The three day program to assure quality trainings called ‘Lead Auditor Training Workshop’ ended yesterday in the capital.
The 20 participants comprised CEOs, Principals and trainers from 13 private training providers who are selected trainers from five Technical Training Institutes (TTI) and two Institutes of Zorig Chhusum (IZC).
The head of quality assurance division, Tandin Dorji said “workshop was to review the pilot implementation of Quality Management System (QMS) in respective training institutes, who have developed QMS and signed the quality commitments with the department”.
“With the growing number of training providers every year, the quality of training is a major concern of the Royal Government. Therefore, the labor ministry (MoLHR) came up with Quality Assurance system to regulate the quality of Technical Vocation and Education (TVET) provisions starting 2010” he said.
He said this responsibility falls equally on all the training providers to help empower young people/school leavers and training seekers with the necessary knowledge and skills to engage in productive and sustainable livelihoods.
“We must join hands to help create this new generation of highly educated and skilled people required for development of a knowledge-based economy,” he said.
It was also to identify and train quality auditors to conduct audit in the training institutes while implementing QMS.
However the labor ministry has come up with the Quality Assurance Systems to regulate the quality of TVET provisions starting September 2010 in which the quality assurance systems includes the registration of training providers, Accreditation of courses and an establishment of quality management systems.
A total of 77 training providers (public, private, NGOs) have been registered with the Department of Occupational Standards (DOS).
A total of five courses in construction, electrical and automobile in TTIs have provisionally accredited with a total of two courses in (computer applications and commercial accountant) offered by GPY computer training institute in Phuentsholing.
The QMS for TTIs and IZCs has been drafted and the department will review and initiate with an implementation in January 2013.
The participants had different sessions in the three day workshop to mainly get focused on the overview of QMS in education training, overview of quality assurance system and QMS processes, experience sharing on QMS implementation by training providers, an overview of quality auditing and conducting mock audit.
“The successful implementation of the quality assurance system depends on the level of support and cooperation the Ministry received from the training providers,” said a DOS official.
Sonam Wangmo / Thimphu