VICTORIA, Seychelles — The main target of the Ministry of Education is to focus on boosting the Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) programme itself, rather than setting up an actual TVET school, Education Minister Dr Justin Valentin has said. In the public schools around the country, there are currently 1,129 students enrolled on the TVET programme, of whom 628 are in secondary four (S4), while 501 others are in secondary five (S5).
Minister Valentin said that, as of last year, the ministry has been encouraging schools to explore various activities, including various skills that can be conducted at schools, including training in tailoring, gardening and even basic kitchen skills. He noted that some schools are also collaborating with different organisations, and this approach is working well. “For the time being, our focus is on the programme itself,” he said.
Minister Valentin emphasised that the expectation is for students who have not followed the academic pathway to graduate from S5 with a set of practical skills that can help them in looking for a job or start their own undertakings. The TVET enhancement forms part of broader efforts to align the secondary curriculum with the needs of the labour market and to give non-academic learners a clear path to employment or entrepreneurship.
