Executive Summary
Bhutan is a landlocked country located in the central Asian region, sandwiched between the two geographic and economic giants China and India. Constantly referred to as the “dragon kingdom”, it is one of the few countries which has recently diverted from the traditional economy to the modern one, having adopted television and internet just in 1999. Although generally characterized as having “one of the highest per capita GDPs” in the South Asian region, poverty in Bhutan is still rampant. According to World Bank, 32% of its population lives below the poverty line despite the fact that it had made considerable, if not remarkable, improvements in the field of education, economic stability, and health.
Recently, it’s aspiration for total economic development met several challenges including: (1) limited linkages with the employer needs resulting to low employment and (2) existence of gaps in the faculty quality and curriculum- partly caused by the inadequate quality assessment. To supplement these, Bhutan needs to develop its skills offering through the development of TVET as a strategy to address educational needs, labor market inclusion and sustainable economic growth. TVET reinforces the ability of youth and adults to cope with the changing labor market conditions and helps to reduce the vulnerability of fragile groups. TVET assists learners in acquiring skills, knowledge and attitudes needed to develop professional careers and enter the world of work as well as active citizenship and lifelong learning.
CPSC, as an inter-governmental organization for the development of TVET in the Asia and the Pacific Region, heeds this advocacy. Through this fourth In-Country Program on Champion Trainers Program on Poverty Alleviation through TVET Skills Development, CPSC contributes to the raising of awareness necessary to put TVET skills into practice for mutual efforts for poverty alleviation. Similar programs have been held in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and the Philippines with positive feedback regarding its relevance and timeliness were re-echoed by the participants and the officials.
This special in-country program on developing champion leaders intends to harness the experiences and expertise of learned individuals and organizations to further reiterate their plan to fast-track initiatives to implement TVET skills development programs.
This program is launched in the country through the collaboration of CPSC and the Ministry of Human Resources of the Royal Government of Bhutan. The program aims to emulate the practices that has been implemented in the three CPSC member countries as mentioned above, and therefore unite all CPSC member countries in fighting poverty-related problems through skills development for poverty alleviation.
At the end of training program, the participants should be able to:
- Appreciate the significance of TVET skills in the context of poverty alleviation
- Elucidate diverse approaches to employability through TVET skills and generic skills development
- Integrate entrepreneurship programs for addressing poverty alleviation
- Formulate TVET skills development modular programs and strategies
- Develop action plans to tackle poverty alleviation through TVET
