Technical and vocational skills development through Open, Distance and Flexible Learning: a case of the Hospitality and Tourism sector in Namibia

Abstract

The technical and vocational skills development in Namibia has seen a major shift in the past years with the establishment of the Industry Skills Committees’ under the Namibia Training Authority and lately the development of Tourism Training Namibia an online training platform for all in the hospitality and tourism sector. // These initiatives are aimed at ensuring the technical and vocational skills development is done in an open, distance and flexible way of learning. To provide the skills needed by the industry to accelerate employment and economic development. // The paper will provide an overview of the work of the Industry Skills Committees’ ensuring that the technical and vocational skills are developed according to industry needs to avoid mismatch. Furthermore, the paper will also enlighten listeners on the training platform developed for the Namibian hospitality and tourism sector. To enable people to learn new skills and upgrade their existing knowledge to remain relevant, useful and provide state of the art services to the customers. The method used is desktop review using internet as a source of information and document review to validate the information gathered. // The review revealed that technical and vocational skills is crucial for national development and should be given high priority especially in the 21st century where most countries are aiming to become knowledge society or knowledge based economy. This skills should be developed through ODFL since it is the most appealing and accommodating way of learning. // The paper will conclude by highlighting some recommendations for players in the open and distance learning fraternity to tap on the emerging field of technical and vocational field to offer more courses. // Paper ID: 65