Skills development

Strengthening Skills Assessment and Certification for Afghanistan (SACA)

The SACA project aims to build a standardised and unified Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) system. This will form part of a group of internationally benchmarked National Occupational Skills Standards (NOSS) and curricula, as well as standards relating to assessment, and certification and the accreditation of TVET institutes.

Objective

The ultimate objective of the project is to increase employability of a skilled workforce in Afghanistan. Its immediate goal is to improve labour market access by strengthening TVET programmes and increase employers’ confidence in the related certification procedures. To achieve this immediate objective, the SACA project has two main outputs:
  • Improved National Occupations Skills Standards (NOSS) and curriculum systems in place.
  • Improved assessment, certification and institutional accreditation systems developed.

Main activities

To realize these two outputs the SACA project will undertake a range of activities.
  • Improve the quality of NOSS and curricula for priority occupations and sectors in the formal, informal and non-formal economies.
  • Implement NOSS and associated curricula through major government providers of TVET, including the Ministry of Education (MoE) and Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs, Martyrs and Disabled (MoLSAMD).
  • Provide training in competency-based and recognition of prior learning (RPL) assessment to 25 master assessors and 225 assessors.
  • Establish and refurbish 10 assessment centres in key urban and regional locations.
  • Oversee certification of 15,000 TVET graduates by an internationally-recognized institution.
  • Develop a set of core, generic NOSS and curriculum modules for inclusion in TVET programmes.
  • Support international accreditation of five TVET institutions by providing technical and institutional capacity-building assistance.
  • Support the Council for Education and Skills Development (CESP) in mainstreaming TVET policies.

Main outcomes

In carrying out these activities the project has made progress towards both short and long-term goals.
  • Scrutinized internationally-aided activities and projects in Afghanistan which have similar components to those of the SACA project, to avoid overlaps and duplication.
  • Analysed the division of roles and mandates between the Deputy Ministry for TVET (DM-TVET) of the MoE and the National Skills Development Program (NSDP) of the MoLSAMD, to understand and redefine the three TVET sectoral concepts (formal, non-formal and informal). Provided recommendations on the division of roles.
  • Reviewed current approaches to assessment, certification and accreditation of TVET institutes for both formal and non-formal programmes.
  • Reviewed the existing NOSS and priority occupations selected by DM-TVET and NSDP and facilitated their benchmarking against international standards.
  • Formed a Sectoral Working Group (SWG) to provide technical advice on the skills for which there is mot demand. Working with the MoE, the SWG reached a consensus on 11 priority occupations.
  • Sub-contracted the Australian International Certification Provider (ICP) to develop a training manual for master assessors and assessors.

Partners

The project partners include the Deputy Ministry of Technical and Vocational Education and Training (DM-TVET) of Ministry of Education (MoE), and the Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs, Martyrs and Disabled (MoLSAMD).