Vocational education and training - VET

Business leaders often complain they don’t have an adequately skilled workforce. But we need a new education model – one that reaches the hard to reach, in spite of growing teacher shortages and cutbacks in education spending.
mLearning represents potential. Nearly six billion people own cell phones. Should the ICT and telecom sector works with the mLearning community to accelerate its adoption and help scale up projects, one of our most pressing global issues can be addressed.
It has the potential to accelerate access to vocational training along with informal and formal education. It represents an opportunity for people to take an active role in their own future. It can help create a more practical and current set of learning tools to match the rapidly changing skills required in today’s workforce.
http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_GAC_AcceleratingAdoptionMLearning_2012.pdf

This study examines the labor market outcomes of graduates from training institutes run by Punjab Technical Education and Vocational Training Authority (TEVTA), the largest technical and vocational education and training provider in the province of Punjab, Pakistan. The study uses an SMS-based survey - a promising and inexpensive method to assess the impact of education and training in developing countries.
http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/2012/03/12/000333037_20120312235511/Rendered/PDF/674320NWP00PUB0Box367872B0Report052.pdf

Health workers’ knowledge of contraceptive side effects increased substantially after the refresher training. The mobile phone approach was convenient and flexible and did not disrupt routine service delivery. Clear limitations of the medium are participants can’t practice clinical skills or have interactive discussions. Also, some participants had trouble with network reception.