INTRODUCING ICT AS A
FUNDAMENTAL COMPETENCY IN
TVET -MALAWICURRICULUM IN
MALAWI
PRESENTED BY:
WILSON MAKULUMIZA NKHOMA DIRECTOR
OF TECNICAL SERVICES
FOR TEVETA-MALAWI
BACK GROUND TO TEVET REFORM
IN MALAWI

The Technical, Entrepreneurial and
Vocational Education and Training
Authority (TEVETA) was created in
1999 through an Act of Parliament
following studies that were
undertaken as part of the reform
process
CHARATERISICS OF TVET BEFORE
REFORM
The TVET system was characterised by the following:
 Lack of national coherent demand-driven policy
 Minimal involvement of the private sector
 Inappropriate legislation guidelines and bylaws
 Non responsive and inflexible institutional
structures
 Limited national technical qualifications system
based on outdated curricula
 Insufficient, unsustainable financial base and
ineffective financing mechanisms
STRATEGIC PLANS
To broaden equitabIe order to mitigate on the
short comings and improve the system, strategic
plans have been developed with specific goals.
 The current strategic plan which spans from 2007
to 2012 has four goal
 Goal 2 and 3 are relevant for this presentation

 To
increase access to quality TVET programmes
 To effectively regulate the training market.
VISION
To ensure that Malawi attains a situation where there
is:
An adequate and sustainable generation of
internationally competitive skilled workforce
capable of spearheading the country's production
and export-led socioeconomic growth in a
socially responsible manner.
MISSION STATEMENT
To direct sustainable acquisition of internationally
competitive and recognisable technical,
entrepreneurial and vocational skills by
Malawian workforce.
ACHIEVEMENTS IN CURRICULUM
REFORM
Development and gazetting of TQF rules
 Development of CBET curricula in 9 new
occupations

 Tailoring,
Thatching, Water plant operator, Food
production, Sign language, Administrative studies,
Fisheries, Instrumentation, Professional driver
Review of 15 old curricula and changed to CBET
format.
 Implementation of the reviewed curricula

DESIGN OF THE TQF CURRICULUM

A full qualification constitutes 120 credits with
 90
credits occupational standards and 30 credits
fundamental standards at level 1 (75%:25%)
 84 credits occupational standards and 36 credits
fundamental standards at level 2 (70%:30%)
 78 credits occupational standards and 42 credits
fundamental standards at level 3 (65%:35%)
 72 credits occupational standards and 48 credits
fundamental standards at level 4 (60%:40%)
CREDITS FOR LEVEL 1
FUNDAMENTAL MODULES
Entrepreneurship
 Occupational safety health
 Numeracy
 Communication
 Science
 Total credits
7
7
4

5.5
6.5
30
POST IMPLEMETATION FINDINGS

Formative evaluation after 5 years of
implementation of the new curricula has revealed
the following:
 Some
content of communications modules not relevant
to some trades e.g., the depth of TD content for food
production and general fitting trainees.
 Some communications modules content not
comprehensive enough e.g., absence of CAD in
technical drawing modules
 Total absence of ICT as a fundamental competency
INTERVENTION
ICT to be one of the fundamental
competencies for all TVET trainees
 Scope of coverage for graphical
communication to be specified for certain
occupations
 Graphical communication to include CAD

CONTENT OF THE ICT CURRICULA
Experts in the field of ICT from
industry, assessment bodies and
training institutions will articulate the
content of the curricula.
 In a nut shell micro-soft word, power
point, email, internet, excel may be
part of the content.

USEFULNESS TO FUTURE TVET
TRAINEE NEEDS
Important for further education.
 Getting information from the internet
 Analysing data on the computer for education
purposes
 Important for ease of record keeping and
retrieval for teachers and other professionals
 Important for development of teaching and
learning materials

USEFULNESS TO FUTURE TVET
TRAINEE NEEDS
Useful for developing one’s own teaching
and learning material-for teachers
 Useful for those intending to specialise in
open and distance learning materials
development. Very useful especially in the
wake of the ODL developments in the
SADC member states

TIME-FRAME

The TQF curricula is supposed to be
reviewed every 3 years. Time in over
due for reviewed therefore as the
curricula will be reviewed, the ICT
issue will be included
IMPLICATIONS
This has implications on the design of
the TQF as it only stipulates 5 areas
of fundamental competencies no
more no less.
 It also stipulates 120 credits for a
qualification no more no less.

Making ICT as a stand alone module will
increase the number of fundamental
modules to 6 which is not provided for in
the TQF
 On the other hand making ICT to be part
of the communications module will make it
too big

IMPLICATIONS

Making ICT as one of the
fundamental competencies will make
some of the private training
providers that we utilise to train the
apprentices fall out as only very few
training providers have the
appropriate facilities.
CONCLUSION
AGAINST ALL ODDS ICT HAS TOBE INCLUDED
IN THE TVET CURRICULUM FOR MALAWI AS A
FUNDAMENTAL COMPETENCE
Asante sana
Zikomo kwambiri
Thank you very much
FOR YOUR LISTENING