In this section, the limitations of the study and suggestions for future research are presented. This thesis was conducted in the context of Addis Ababa, the capital city which is a relatively highly developed area in the country. Being a developed area, opportunities for learning at TVET schools and workplaces through field attachments, access to technology and digital media are more favorable than in areas outside Addis Ababa. For example, students in less developed regions do not have opportunities for internships as the areas are not industrially developed; there are therefore no companies in which they can take part in practical learning through cooperative training.
This thesis is based on data collected from polytechnic TVET colleges in Addis Ababa which provide TVET programs at all levels of training (levels I-V). The research was confined to these polytechnic colleges because they have better facilities, more experienced teachers and more professional administration, which places them in a better position to implement competence-based TVET programs. TVET colleges that did not offer level V training were not included in this study. Level I and II training programs were also not included because the trainees’ access to the resources of the colleges used in complex training levels is rather limited.
The description given in this thesis of the practice in the polytechnic colleges illustrates the conditions under which TVET has been implemented in Addis Ababa. Nevertheless, a comprehensive study at regional level, incorporating all TVET levels, may be required to capture the full picture of TVET implementation in the greater Addis Ababa region. Although the findings in this thesis might be indicative of the status of TVET implementation in other regions, the results are not sufficient to make generalizations at a national level because the conditions in less developed areas are different from those in Addis Ababa. Future research should address the implementation of competence-based TVET at the country level, incorporating all types of TVET colleges.
Another limitation of this thesis is that the studies were based exclusively on perceptual data, which makes the control of personal and other factors that influence the way respondents see situations problematic. Also, the content of the TVET curriculum and TVET teacher training programs addressed in the studies (Chapters 4 and 5) were not analyzed in the light of competence-based principles to examine the degree to which the curricula reflect workplace standards. This is because, as reported in Chapter 2, the TVET curriculum lacked consistency
in content because of frequent changes made to the content. Thus, the studies were more inclined to the “how” of CBET, although the “what” aspect was partially captured by teachers’ and students’ perceptions of the design aspect of the curriculum. Therefore, there is a need to accompany perception-based data with curriculum content analysis and classroom and school environment observation (for better triangulation) to increase the objectivity of the study.
Two of the three TVET teacher training colleges were included in the study in Chapter 5. One of the teacher training colleges at Adama University has been offering TVET teacher education for more than 20 years, whereas the other teacher training college (Federal TVET Teachers Institute (FTTI)) began offering teacher training very recently. The teacher training students selected from FTTI provided information based on only 18 months (3 semesters) of teaching-learning experience whereas that from Adama students was based on 3 years of experience (6 semesters). The level of FTTI student reflection is therefore limited compared to that of the Adama students, which might reduce the depth of the data (the level of perception of curricular and methodology variables) gathered from the two groups of teacher training students. Further research may address this shortcoming to generate more comparable and balanced data that fully reflect the experiences of respondents.
The challenges observed in implementing a CBET curriculum in accordance with competence-based requirements (Chapter 4) and the lack of planned and needs-based professional development (Chapter 6) are partly attributed to the lack of a competence- oriented TVET management system. Such a TVET management system plays a crucial role in realizing competence-based TVET as successful CBET implementation requires “open culture and cooperation” (Mulder, 2000, cited by Biemans et al., 2004). Developing the leadership competence of TVET management through competence-orientation is vital to “ensure that the institutions which they lead can effectively deliver quality education and training” (ILO, 2012). Future research should also attend to the role TVET management plays in realizing competence-based TVET because programs are run and teachers perform under a certain administrative framework which is highly influenced by the level of competence of the administrators and their ability to deal with external influences. Thus, we propose participatory, transparent, innovative and proactive management with administrative and human relations competences that establishes a competence-oriented working environment and culture through the mobilization and channeling of resources and efforts towards attaining the outcomes. The leadership and administrative competences needed by competence-based
TVET management, which ones are crucial in the case of Ethiopia in leading competence- based TVET to success, and how the competences should be developed need to be identified as “underlying competencies enable successful performance in a given job or role” (Steiner & Hassel, 2011).
A mix of methods (quantitative and qualitative) were employed in the studies in this thesis to answer the research questions. In all the studies, an attempt was made to complement what has been found through questionnaires (quantitative data) with interview responses (qualitative) to obtain a complete picture of the situation involving different respondents. As part of Chapter 2 concerned the development of TVET, this was a more document-based study complemented with the interview-based responses of a few educational researchers. The part of Chapter 2 on TVET challenges was mainly an interview-based reflection of a few TVET administrators and senior teachers. All in all, the sample size for the interviews was small, mainly because some administrators or coordinators approached declined to take part in the interviews. Others volunteered but could not attend on the required dates. However, although there were few participants, they are believed to provide reliable information on TVET practices and challenges because of their long experience as teachers and coordinators in various TVET curriculum settings and colleges.
For Chapters 3 and 4 and the part of Chapter 5 on professional development, the plan was to involve no less than 200 teachers from the four polytechnic colleges, to obtain a relatively large number of teachers. However, some teachers declined to participate, giving reasons such as time constraints, being fed-up of filling in questionnaires and mistrust of the situation, despite the explanations given of the study and the identity of the researcher. By combining the questionnaires for the three studies, we continued to approach teachers through program coordinators and other teachers working in the colleges and ended up with 126 completed questionnaires.
As shown in Chapter 4 of this thesis, the study signaled a positive correlation between CBET and employed graduates’ job performance as judged (perceived) by graduates and their job supervisors. However, the generalization in this thesis was based mainly on perceptual data collected through a questionnaire from a small sample. Because perception is personal in nature (a personal understanding of some phenomena or events), what an individual perceives may not be a complete reflection of the phenomenon or event as it involves selecting some and avoiding other elements. Thus, the perceptual data of respondents as used in this thesis
need to be supported by interviews and on-the-job observation while graduates perform the job, to obtain a better reflection of the situation. The study also failed to clearly determine the extent to which each factor contributed towards job performance. Therefore, future research should find the extent to which CBET could influence (predict) job performance in comparison with other variables through regression analysis using a sufficiently large sample supported by interviews and on-the-job observation.
To measure the effect of predictive variables, some kind of experimental research design (cross-sectional) may also be developed for the future, though it may be difficult to implement. Such a design would make it possible to compare CBET program graduates’ job performance (experimental group) with that of non-CBET program graduates (control group). It should be noted that the conclusions drawn in this thesis should be interpreted in light of the limitations presented above.
6.4 Contributions and recommendations for practice