Master in Technical and Vocational Education and Training (MTVET)

technical and vocational education has been recognized as a powerful tool for national development as well as for individual enhancement. Through the skills students would acquire by participating in the program, they become capable to engage themselves in the world of work, earning a decent living, and leading a quality life. However, this has not been so straightforward in many countries, particularly in developing countries like Nepal where the sector is yet to be able to contribute as expected. It is also true that despite weaknesses the sector has been growing fast in many countries, including Nepal. In order to further strengthen the sector, a felt need is to develop its human resource capacity so that it could contribute to its full potential. Master in Technical and Vocational Education and Training (MTVET) in KUSOED is an effort toward this direction.

MTVET: purpose

• Address the human resource development needs of TVET.
• Prepare TVET system leaders, educators, planners, and instructional. 
• Attract young ones to TVET by linking it with socio-economic processes thereby providing promising career prospects nationally and internationally.
• Develop TVET-focused research capacity.
• Promote excellence, opportunity, and leadership in TVET

MTVET: partners

KUSOED is fortunate to have a wider group of partners in designing and implementing this program. Ministry of Education, Nepal, Council for Technical Education and Vocational Training, Nepal are its two main partners. Likewise, KUSOED is in collaboration with several other national and international individuals and institutions including the industry sector, TVET institutions, and I/NGOs in realizing this program.

The program is also getting financial and technical support from the Swiss National Science Foundation through its grant project R4D (Research for Development). Under this grant, research is being conducted that will explore how the institutional structure of TVET moderates the effect of TVET on the youth labor market situation. It is expected that this research will stimulate MTVET with new insights. As part of the same project, the Swiss Federal Institute for Technology in Zurich (ETH) has been supporting the MTVET. Likewise, as partners of this same project, the University of Abomey Calavi (Benin), Universidad de Chile, and the University of Costa Rica, are also key partners of this program.

The MTVET curriculum: a reflection of the TVET world

A subject committee comprised of academicians and TVET experts drafted the curriculum of MTVET which aims for providing knowledge and skills to students as per the demand of the present time. The designed curriculum has adequate openness providing enough opportunity and flexibility to students to show their imagination, innovation, and creativity. Adequate practical exposure and emphasis on entrepreneurship will also be its key characteristics.

The students take core courses that include theories and practices of education, research, statistics, and research projects. There are specialization courses related to curriculum, labor market, human resources, work education, sociology of work and occupation, evaluation of technical and vocational education and training, entrepreneurship and enterprises development, and work-based learning which is a blending of experience in the real world of work and institutional learning.

The program has two concentration areas: TVET Pedagogy and TVET System Management and Leadership. Students can choose either of these as per their interests. Students in the pedagogy group focus on the psychology of learning, assessment and measurement, instructional aspects, and mentoring and professional development. Students in system management and leadership group focus on management and leadership, economics and financing, governance and policy analysis, and project management

MTVET: the design

MTVET: graduate attributes

• Be able to explore and interpret the interplay among social institutions and rules and resources, work and occupation, and TVET
• Be proficient to carry out an economic analysis of work and occupations, and TVET
• Be competent in performing TVET activities such as preparation of competency-based curriculum, designing instructional events, delivering theoretical and practical sessions, and evaluating students.
• Be conversant with different theories, concepts, and ideas that have been developed and see TVET processes in terms of those theories and ideas
• Be skillful in designing, carrying out, and evaluating research on TVET
• Be educators, innovators, leaders, instructional designers, and managers of TVET

MTVET: career prospects

As the TVET sector is a very promising sector and as the program provides them exposure to several subject areas in an inter-disciplinary manner, graduates of MTVET would have several options as their career prospects.  They can explore their career prospects both in the national and international markets as the course prepares them for a competitive world of work both in national and international contexts.  Graduates can choose to be an educator either focusing on teaching or focusing on management and leadership of TVET institute.  They could also work as a planner, analysts, monitoring and evaluation experts, or researcher.  These options are available both in the public and private sectors.  The industry sector could also provide promising career options to MTVET graduates.  One other option that the MTVET graduate could go to is to establish self-enterprise and become an entrepreneur.  As the program provides lots of exposure to students on aspects of entrepreneurship, they could be innovative, creative, and be an entrepreneur.

Contact Information:

Kathmandu University School of Education, Hattiban, Lalitpur, Telephone: +977 1 5250524, 5250556, Website: soed.ku.edu.np, Email: admin@kusoed.edu.np