Äthiopien: Herausforderungen für Frauen im Berufsbildungssektor

Damit Äthiopien eine international wettbewerbsfähige Marktwirtschaft aufbauen kann, steht die berufliche Bildung (TVET) im Mittelpunkt der Bildungspolitik und -strategie des Landes. Die Beteiligung von Frauen in bestimmten Bereichen bleibt allerdings besorgniserregend.

Gains and challenges for women in TVET sector remain

Ethiopia's interest to participate in the competitive global market economy has put technical and vocational education and training (TVET) at the centre of its education policy and strategy, but the participation of women in certain areas remains worrisome.

The overall objective of TVET programmes, as stipulated in Ethiopia's National TVET Strategy (2008), has been "to create a competent, motivated, adaptable and innovative workforce that contributes to poverty reduction and social and economic development".

This plan is set to be realised through "a demand-driven, high quality technical and vocational education and training, relevant to all sectors of the economy, at all levels and available to all people".

More women enrolled

While low participation rates of women abound at all levels of the education strata in Ethiopia, TVET remains the only sector where women are equally or better represented.

However, this does not necessarily mean that all forms of inequity have been addressed. According to the 2018 annual statistics generated by the Ministry of Education, the latest available figures, the total enrolment in TVET was 292,378 – and half (50.8 per cent) of the students were female.

The average annual growth rate for female participation has in the past also shown a positive trend, exceeding the male growth rate in the period 2012-13 to 2016-17. The TVET female graduates of 2016-17 at the national level also accounted for 52 per cent of all trainees.

The proportion of female students as compared to males is higher in private TVET institutions than the public TVET. In terms of number of TVET institutions, there are also more private TVETs than public ones.

While 57.6 per cent of those enrolled in non-government private institutions in 2018 were female, government institutions had 49.4% women in the same year.

Women enrol in lower level training

Despite the overall encouraging trend of female participation in TVET, there are areas where significant gaps still exist. One such area concerns the enrolment share of female students in the different training levels.

According to the Ministry of Education (2010) the Ethiopian technical and vocational education and training system is structured along five levels. While levels one and two are provided to trainees below grade 10, levels three and four are for those who have completed general education or grade 10. Level five is training at the polytechnic level. Using this classification it can be seen that the largest proportion of female enrolment is currently found at the lower levels of the training strata.

For instance, those registered under level two of TVET programmes constitute 33.7 per cent of overall enrolment, while the share of female enrolment at level five – polytechnic level – is only 1.8 per cent .

Another area of concern is the programme types in which students are enrolled. According to the 2014 Ethiopian gender strategy, the concentration of females in short-term programmes (programmes that focus on traditional "female" fields such as business, IT, and hairdressing) could go as high as 85 per cent, as opposed to long-term ones (programmes which focus more on science, mechanical and technological skills or on manual skills like construction and-or building).

The increasing tendency among female trainees to enrol in a very limited set of technical fields is influenced by a variety of factors such as traditional stereotypes of what jobs are appropriate for women, and family and environmental influence associated with the traditional role of women.

Discrimination from instructors, employers and the community at large, and fewer prospects for employment and practical assignments discourage female students from enrolling in science, mechanical and technological courses.

Women's level of participation can also be compounded by the lack of information about technical and vocational educational tracks and systemic features of the technical and vocational education system.

Awareness and role models required

Creating equal opportunities for women requires removing a variety of sociocultural, educational and employment limitations that discourage them from pursuing TVET educational opportunities and technical careers.

Promoting increased enrolment requires that women have sufficient information about the nature of these programmes and career options, and regard them as an acceptable educational option.
However, information gaps about the future trajectory of industries and emergent skills needs, the returns on investing in particular skills sets, and projections on the future returns of education and training investments, are often unavailable in many contexts.

In Ethiopia there have been promising strategies of creating such awareness through planned social mobilisation movements that demand strong support from civil society organisations, the Ministry of Women and Children, Ministry of Youth and Sport, and related offices at 'woreda' (district) and regional levels, and the involvement of small and medium enterprises and agencies, and regional technical and vocational institutions in these efforts. However, the successes achieved with these strategies remain unclear.

The power of female role models in motivating women to pursue technical education and employment has also been a consistent theme highlighted by many countries as a mechanism for promoting behavioural change.

In this regard, there is again a lot to be done in Ethiopia. Currently, there are 51 per cent female students and 20 per cent trainers. Given the number of female students, more women role models within TVET institutions themselves are needed.

The way forward

The foregoing suggests that while Ethiopia’s promotion of female participation in technical and vocational education and training is commendable, a key challenge remains in promoting gender equity across all programmes and levels, as these appear to be areas where their participation needs to be further augmented.

Efforts towards this could improve not only the participation level of female trainees but their labour participation and livelihood prospects as well. Reforms to improve current deficiencies in this area include an increase in the status of TVET in general and improving female participation toward all forms of participation in this stream of training.

Apart from developing a comprehensive strategy that addresses all facets of this challenge, there is also the need for increased efforts to raise awareness among the community, technical and vocational education and training instructors and administrators, employers, female students and their families on the importance of girls' and women's participation in levels and fields of studies where their participation is still meagre or non-existent.


Quelle: University World News, universityworldnews.com, 15.10.2020