| 4. In which ways is the initiative creative and innovative?
|
|
Planning stage:
• Formal approval for establishing the Center obtained from MOE.
• MOE signed an agreement with UNESCO to establish the center.
• Estimating the necessary budgets and resources and submitting it to the Ministry of Finance for approval.
• Hiring the UNESCO consultants for strategic support.
• Granting the needed infrastructures for the center such as buildings, furnishing and equipment.
Implementation stage:
• Developing the organizational structure and presenting it to the Civil Service Bureau for approval.
• Deputing Teachers from the Technical and Vocational schools for all the administrational activities.
• Establishing the Board of Trustees.
• Approving the running budget and open a separated bank account for the center.
• Developing the action plan and monitoring its execution.
Operational stage:
For HNC/HND programmes
• Choice of the courses to be conducted in the center such as:
- Vocational courses for unemployed youth or School leavers.
- HNC/HND courses for the employed and Secondary school graduates.
- Teachers Training programmes for Vocational, Educational, and Career Guidance.
- Need based courses in certain specialization areas like Welding, Electronics.
• Choice of Certification and Awarding bodies such as:
- Scottish Qualification Authority (SQA).
- EDEXCEL.
- CITY & GUILDS.
• Obtaining approval for the center to deliver the courses from awarding bodies.
Approval procedure for the Center involved:
- Preparation of documentation to prove the availability of the necessary infrastructure to run the chosen programmes.
- Presentation of CVs of the Assessors, Verifiers for the system.
• Obtaining approval for the center to deliver various certification programmes.
The approval procedure involved:
- Presentation of relevant Assessment packs for endorsement from the awarding bodies.
• Enrollment of the students to HNC/HND courses.
• Registration of the students with the awarding bodies.
• Recruiting Assessors and Internal Verifiers for the courses.
- Teachers from the Technical & Vocational schools were given the opportunity to work as part time Assessors and were selected for various subjects after conducting formal interviews.
- Heads of Sections/Senior Teachers from Technical & Vocational schools were nominated as Internal Verifiers for the programmes.
For Teachers Training programmes
• Training requirements from all the schools were gathered and scrutinized.
• Necessary training programmes were planned in coordination with the Curriculum.
• Approval for accreditation of the programmes was obtained from the Training Directorate.
• Relevant faculties were nominated to conduct the course.
• Official intimation sent to schools for deputing the teachers to attend the course.
• The courses were conducted, monitored and evaluated.
For Need based Training programmes
• Need based training programmes were requested from the Specific Vocational council based on the directives from the Tamkeen - a Labor market initiative to provide employments to the unemployed by providing them the necessary vocational practical skills through specialized training.
• Assessors with high levels of practical skills from the relevant specialization areas were nominated to conduct the programmes.
• Technical schools were approached for the facilities to run the programmes in the afternoons.
• The trainees were trained with the industry specific skills to enable them to be placed on the job directly after the completion of training.
• Appropriate assessments and evaluations were implemented and the report submitted to the Specific Vocational councils.
Curriculum Development Workshops
Based on the requirements from the Technical & Vocational schools, several Curriculum development workshops were held for new Specializations that were to be introduced in the schools.
• Approval obtained from the MOE and Civil Service Bureau (CSB) to invite Curriculum experts from overseas.
• International Curriculum experts were approached to develop the required Curriculum contents.
• Teachers from the specific areas were selected to be deputed for the workshop and official permission sought.
• Workshops were conducted to develop the curriculum in phases.
• Teachers were trained to deliver the developed curriculum.
• Choice of Certification and Awarding bodies such as:
- Scottish Qualification Authority (SQA).
- EDEXCEL.
- CITY & GUILDS.
• Obtaining approval for the center to deliver the courses from awarding bodies.
Approval procedure for the Center involved:
- Preparation of documentation to prove the availability of the necessary infrastructure to run the chosen programmes.
- Presentation of CVs of the Assessors, Verifiers for the system.
• Obtaining approval for the center to deliver various certification programmes.
The approval procedure involved:
- Presentation of relevant Assessment packs for endorsement from the awarding bodies.
• Enrollment of the students to HNC/HND courses.
• Registration of the students with the awarding bodies.
• Recruiting Assessors and Internal Verifiers for the courses.
- Teachers from the Technical & Vocational schools were given the opportunity to work as part time Assessors and were selected for various subjects after conducting formal interviews.
- Heads of Sections/Senior Teachers from Technical & Vocational schools were nominated as Internal Verifiers for the programmes.
For Teachers Training programmes
• Training requirements from all the schools were gathered and scrutinized.
• Necessary training programmes were planned in coordination with the Curriculum.
• Approval for accreditation of the programmes was obtained from the Training Directorate.
