARE NOT AN END IN THEMSELVES BUT IMPORTANT NEW
STRATEGY FOR IMPROVED SERVICES DELIVERY - DO NOT OCCUR BY CHANCE
- INVOLVE STAKEHOLDERS SUBSTANTIAL COMMITMENT WITH
PROSPECT OF MAJOR BENEFITS IN e-SKILLS
DEVELOPMENT EDUCATION
11BENEFITS OF MSPs OR PPPs FOR THE PUBLIC SECTOR
- More widespread provision of computer literacy
plus professional e-skills, ensuring wider
productive participation and co-operation of
citizens in the knowledge-based society - Enhancement of existing curricula to fit modern
needs. Students can leave formal education
channels with workplace ready-skills - Future-proof education by providing a mechanism
to constantly update curricula in response to
actual industry needs and societal requirements - Provide students of a knowledge-based society
with new alternative channels of educational
achievement - Closer alignment of supply and demand in skills,
reducing wastage and increasing employment rates - Increased regional development through workforce
mobility across Africa and beyond - New approaches to delivering e-skills to SMEs
without the need for extensive public investment
in the learning infrastructure and content - Multiplication of training centres and training
environments giving citizens maximum access to
training opportunities, whatever their current
status
12BENEFITS OF MSPs OR PPPs FOR THE STUDENTS
- Enhancement of just-in-time learning and
life-long learning opportunities - Updated curricula mean acquisition of current,
- real-valued e-skills
- Public funding for recognised e-skills
qualifications through certifications means lower
barrier to meet real e-skills needs - Greater employment chances as new workplace
- e-skills can be acquired outside of the actual
workplace.
13BENEFITS OF MSPs OR PPPs FOR INDUSTRY
- Workplace-ready employees
- Closer match of supply and demand reduces need
for costly re-training on the job - Supply of workforce no longer dependent on
national boundaries - Reassurance that, in an age of workforce
mobility, personal training investment will not
be handing an advantage to a competitor. - Greater visibility and promotion of
industry-based e-skills certifications
14WHAT IS PUBLIC, WHAT IS PRIVATE?
- PUBLIC SECTOR
- VARIOUS MDAs _at_ NATIONAL, REGIONAL LOCAL LEVELS
- DEPENDING ON COUNTRY LEVEL OF DECENTRALIZATION,
ENTITIES ENJOY MORE OR LESS AUTONOMY - STATE TRADITIONALLY BOTH FUNDS PROVIDES
EDUCATION - SHOULD BE CAREFUL TO CREATE LEGAL/REGULATORY
FRAMEWORK FOR PARTNERSHIPS BETWEEN DIFFERENT
STAKEHOLDERS - PRIVATE SECTOR
- ORGANIZATIONS (FOR-PROFIT/NOT-FOR-PROFIT)
- PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS INDIVIDUALS
- VOLUNTARY GROUPS NGOs
- HAVE BECOME, LIKE THE STATE, PAYERS PROVIDERS
OF ALTERNATIVE EDUCATION CHANNELS - SHOULD BE MINDFUL OF ITS SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITIES
15BENEFITS ASSOCIATED WITH INDUSTRY-BASEDe-SKILL
CERTIFICATIONS
- Credential portability
- Knowledge and e-skill transferability
- Economic development growth
- Worker mobility
- Education and training congruence
16EXAMPLES OF MULTI-STAKEHOLDER PPPs FOR e-SKILLS
DEVELOPMENT
- Recognition of vendor certifications in the UK
- The Qualification and Curriculum Authority
(QCA) is responsible for accrediting all these
qualifications, which thus become eligible for
government funding - Recognition of vendor certifications in the
Netherlands - ECABO (Dutch National Body for Vocational
Education) is charged with developing and
maintaining a qualifications framework in the
Netherlands - The Cisco Networking Academy Programme (CNAP)
- The CNAP is a PPP between governments,
educational institutions, social partners and
industry, in particular Cisco, created to teach
students how to design, build and maintain
computer networks
17EXAMPLES OF MULTI-STAKEHOLDER PPPs FOR e-SKILLS
DEVELOPMENT II
- The European/International Computer Driving
Licence (ECDL/ICDL) - The European/International Computer Driving
Licence (ECDL/ICDL) is an internationally-recogni
sed, vendor-neutral, end-user computer skills
certification. It has more than 3.5 million
participants and is currently available in 135
countries. - National Skills Standards Voluntary Partnership
(US) - An interesting industry-led example for a
successful multi-stakeholder partnership is the
US National Skills Standards Voluntary
Partnership. In this case, CompTIA was chosen by
the US National Skill Standards Board to lead
the research and development of skill standards
for use by the industry, the public workforce
system and education.
18The Way Forward
- The Certification Consortium
- The establishment of a multi-stakeholder
partnership of government, industry, and
education stakeholders to develop a framework for
African countries is recommended. This will allow
the recognition of industry and other non-formal
certifications within formal national educational
and vocational training systems across Africa. - This will permit mutual recognition within the
African Union (AU) of public qualifications and
vendor certifications gained within the workplace
across different national education systems, all
the time respecting national differences and
preferences in the organisation and operation of
the education system.
19The Way Forward - 2
- Three major options can be identified for the
implementation mechanism - Public sector review an agency is established
with a mandate to map, review and formally
approve private sector courses. Once
rubber-stamped in this way, institutions
providing the course would be eligible for public
sector promotion. - Industry self-regulation - ICT training channels
agree to design courses in line with prior set
educational guidelines and priorities laid down
by governments. - De-facto recognition a formula allowing ICT
training courses developed by industry in
response to specific skills and performance gaps
to receive instant public sector recognition. - A further step will be an AU Framework to
facilitate Pan-African recognition of
certifications in support of employee mobility,
and to promote exchange of best practices between
stakeholders in the field of e-skills.
209. Strategic Objective Build Human Capacity and
Sustained Awareness for ICT Utilization
21Conclusions - 1
- Given the complexity of the operating environment
for multi-stakeholder PPPs in education, it is
important to state that there is no single
ideal-type multi-stakeholder PPP for e-skills
development. The right relationship is the one
that best meets the needs of the partners in the
local context, in developing regions or others.
One size does not fit all. The AU, AU Member
States, and sub-regional provinces or other local
entities should beware of attempting to define
too rigidly any contractual structure or
mandatory or other preferences in the pursuit of
a sustainable and replicable delivery model for
the provision of e-skills.
22Conclusions - 2
- Substantial political support is needed to
explain the changes implied by PPPs potential for
the AU and AU Member States in the e-skills
content. - Comprehensive and integrative partnership
projects, such as projects for African ICT
Career Development System and ICT Career Portal,
could serve best to deliver the applied economics
of multi-stakeholder partnerships for e-skills
development in Europe and beyond.
23Conclusions - 3
- A major initiative preferably through a
multi-stakeholder forum on International e-skills
is needed in view of the Tunis World Summit on
the Information Society in 2005 given the
importance of non-discriminatory funding and
support for education and knowledge for
development and competitiveness and the weight
put on capacity building in the previous Geneva
summit in 2003.
24Thank You.