Vocational Skills Development (VSD II)

Mongolia’s economic development is highly dependent on the minerals sector and commodity prices. Despite country’s stagnant economic growth in 2014-2015, there is still a high demand for skilled workers, particularly in technical trades.

However, Mongolia’s technical vocational education and training (TVET) sector lacks the quantitative and qualitative capacities to meet current and future industry and societal demand for vocational education and training services.

One of reasons is inadequate system of a vocational orientation and career counselling. A large proportion of the staff at TVET schools and instructors in private companies is technically and didactically unqualified to provide students with the practical skills they require. In addition, students and graduates of secondary schools and job-seekers do not have sufficient access to vocational-orientation and career-counselling services to make informed decisions about their career paths. To date, there is no institutionalised training programme for vocational orientation and career counselling in Mongolia.

Increased employability of rural and urban women and men.

With support from the project, they are able to develop new professional perspectives and have access to better opportunities, thereby increasing their participation in economic and social life.

The first target group consist of rural and urban women and men who are do not possess the skills required to be successfully employed or self-employed. This group includes the “lost generation” of citizens between 25 and 40 years or older, often ex-herders who lost their herds or herders with such small herds that they hardly can survive economically. They are among the most marginalised group in Mongolia, threatened by poverty or already living in poverty.

The second target group consists of male and female students in TVET schools and regular education centres (in particular secondary schools) in the project’s target regions that will benefit from career guidance and vocational counselling services.

The third group involves teachers and trainers in 11 TVET institutions and in-company instructors in cooperating companies, as well as local companies engaged in selected trades. The total number of people which are part of the target groups is estimated to be a minimum 180,000; out of which 70,000 persons are considered as being among the most vulnerable.

Mongolian youth and adults make better use of employment opportunities on the labour market in the mineral resource sector, including up- and downstream industries.

Output 1: Vocational education and further training is better aligned with the needs of the labour market;
Output 2: Vocational orientation and vocational counselling services are improved.

Risultati principali attesi:  

• The competences and capacities of teaching and management staff at TVET schools as well as in- company instructors have been further developed in a needs-based manner.
• High-quality short- term- skills trainings (STST) are implemented at selected TVET schools pursuant to the needs of the labour market.
• Lessons learnt from the pilot activities of the cooperative vocational education and further training have been generated and fed back to the MoL, in the framework of policy advisory services and system development.
• Skilled professionals for vocational counselling and social partnership at the selected TVET schools are qualified to provide vocational counselling services on the new long-term and short-term training courses.
• The legal, organizational and personnel requirements for a career guidance degree program are established.

Risultati fasi precedenti:  

As a result of the improved quality and professionalism of career guidance services, TVET schools and local labour offices are able to provide needs-based services and advice to local youth and adults. Seventy-five percent of service recipients (of whom 54 percent were women) said this had helped them to make informed decisions about their career paths. As a result of improved training programmes in selected occupations in construction and mechanics, the employment rate of graduates from short-term vocational skills development reached 62 percent (42 percent for females). The increased engagement of the private sector in TVET contributed to a better alignment of trainings with the needs of the labour market. Up to now, the project has facilitated 24 cooperation agreements between schools and companies.

Ministry of Labour as lead executing partner, Ministry of Education and Science, National Centre for Employment Service, Research and Information, private sector representatives’ umbrella organisations such as MONEF, Association of Career Counsellors, Association of TVET Schools, and other local organisations.

a) The SDC-funded VET II Project

b) The SDC co-funded “Youth Development Programme” implemented by UNFPA

c) The SDC co-funded  “Public Investment in Energy Efficiency Project” implemented by GIZ

d) EU-funded “Support to Mongolia’s Technical and Vocational Education and Training Sector Project”

e) The ADB loan project “Skills for Employment”

f) The German-Mongolian Institute for Resources and Technology

Fase 2 01.03.2016 - 28.02.2019   (Completed)