Associate Professor in the Department of Economics, Accounting and Finance at NUST, Teresia Kaulihowa, questioned whether the current budget allocation will be sufficient to improve and expand Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET).

Kaulihowa said this at a post-2023/2024 budget analysis and advocacy workshop for members of Parliament in Windhoek. 

TVET system is being improved through a number of measures to reduce youth unemployment and promote economic development.

The Ministry of Higher Education received about N$11,8 billion over the Medium Term Expenditure Framework in the current budget, tabled in the National Assembly last week. 

Of this amount, N$3,8 billion goes towards skills development, while another portion is earmarked for the Namibia Student Financial Assistance Fund.

However, Kaulihowa says it is not certain how much will go towards the completion of three Vocational Training Centres in Keetmanshoop, Khorixas and Nkurenkuru. The allocation also includes providing the UNAM School of Dentistry with equipment to facilitate training.

This is in view of the government's plans of building more VTCs to enable the country to produce the technical skills required for the workforce to participate, particularly in the value chains of upcoming industries like the oil sector and green hydrogen. 

Kaulihowa said it is good to build more VTCs but the most important thing should be the quality of those institutions and how attractive they are to those who want to train there. 

"Equip centres with modern technology to make them attractive to the youth. As they are currently, the youth are not motivated to go to TVET and do manual things and with the future of work, youth want to use robotics. So if you equip the TVET centres with robotics and the future way of work, that will motivate the right youth to go to TVET and do those interesting things, perhaps even much more interesting than what the university offers."
 
The workshop aims to sensitize and clarify contentious issues in the budget, before the commencement of the debate in the House.