Steps and tips: Ensuring the capacity of TVET providers to provide the off-the-job component of apprenticeships

The competent quality assurance body should ensure that TVET providers offering off-the-job training to apprentices comply with the following conditions:

  • meet the standards for teaching staff, facilities and materials, and have an adequate system for institutional governance and financial management
  • conduct regular internal quality assurance exercises to identify weaknesses and gaps, and to improve their performance
  • demonstrate the capacity to cooperate effectively with local employers at the corporate level, and through regular liaison between teaching staff in TVET providers and in-CTs
  • demonstrate the capacity to identify and support apprentices who are at risk of dropping out, and to work with employers to ensure that they complete their training successfully
  • in cooperation with in-CTs, support apprentices during on-the-job training – for example by making online resources available to the apprentices to assist them in their work-based tasks
  • have an effective monitoring and evaluation system for off-the-job training in place.

TIPS

  • Quality apprenticeships require active cooperation between TVET providers and enterprises. To encourage enterprises to offer apprenticeships, TVET providers should consider themselves as service providers to enterprises that offer demand-driven training and services.
  • TVET providers in the public sector in some countries are under-resourced, which hampers the provision of quality off-the-job training. It can be helpful in such circumstances if they are allowed to generate their own income, which can then be reinvested or used to provide incentives to the teacher
  • The use of online learning and modern technologies can help to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the delivery of apprenticeship training.