A Review of TVET Quality Assurance Practice in Uganda

The movement towards internationalisation of education and training practices to facilitate the global flow of labour, technology, trade, and industry; has brought to the forefront the discussions of national TVET strategies, the issues of credibility of qualifications in regard to national economic growth and graduates’ mobility nationally and internationally in search of employment opportunities. This pressure to internationalise TVET systems and qualifications has mainstreamed the development and implementation of national and regional frameworks for quality assurance through which the comparability of standards and qualifications can be achieved. Document analysis research methodology has been used to review and analyse existing regulatory frameworks on quality assurance of education and training in Uganda so as to establish: 1) Existing quality TVET assurance governance entities, 2) Regulatory frameworks that guide TVET quality assurance, and 3) Progress on future opportunities for quality assurance. The findings showed that: numerous loopholes exist in the quality assurance processes of the education sector as a whole; the TVET sub-sector in Uganda is still being guided by the BTVET Act of 2008 lacks a regulatory structure to oversee quality assurance throughout the entire TVET sub-sector in the country; lack of a policy implementation action plan for the TVET Policy; governance of TVET quality assurance in the country is scattered among many government departments and agencies; and existing quality assurance guiding frameworks never encompassed investment and financing of TVET. The paper recommends that the Government of Uganda prioritises the: establishment of the TVET council as envisaged in the TVET Policy, the development and operationalisation of the TVET qualifications framework and TVET qualifications registry system, and the development of a TVET policy implementation Action Plan.