Industry Skill Demands and Priority Competencies Required by Employers in Eastern Uganda

Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) is a key strategy to fill the skills gap and improve employability in Eastern Uganda. The study compared the skills and priority competencies demanded by the employers with the type and quality of training provided by the TVET institutions in the region, and the impact of the above was studied. A convergent parallel mixed methods research design was used, which comprised questionnaires and interviews with 476 respondents, comprising 326 trainees, 138 trainers, 6 principals, and 6 industrial partners, with a response rate of 98.4%. The results reveal that TVET curricula are seen as industry-oriented, but there are still gaps in the implementation of TVET curricula in practice, soft skills, and exposure to current technologies. The correlation between the industry skill requirements and marketable skills development was very high (r = 0.645). From the regression analysis, the variance in the marketable skill development (R² = 0.416) was explained by skill requirements in the industry. Based on the study, the researcher recommends that while theoretically TVET training is oriented towards the workplace, this is not always the case in terms of providing competencies for the workplace. It recommends a national framework for practical skills fidelity, adding industry-based problem-solving elements in training curricula; a national TVET technology modernization fund; a national innovation ecosystem; and using strategic foresight in training curricula to plug the skills gap between training and industry.

Industry Skill Demands, Priority Competencies, TVET, Marketable Skills Development, Employer Requirements.

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