VOCATIONAL AND TECHNICAL TRAINING  

8.1       Post-school vocational and technical training provides skills for specific occupations. An efficient and effective training system is crucial in a country’s economic development and therefore it is necessary to focus attention on the training system distinct from general education and to give it more priority. Currently, there is no unified policy for vocational and technical education and training is fragmented and of uneven quality. Co-ordination between different training organisations is not very effective and vocational qualifications, curricula and quality of teaching staff have not been standardized. Access is still restricted in comparison with other types of education.  

8.2       Government recognizes the need for an integrated national training system whose goals, content and organisation are uniform and of the highest standard if the economy is to be transformed to meet the challenges of the21st Century. The development of a workforce that can apply advanced technology and respond competitively to changing demands of the international economy is therefore a goal that Government is aiming at.  

8.3       In the pursuit of this goal Government will expand vocational and technical training and create the necessary structures for effective co-ordination. Establishment of the Botswana Training Authority (BTA) as the executive and coordinating authority for the skills training system will inevitably make such bodies as the National Industrial Training and Technician Education Council (NITTEC) redundant. A more comprehensive system of vocational qualifications will be developed by Government in consultation with employers and labour unions. Training of instructors will be harmonised and improved, and periodic surveys will be undertaken to monitor the skill needs of the economy in order to re-align training targets and orientation when the needs of industry change.