• Relevant faculties were nominated to conduct the course.
|
|
| 5. Who implemented the initiative and what is the size of the population affected by this initiative?
|
|
End Users
The COE is catering to the needs of the following:
• GSVEC Teachers.
These Teachers get trained on the new concepts of teaching/learning prevailing in the vocational education. Courses are conducted annually/bi-annually at the COE.
• School Leavers.
School leavers are the ones who are academically weak and COE conducts some Vocational training programmes in areas such as Tinkering, Painting & Plumbing.
• House wives.
COE conducted a course for house wives on awareness to Home Appliances.
• HNC/HND students.
These students are employed people from Public/Private sectors seeking to pursue their education to obtain HNC/HND offered by COE.
Government Department/Body
Directorate of Technical & Vocational Education (DTVE) under the Ministry of Education was responsible for leading the initiative. DTVE arranged for an agreement of cooperation between the Ministry of Education and the UNESCO.
Service Providers
The UNESCO consultants with DTVE conducted a survey in the technical and vocational schools, labor market and higher education institutions and the Survey result proposed forming a diverse Board of Trustees.
Industry Experts/Other Governmental agencies
The board of trustees’ members was nominated from the Ministry of Education, DTVE, Technical and Vocational schools, Training and Development Directorate and the Human Resources Directorate in addition to the privet sector organizations in the labor market, the Training Specific Councils in the Kingdom of Bahrain and the Ministry of Labour.
The Board of Trustees was accountable for providing the strategic support to the center in cooperation with UNESCO consultants.
International Curriculum Experts
International experts are hired for the developing the curriculum for new specializations which would be introduced in the Vocational schools. The experts form a team with the specialization Teachers and develop the resource materials required for implementing the new specialization in schools. The visits of these experts are scheduled twice a year enabling review of the developed materials.
|
| 6. How was the strategy implemented and what resources were mobilized?
|
|
The budget under all the heads shown below were allocated under the MOE/DTVE budget.
Financial Resources
Initial funds were transferred to UNESCO to establish the center with the help of UNESCO experts.
• 2005 - $ 250,000/- towards the Bahrain Trust Fund – UNESCO
• 2006 - $ 150,000/- towards the Bahrain Trust Fund - UNESCO
Human Resources
• 2007 - Onwards $ 50,000/- towards consultation and providing training.
UNESCO experts were invited annually to conduct workshops/training programmes for the teachers in TVE.
• Initially Staff for the center were deputed from the Technical & Vocational schools and then regularized as employees in the center.
Technical Resources
• $ 80,000/- paid into the Bahrain Trust Fund – UNESCO towards Consultation & Curriculum development.
UNESCO experts were invited to develop the curriculum for the following specializations:
• Computer Technology
• Printing Technology
• Plant Maintenance.
• $ 10,400 towards Curriculum development & training on Mobile Technology by International experts.
• $ 12,000 towards Curriculum development & training on Medical Equipment by International experts.
• $ 120,000 towards the GSVEC Teachers training programme conducted by the Australian Teacher Trainer on two occasions.
• The center has been accommodated in one of the Technical and vocational education schools “Shaikh Khalifa bin Salman Institute of technology” buildings, and the budget was used to furnish and equipped the center classrooms, laboratories, halls and offices were borne by the MOE.
• $ 162,500 was spent in 2013-2014 towards renovation and refurbishment of the center.
Return on Investment
• Few programmes like Teachers Training are being conducted in-house without the aid of experts from overseas.
• Unemployed youth are able to be trained into skilled workforce enabling them to get wider job opportunities.
• Providing international qualifications locally saving on the exchequer
|
|
| 7. Who were the stakeholders involved in the design of the initiative and in its implementation?
|
|
1. GSVEC Teachers training programme.
This programme is aimed at imparting the pedagogic concepts of Project based learning approach implemented by the GSVEC system running in all the vocational schools. This course is providing the technical and vocational teachers with the development and training opportunities, enhancing teachers’ performance level, morals and productivity.
The training programmes are attracting more teachers every year and so far 45% of the total teachers have been already trained.
2. HNC/HND courses for the employed/unemployed youth.
• These courses enabled many of the job seekers to find suitable job opportunities in the locally and regionally after graduation.
• Many employees were promoted or were able to find better job opportunities after finishing some of these professional training courses.
The demand has been on the increase for these courses as international certification/awards are offered locally and at affordable cost. So far 132 students have graduated and 148 are on the rolls presently.
3. Community service oriented programmes.
The community service programs which were introduced to Bahraini community raised the awareness among the public about the importance of the technical and vocational fields in general and enabled the technical and vocational education to attract the better students to the enroll in the system.
Some of the programmes conducted to reach the needy in the community were:
• Vocational courses for unemployed/school leavers: Tinkering, Painting & Plumbing.
