02
Professional development
| GIZ offers a wide range of professional development opportunities to enable
staff to develop their capacities. Inside Germany, our Academy for International Cooperation is key to
these activities. It is open not only to GIZ staff, but also to interested parties from outside the company.
The broad range of courses offered encompasses language tuition and intercultural training prior to
assignments in partner countries, advanced training in technical fields (ranging from food and nutrition
security to conflict transformation methods), and project management courses.
There are also a huge variety of training options outside Germany. The GIZ office in Afghanistan,
for instance, has set up a ‘Fit for the Future’ programme to specifically develop the skills of national
personnel. The response has been overwhelming, with more than 40 professional development initia-
tives held in 2014 and over 600 participants. National personnel thus have an opportunity to take on
even more responsibility in future.
//
// Afghanistan and worldwide
Fit for the future
Technical and vocational education and training
| Pakistan’s
efforts to stimulate the economy and become internationally
competitive are encountering a serious obstacle – the coun-
try has too few well trained specialists. The main reason for
this is the lack of training opportunities. Pakistan’s Govern-
ment has realised this, and has now launched a major reform
of the country’s vocational education and training system,
also offering many people the chance to attain a higher stan-
dard of living. GIZ is supporting Pakistan’s Government on
behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Coop-
eration and Development (BMZ). The European Union and
the governments of the Netherlands and Norway are also
involved in the reform programme, and are contributing
total funding of EUR 51.7 million.
More than 50,000 people, a third of them women,
have already benefited from the reform. By 2016 this figure
should rise to 110,000. The reform revolves around the new
nationwide training standards and official examination cri-
teria for a number of different occupations. Training certifi-
cates obtained on this basis will be recognised in Pakistan
and in other countries. This will benefit trainees in trades
and crafts, industry, the services sector and in commerce.
The programme also helps people who generally encounter
many difficulties in working life. In Lahore, for example,
1,500 people with disabilities are being given vocational
training that will enable them to take charge of their own
lives.
With this training drive, the Government of Pakistan
also requires private industry to do more to prepare trainees
for working life. A BMZ-financed training initiative, which
links theoretical school-based learning with in-company
training just like the German dual system, is cooperating
with more than 70 Pakistani and German companies in
Lahore and Karachi. Four hundred young people are currently
being trained as specialists in a variety of fields, including
electrical engineering, mechatronics and logistics. This
training initiative has been adapted to requirements in Paki-
stan and serves as a model for establishing an in-company
training system throughout the country. As part of this, a
new generation of vocational school teachers is being trained
in cooperation with universities in Pakistan and Kaiserslaut-
ern Technical University, and more than 10,000 existing
teachers are receiving in-service training.
In 2014 the President of Pakistan awarded the pro-
gramme the FPCCI Achievement Award, which is the high-
est honour the country extends to the private sector, for its
commitment to involving private industry to a greater extent
in vocational training.
//
Technical and vocational education and training
| The success
rate so far is well in excess of 90 per cent – almost all gradu-
ates of the new Technical Trainers College (TTC) in
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, found jobs at one of the country’s
technical schools as soon as they graduated. By June 2014
almost 600 students had completed the three-year degree
leading to the internationally recognised Bachelor of Engi-
neering Technology. The new Saudi vocational school teach-
ers can now teach subjects such as production engineering,
air conditioning and refrigeration technology, electrical
engineering, telecommunications, network and system
administration and IT application development. But what
is really special is that the Technical Trainers College is run
entirely by GIZ International Services (GIZ IS) on behalf
of the Saudi Arabian Technical and Vocational Training
Corporation. Today, 1,150 future teachers of technical
occupations can study at TTC.
It was a radically new concept when GIZ was com-
missioned by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 2008 to put
the training of technical teachers on a new footing – based
on the German model and with internationally recognised
qualifications. To this end, GIZ IS built the college and
developed training courses, teaching methods and subject
matter together with Saudi partners. The commission also
included responsibility for the entire management and
human resources system and running the TTC. To ensure
consistently high quality of teaching throughout the college,
GIZ IS cooperates with partners in
Germany and in other countries,
as it is also doing in another
training facility in the city of
Ar Rass. This commission is
being implemented by a sub-
sidiary founded jointly by
GIZ International Services
and Festo Didactic.
//
// Pakistan
// Saudi Arabia
Learning at school
and at work
Internationally recognised qualifications
Contact:
ulrike.reviere@giz.de//
www.tvetreform.org.pk|
www.giz.de/training-pakistanContact:
werner.stueber@giz.de//
www.ttcollege.edu.sa|
www.giz.de/en/worldwide/18371.htmlAcademy for International Cooperation (AIZ):
www.giz.de/akademie(in German)
50,000
people have already
benefited from the
vocational training
reform.
Well over
90%
immediately found
a teaching job.
GIZ Integrated Company Report 2014
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Acquiring and applying knowledge