Tom Mitchell, Alphaplus’ Director of Qualifications, discusses how AlphaPlus supports government agencies in aligning their TVET systems with labour market needs.
AlphaPlus has worked with a number of Government agencies in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) who want to align their Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) with the demands of the local labour market. The aim is always the same: to provide TVET agencies with the information they need to invest in the right skills to meet national and local employer needs. Ultimately the goal is to support economic growth.
Typically, the first phase of work will proceed in two parallel strands:
- Detailed consultation with clients and their stakeholders to map out their operating environment, current capabilities, and ambitions.
- Researching relevant international best practice, focussing on the specific needs of the client as identified through the consultations.
The outcome of the first phase of work is usually a report, summarising the work carried out and providing key findings and recommendations for the next phase of work.
International best practice is often a key influence. For example, in a recent project we produced a report which included a number of country case studies, where each case study covered:
- What the national TVET system looks like in that country (overview of key agencies within the national TVET system and how they operate).
- How key agencies align TVET with labour market needs (and wider national priorities).
- Models of governance and regulation.
- Systems for Labour Market Intelligence (LMI).
- Use of technology and management of data.
- A summary of findings, relevant to the client.
Such a report lays out the landscape of best practice and how it relates to the needs of the client, and informs future stages of development.
Depending on client requirements, subsequent phases of work may include support for setting up an organisation or group similar in scope to the Unit for Future Skills in England. Such organisations gather labour market intelligence and data from across industry sectors, and provide data sets and visualisations to support a better understanding of current skill mismatches and future demand.
To help set up such a capability, AlphaPlus has worked with clients to propose and lead consultations on appropriate business, operational, and governance models. The proposed models are informed by the findings of the international review (see above), but also by the local context, as understood through the aforementioned stakeholder consultation.
AlphaPlus also help organisations set up new capabilities by scoping, defining and documenting operational processes. For a recent MENA client we defined key processes for a new skills organisation, and produced and consulted on accompanying procedural manuals, providing the start-up organisation with a solid foundation to grow from.
Tracking and acting on labour market information is, these days, fundamentally underpinned by technology and data. AlphaPlus has a long history of helping clients to scope and either develop or procure technology to meet business needs. Our work has ranged from carrying out consultations to understand and document the needs of training providers and employers for a digital learning and assessment platform, to leading on procurement for new digital platforms, to scoping and specifying systems to collect and visualise labour market intelligence and related vocational training. In a recent system design we produced for a TVET client, we identified:
- Mechanisms for importing or capturing data from various sources (manual entry, APIs, bulk uploads).
- Database schema specifically designed to support LMI data portal requirements.
- Roles and permissions for different user levels.
- Integration with external systems and APIs.
- Visualization features providing interactive charts and graphs (e.g., employment rates, sectoral employment, geographical employment distribution) and time series analysis for trend visualization.
- A recommended system architecture.
We subsequently worked with the client IT department to advise them on more detailed design and implementation.
Things we’ve learned in supporting skills policy
Consult, consult, consult. Fully engage with the client and their stakeholders to gain a full understanding of their operating environment, their requirements, and any constraints. Every skills ecosystem is different.
Take the client along with you. You have to know your stuff. If the client is not convinced of the expertise of your team, then any recommendations you make are unlikely to be well received. We only deploy people who have both expertise and experience in the area.
Deploy a multi-disciplinary team. A wide range of different skills and experience are required to lead consultations, carry out research, develop governance models, and understand data and technology. We deploy an “on the ground” team for consultations, but ensure they are backed up by a pool of other specialists who can be rapidly deployed as required.