• Courses on Home Appliances for women (House wives).
4. International Conferences/ Workshops/ Seminars.
The conferences and workshop held by the center on Entrepreneurship Education was attended by 66 participants from 19 Arab countries, enabled all the stakeholders in the technical and vocational fields to participate in decision making in the technical and vocational education system and Curricula, in addition to the international consultants and experts support in those conferences and workshop, which resulted in advanced educational systems and Curriculums in the technical and vocational education in Bahrain.
5. Curriculum Development workshops.
The achievements of the center were clear to the observers in the fields of teacher development, dealing with unemployment issue, rising skills and knowledge level in the labor market and developing the technical and vocational Curriculum.
International Curriculum experts were hired to develop the Curricula for some of the new Specializations that were opened in the Technical schools in response to the labour market demand such as:
• Computer Technology.
• Plant Maintenance.
• Printing Technology.
• Mobile Technology.
• Medical Equipment.
|
|
| 8. What were the most successful outputs and why was the initiative effective?
|
|
Initially, the project of setting up the Center was taken up by the DTVE in coordination with the UNESCO. Once the Center was established, the Board of Trustees was formed and was responsible for the monitoring and evaluating various operational activities of the center.
The Board of Trustees met once in 2 months to monitor the progress of various activities carried out in the center and guide the personnel. However, the Chief of the Center was responsible for monitoring the various operational aspects going on in the center.
Locally the various activities were monitored by the Chief of the Center considering the KPIs, Performance Indicators (PIs), and Desired Outcome (DO) as follows:
KPI: Annual Calendar of events.
PI: - Courses/Training programmes coverage.
- Infrastructure required
- Target groups
DO: - All the planned courses for the year as per the target are included.
- Various Class rooms, Labs and workshops are allocated and available in line with the time frame.
- Tentative target groups to be covered and their strength are available.
KPI: Courses/Programmes for the year.
PI: - List of Courses/Training programmes.
- Assessment packs.
- Course approval
- Course registration
DO: - All Courses/Programmes are covered during the year.
- Endorsed Assessment packs are available for all the Units.
- Units are registered with the International awarding bodies.
KPI: Faculty for the Courses/Programmes.
PI: - List of registered faculty members.
- Contracts for the Assessors/Verifiers.
- Recruitment of faculty for new units.
- Support staff for the courses.
DO: - Faculty Database available.
- Contracts are signed by the Assessors/Verifiers.
- Assessors are recruited for new units.
- Career Guidance, OHS Coordinators are nominated.
KPI: Registration of participants for the courses.
PI: - List of participants for each course.
- Registration of participants in the Management Information System (MIS).
DO: - Course participants list for registered courses are available.
- Student Identification cards issued to all participants.
KPI: Planned programmes are conducted.
PI: - Induction programmes for Students.
- Assessment mechanisms.
- Internal Verification process.
- Students’ attendance records.
- Student Progress reports
DO: - Students are aware of the courses to be attended.
- Students are familiar with the Assessment mechanisms and Assessment agreements signed.
- Internal Verifications are carried out 3 times in the semester.
- Student Attendance is monitored and Sponsors informed in case of any violations.
- Student Progress reports are sent to sponsors.
|
|
| 9. What were the main obstacles encountered and how were they overcome?
|
|
Few obstacles encountered while establishing the Center of Excellence were:
• Budget allocation
Initially the Center had to depend on the DTVE budget for all its requirements and caused quite a few delays in obtaining the required finances due to formalities and protocols.
This was addressed by allocation of an independent budget for the Center and obtaining the authorization to have separate bank account for the center.
• Lack of Organization structure
The Center had a few staff members with varied activities at the beginning as there was no organization structure that existed. There were neither definite policies nor procedures in place.
This is solved by having an Organization structure with well defined roles and responsibilities for all. Policies and procedure were implemented through the Centre of Excellence Manual.
• Staff recruitment.
At the initial stages, various training programmes were conducted and managed by Teachers and staff deputed from various Technical schools.
Once the Organization structure was formed, Center was able to recruit staff with specialized jobs and job description on a permanent basis, which could take care of the routine management activities as well organize and coordinate various training programmes.
• Accreditation of Training programmes.
• There was a need for accrediting the various courses conducted at the center locally by the Directorate of Training.
This was resolved by providing the necessary justifications to ensure that the courses were credited and also the number of hours of training attended were considered as credits for future promotions.
• Availability of suitable Trainers
Trainers in certain specializations were required to adapt themselves to the Project based learning strategy implemented in the vocational systems across the schools and experienced Teacher trainer from Australia was hired to solve this problem
• Approval of the Centre to offer International programmes/courses.
EDEXCEL and SQA have identified COE as an approved Center.
|