Restructuring Technical and Vocational Training in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (PPP Initiative)

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Restructuring Technical and Vocational Training
in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia(PPP Initiative)
By Saleh Alamr, Vice Governor for Planning and
Development
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The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

• Land Area 2,000,000 sq km
• Total Population 27,136,977
• 8,429,401 foreign workers
• Population Growth 2.21
• Life Expectancy 74 years

3
Larges Expansion Plan in TVET

• 50 Colleges of Technology (Male)
• 50 Higher Institutes of Technology (Female)
• 162 Industrial Secondary Institutes
• 4 Trainers Training Colleges

4
PPP Initative The overall project consists of 3
main phases second phase has just been
completed and third is about to start
May 2012
December 2011
July 2011
1
2
3
Activities

• Develop analytic understanding of job demand and
  supply in the Kingdom
• Understand setup and sizing of higher education
  sector (university vs TVET)
• Deep dive on TVET and benchmark performance,
  provision and system setup
• Develop/refine TVET strategy going forward

• Perform due-diligence on existing vocational
  training institutions (financials and outcomes)
  to refine performance understanding
• Test and refine strategic initiatives developed
  in first phase with international market
  participants training providers, regulators and
  employers
• Refine and detail recommendations from phase 1
  based on market testing outcomes

• Put enablers in place to implement strategy
• Start implementation of recommendations

Today
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Key recommendation of phase 1 was to massively
scale up the size of vocational training in the
Kingdom
ESTIMATES
TVTC
Partnerships
2011
2013
2015
2020
456
Students Thousand
259
420
176
110
188
98
10
78
71
36
144
Graduates Thousand
86
58
135
31
61
33
3
25
25
9
15.1
Budget SAR billion
8.6
7.3
13.7
4.9
6.1
4.5
1.4
3.5
2.5
2.8
1.4
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and improve its quality further through 4 main
initiatives. However, several issues open at the
end of phase 1
Focus areas
Key recommendations
Key open issues
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Scale up public-private partnerships

• Expand involvement of international and private
  sector vocational and technical education
  providers
• Ensure employer involvement in the design of
  vocational education programs, either through
  employer-lead model or with provider-lead model
• Be very specific on framework and operating model
  to facilitate tendering process

• How should new PPP model look like to ensure high
  performance but also keep costs under control?

2
TVTC transformation

• Align TVTC colleges with expanded PPP model

• How to ensure a consistent high-quality system
  across all colleges?

3
Establishing short work-readiness programs

• Launch programs to provide short work-readiness
  training to the currently unemployed, possibly
  using employer-lead voucher model

• How to align efforts of HRDF with future
  vocational activity?

Regulatory setup

• Center should reduce its role to regulation,
  funding, information provision, policy
  coordination

4

• How would new regulatory setup look like?

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In the market testing phase we involved we set
out to refine our answers and address open issues
with lots of external input
Benchmarking effort

• Expert interviews
• Engaged inter-national experts to define key
  questions to be solved for PPP and regulatory
  model
• International visits
• Tested PPP and regulatory model with providers
  and regulators
• Gauged institutions interest in supporting
  reform implementation in KSA
• Local benchmarking
• Tested PPP and regulatory model with employers
  and existing providers in KSA
• Detailed due diligence on TVTC performance

Interviews conducted since December, 2011

• UK
• 5 education providers
• 2 awarding bodies
• 1 industry body
• 1 regulator

• Germany
• 3 education providers
• Ministry of Labor
• 2 research and advisory organizations

• Canada
• 5 education providers
• 1 accreditor
• 1 association of colleges

• KSA
• 5 non-government colleges
• Many employers

• Philippines
• Government regulator and manager
• 2 education providers

• US
• 6 education providers
• 2 accreditors
• 1 association of colleges

• Australia
• 3 education providers
• 1 association of colleges
• Government regulator

