Introduction:

Council for Technical Education and Vocational Training (CTEVT)/National Skill Testing Board (NSTB) with the joint effort of Nepal Vocational Qualifications System Project (NVQS–P) organized an interactive meeting with Sector Skill Committees (SSCs) and Technical Sub-committees of all five sectors (Hospitality, Construction, Automobile, Agriculture, and Information Communication Technology-ICT) on 29 December 2022 at Kathmandu. The Sector Skills Committees (SSCS) are led by the private sector to monitor, review, and provide inputs for skills development policies, plans, and practices. It then provides feedback to the relevant authorities to overcome sector-wise deficiencies. The program’s main objective was to have discussions and dialogues among the representatives of CTEVT/NSTB, NVQS-P, and SSC members for the effectiveness of SSCs’ contributions towards the improvement of TVET system deliveries. The members of various SSCs and technical sub-committees represented various private sector institutions and their associations. In total, there were 50 participants in the program with 25 participants who were members of various SSCs and TSCs.

Proceedings:

The program was facilitated by Ms. Nishi Shrestha, Unit Head of Marketing and Public Relation Unit, NSTB. First in the program, Ms. Shrestha handed over the floor to Mr. Tek Bahadur Malla, Director, NSTB to welcome the participants and present about the works of CTEVT and NSTB. Mr. Malla made a brief presentation providing information about the history, evolution, and current status of NSTB. He also talked about the quality assurance initiatives and the way forward. Likewise, he also shared about the major challenges being faced by NSTB where he highlighted the lack of recognition of skill test certificates.

The next presentation was by the Team Leader of NVQS-P, Swisscontact, Mr. Subas Subedi. Mr. Subedi presented about the context of Sector Skill Committees in Nepal and also shared some examples of the functioning of SSCs in some other countries including the neighboring country, India. As a major part of his presentation, he put forward some questions as subjects for thought for the group work happening later. After the presentation by Mr. Subedi, Vice-president of CNI, Mr. Birendra Raj Pandey presented the private sector strategy for TVET. He shared about various initiatives being taken forward by the private sector for the development of the TVET sector. He also shared the major achievements of SSCs so far. Apart from this, he also mentioned the challenges faced by the SSCs indicating that the SSCs are not fully engaged as far in the areas mentioned in their ToR. He informed that they are also struggling to develop a mechanism to create demand for the sectoral need to feed into NSTB/NVQS. There was also discussion about the capacity-building element of the members of SSCs as well as the associated professional associations. After this, the Chair of Automobile SSC, Prof. Rabindra Bhattarai shared his experience as the chair of SSC. He mentioned that his team is happy with their contribution as SSC members so far. He also mentioned that recognition of skill test certification should come from the government first, which will lead the way for the private sector.

After the presentations, the SSCs members participated in sector-wise group work which was facilitated by Mr. Prem Kumar Mangrati, Process Manager, NVQS-P. The participants discussed and noted down ideas on market demand to TVET authorities, bridging the collaboration between industry and TVET actors, and self-sustaining models of SSCs. There was a comprehensive discussion among the participants of group work about the given topics and they put down their ideas in different meta cards which were collected by the organizers to be analyzed later.  After the participants completed the group work, the Senior Advisor of the NVQS Project, Mr. Devi Prasad Dahal shared the major takeaways of the program and also highlighted the prospects of SSCs.

After the open discussion, some of the queries from the participants were addressed by the Director of NSTB who also expressed that SSCs have a fundamental role to play in the TVET sector. He requested the SSCs to advocate and lobby for the TVET Act which is also crucial for the acceptance and legality of SSCs. He also stated that NSTB is encouraged by their views and support. Furthermore, he shared the challenge of being unable to do physical monitoring and asked the SSCs of the relevant sector to support this matter. After this, he thanked everyone for their active participation and ended the program.

Conclusion:

There was active participation from the members of all five SSCs and the respective technical sub-committee members in the event. The program was very interactive with the private sector putting forward their voices and concerns openly. Many of the participants expressed their gladness to participate in the event and hoped that the SSCs will be able to take lead in their required tasks. Participants also appreciated the clarity and transparency in the content of the presentations and thanked the presenters.

The event met its objective of having a meaningful interaction and collecting ideas and views from the members of SSCs.  The interaction was also able to clarify the Sector Skill Committees (SSCs) and Technical Sub-committees’ members about the function of CTEVT and NSTB especially relating it to the engagement of the private sector in TVET.