Institutions offering technical and vocational training in Namibia will now be able to speak with one voice.

This comes after the establishment of the Association of Technical and Vocational Education Training Institutions in Namibia.

The association representing TVET institutions aims to change the status quo from a demand-driven approach to a supply-driven strategy with a focus on creating opportunities and improvements rather than raising or identifying obstacles.

Dr Raimo Naanda, Deputy Executive Director in the Ministry of Higher Education, Training, and Innovation, believes that TVET will not succeed if institutions act alone or selfishly.

"Now that there is this association, we would like to call upon all private training providers to take up membership with this association. I promise you, in the future, we are no longer going to entertain private institutions running around various offices like headless chickens. We would prefer to work together with the association."

Uahoroka Kauta of the Namibia Training Authority emphasised the importance of value-driven stakeholder engagement, saying that collaboration, transparency, and effectiveness are important values to have.

"Today, no institution can afford to be indifferent to the challenge of engaging its stakeholders in the work of creating the future. Engagement may have been optional in the past, but it's pretty much the whole game today, because we appreciate that only through honest and transparent engagement can we bring about real change. "

Currently, the Association has 17 members, representing about twenty percent of the registered TVET institutions.