• Brazil
• 1 education provider

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Newly developed PPP model addresses these issues
and received strong, positive feedback from
providers abroad
Model Highlights

• Provider-led model, employer representation incl.
  through subject matter experts
• Provider developing curricula (with
  employer-input), screening and selecting
  students, providing training materials,
  administering institute and internal quality
  assurance
• Curricula development based on new Occupational
  Standards developed with employer input
  Differentiated requirements and clarity on
  required graduate output quality
• Providers bidding for new capacity (build but
  empty or upcoming) on a per-student funding
  basis, 15 of funding performance based
  (graduation, long-term employment), incentives
  for employer sponsorships and government
  offtake agreements (limited in time)
• Modular course structure effective integration
  of short courses and regular TVET programs
• Government provision of infrastructure, loans for
  equipment and process support

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Further enablers need to be put in place to
finalize PPP model

1. Develop detailed TVTC capacity forecasts (by
   region/program) to match need capacity with
   market needs (rough estimate for first batch of
   PPP colleges already existing)
2. Start development of new NOSS to understand skill
   requirements per job and capture further benefits
   (create transparency, promote mobility and allow
   national skills testing)
3. Conduct full cost-benefit analysis of vocational
   programs to complement demand view for new
   programs with view on macro-impact
4. Continuous refinement of data accuracy on
   performance
5. Communication campaign for new model
6. Potentially other refinements, e.g., voucher
   scheme to give employers and students voting
   power

SOURCE Team
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Providers will be selected through a rigorous RfP
evaluation process
Round 2 high-level business plan
Long list creation
Round 1 pre-qualification
Round 3 final bid
Proposals
20-30
10-20
30-50
Finalcontracts
Process

• Pre-qualification based on
• Accreditation
• Students/staff1
• International experience
• Programs
• Finance and performance

• Three steps process
• Individual discussions
• Site visits to providers
• High-level business plans
• TVTC provides feedback and asks questions

• Creation of a long list of potential providers
  based on
• Benchmarking trips
• Additional references from umbrella organizations

• Site visits to KSA colleges
• Providers develop final detailed business plan
• Providers bid for colleges (binding)

Need to involve regional/low-cost providers in
RfP process to ensure cost-efficiency
especially for standard programs
1 In full-time equivalents
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Quality assurance model will be central for
institutional and student level but left to
market mechanisms for programs
Rationale based on market feedback
Final recommendation
Institutional level

• A single accreditor to ensure quality of all
  training providers, ideally in-house with
  external support to set it up (could also be
  outsourced)

• Consistent standards
• Organization operates at scale in KSA, with
  resources to inspect many colleges
• Standards can be customized to KSA

Program level

• International programmatic accreditation strictly
  voluntary1

• Least intervention in the market
• Program accreditation redundant if national
  student testing is in place

Student level

• National testing of all graduates in order to
  receive degree
• Existing teachers can be leveraged to run tests
  with minimal training
• Existing college facilities can be used to host
  tests

• Direct comparability of college performance
• Skills requirements are driven by employers
• National skills standards can be set up
  relatively quickly
• Skill standards also helpful to calibrate
  required inputs and costs

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To deliver up to 10 pilots with proposed PPP
model by the end of the year, enabler development
needs to be complemented by starting delivery
PRELIMINARY
Months
1
2
3
4
5
New proposal developed and aligned based on
revised TVTC data

• Missing enablers/open issues to detail PPP
  package
• Forecast capacity
• Understand cost-benefit
• Skill standards
• Data accuracy
• Communication
• Further refinements

Private providers on board
Missing enablers
Detailed proposals developed and agreed upon in
last project phase
Final PPP model
PPP tender process (pilot in 2012 with up to 10
colleges)

• Identify and select providers

TVTC PPP unit

• Build internal unit to manage PPP relationships

Scale-up delivery
Build quality assurance and regulator

• Design system governance

SOURCE McKinsey, TVTC
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Thank You