Mozambique: Reform in Professional Education

Agencia de Informacao de Mocambique (Maputo) - 11 April 2008

Maputo

The Mozambican government's Professional Skills Development Fund (FUNDEC) is to support the implementation of 60 vocational and professional training projects in public and private institutions and in community organizations.

The projects are budgeted at 2.4 million US dollars, a figure which also includes rehabilitation and furnishing of educational infrastructures, such as basic technical schools and professional training centres.

According to the director of the Integrated Professional Education Reform Programme (PIREP), Zeferino Martins, accelerated training of managers and professional trainers will start in the second half of this year, and the idea is to ensure that there will be no shortage of qualified technical teachers by the beginning of the 2009 school year.

Martins was speaking in Maputo on Thursday, during the opening of a workshop for public presentation of new draft models for the National Professional Education Qualifications Framework, for the Structure of Skills Standards, for the Quality Guarantee and Management System, and for the Professional Education Trainers Strategy.

The workshop is to discuss these documents, propose changes, and identify the most important aspects that will shape an integrated professional education system in line with the demands of the labour market.

The four draft documents represent a new approach to professional education. They should be approved by June and their implementation will start immediately.

If adopted, the National Qualifications Framework, for instance, will be a basic instrument of assessment in schools, particularly in teacher training institutions.

This reform is a programme designed by the government, with the support of international partners, including the World Bank, who have pledged part of the necessary funds.