Delegation from Ethiopia Paid a Visit to RWTH
RWTH Aachen will support the Federal TVET Institute in Addis Ababa in the education and training of Ethiopian vocational school teachers. The TVET Institute is the key educational institution for vocational teachers in Ethiopia.
The cooperation agreement was signed by RWTH rector Ernst Schmachtenberg, the Ethiopian Minister of State Teshome Lemma Wodajo, and the Rector of the TVET Institute, Sahle Teka Tedla. Among the the delegation was the Minister of Education, Dr. Shiferaw Tekelemariam. The so-called Twinning Program, which focuses on mobility, research, and education and training, receives support from GIZ, the German Society for International Collaboration.
As Professor Schmachtenberg said, “We consider it a great opportunity to become active in Africa and to support Ethiopia and its higher education system in its further development.” RWTH institutions involved in the program include all departments with a focus on pedagogy and the education and training of vocational school teachers, the Center for Teacher Training, and, serving in a coordinating function, the Department of Educational Science.
Commissioned by Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, GIZ has been active in Africa for several decades now, seeking to support vocational training institutions in Ethiopia. The overall aim is to increase the quality and practice-orientation of vocational training and thus to offer improved employment prospects for young people in Ethiopia’s rapidly growing economy. Collaborative initiatives such as the partnership between RWTH and the TVET Institute contribute to improving the education of future vocational school teachers.
According to Minister Teshome, the TVET Institute, so far an institution for education of vocational teachers, seeks to develop into a university of technology. As Professor Marold Wosnitza from the Institute of Education Science, explains: “Our aim is to support our colleagues on site in further developing their higher education institution, and to prepare them for educational research.” Wosnitza has initiated the collaboration and will coordinate its activities in the future. So far, there is no institutionalized educational research in Ethiopia. In the future, the TVET Institut seeks to conduct such research in order to provide a solid basis for future education policy decisions.
Within the next two years, the TVET Institute will establish a research center, whose staff will participate in the “Empirical Education Research” course of study at RWTH Aachen. Furthermore, RWTH will support doctoral projects and the exchange of teachers, students, and administrative staff. After a two-year funding phase, the project will be evaluated and plans for a long-term collaboration discussed.