Under the leadership of His Majesty King Abdullah II, Jordan has embarked upon an aggressive reform strategy, the National Agenda, to address key economic and social development issues over the next ten years.
The main priorities of the National Agenda include reducing the high rate of unemployment, addressing the mismatch between labour supply and demand, increasing the participation rate of women in the labour market, developing a coherent approach to poverty reduction and reducing inequalities of participation in the labour market. The major objectives of the agenda related to employment and vocational and technical education and training (E-TVET) for the period 2007-2012 are:
- To promote labour-intensive and export-oriented industries
- To eradicate structural unemployment
- To expand significantly vocational training and employment
The National Agenda emphasizes reinforcing the links between employment and training to facilitate inclusion of Jordanians in the labour market.
The National Agenda gives the Ministry of Labour the lead role in implementing the E-TVET sector reform.
The National Agenda proposals for E-TVET contribute significantly towards development of a policy framework for the sector in terms of governance and management. They recommend the establishment of an umbrella Higher Council on Human Resource Development, an Employment and TVET (E-TVET) Council, an E-TVET Fund, an independent Quality Assurance Agency, and the remodelling of the VTC as an autonomous body. These reforms are far-reaching and provide an excellent basis for the reform of TVET.
Three main objectives are considered for the reform:
- To strengthen institutional development. This would include the establishment of the Higher Council for HRD and the E-TVET Council and attached secretariat, the strengthening of employers’ organisations, further development of human resource information systems, the preparation of a comprehensive TVET policy and programme, steps towards making the VTC autonomous and the devolution of authority to training institutions.
- To establish effective management and financial incentives. Activities include remodelling the E-TVET Fund through the design of criteria, procedures, priority programmes and staff development, and the financing of priority programmes through the Fund. In addition, budgetary reforms would be put in place with a view to establishing a Mid-term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) for TVET based on the overall sector programme.
- To improve the quality and relevance of TVET through support for the establishment of the Quality Assurance Agency, instructor training and re-equipping of TVET institutions.
The achievement of these objectives would require strong donors and Jordanian stakeholders’ involvement which could yield significant outputs in the short term as a basis for entering into a large-scale sector programme for TVET.