Thoughts on Relevant Curricula and how to Attract and Retain High Quality Staff

Transcription

1 Thoughts on Relevant Curricula and how to Attract and Retain High Quality Staff Prof Frans Swanepoel African Doctoral Academy (ADA), Stellenbosch University, South Africa Prof Aldo Stroebel Centre for Sustainable Agriculture, University of the Free State INNOVATE - International Symposium on Capacity Building in Agriculture Education and Training in Developing Countries September 2013, USA

2 TAE systems are misaligned with needs of a strong agricultural sector, particularly SHFs Misalignment between demographics of graduates and SHF population Misalignment between type of training provided and skills needed in the workforce Misalignment between level of training provided and sector needs Women represent 60-80% of farmers, but small share of TAE students and agricultural workers (e.g. only 10% of extension workforce in Mozambique) Students tend to come from urban backgrounds, the few from rural areas not interested in returning; government and NGOs find it difficult to hire staff (researchers and extensionists) willing to move or return to rural areas Students lack opportunity to develop technical competencies prior to seeking employment and require training before taking on their assignments Employers identify gaps in communication skills, business management and planning, post-harvest technology and marketing Curriculum and teaching methods include little practical training due to lecturers without appropriate skills, outdated course materials, poor facilities (particularly for research) and dearth of high quality research projects Lack of Africa-based graduate programs coupled with reduction in number of scholarships to pursue training abroad has led to too few PhDs and MScs Too few technicians trained for productive work in the agricultural sector most aspire to enter Universities (and not necessarily in the agricultural field) Lack of a vibrant doctoral training and research capacity and culture Sources: Saint (2006); Rivera (2006); Vandenbosch (2006); Mouton (2010)

3 Beyond funding, many barriers to an effective TAE system that supports SHFs TAE isolated from research and extension Poor feedback mechanisms Limited leadership Inefficient allocation of scarce resources Administrative separation of agricultural research and higher education under two different Ministries has impeded development of an effective innovation system and feedback loop from research to education TAE institutions failing to respond to need for more problem-solvers, facilitators, and practicallyoriented graduates for extension services Students in TAE institutions are too rarely exposed to smallholder farmers directly and are engaged more in theoretical than practical training Information about labor market needs in agricultural employment is scarce; few TAE institutions have tracer studies to understand how their graduates have fared in the labor market (Sokoine University in TZ is an exception) Immigration has led to an exodus of senior academics (estimated 30% of all professionals trained in African universities live outside the continent) Over-stretched, under-paid faculty often need to spend more time consulting to augment income than supporting graduate research Many faculty members are nearing retirement age (e.g. 60% of the Faculty of Agriculture at Katibougou in Mali will retire in ten years) HIV/AIDS has had broad, detrimental effects on human capital TAE institutions have proliferated across the continent with duplication of efforts (e.g. 6 faculties in Cameroon; 5 in Ghana) there appear to be opportunities for consolidation Sources: Johanson and Saint (2007); Rivera (2006)

4 Definition: An effective TAE system Supportive environment: Strategic priority for agricultural and rural development Sufficient and sustainable funding for TAE institutions Supply of secondary school graduates Right institutional mix Universities Polytechnics Technical colleges Other With adequate resources: Faculty Curriculum Facilities/ Resources Research capacity Graduates with appropriate skill mix and levels: PhD MSc BSc Diploma/certificates In adequate numbers to meet sector demand for: Researchers Faculty Policy makers and bureaucrats Managers and entrepreneurs Extensionists To fill needed roles in the sector, with direct benefits for SHFs: Skill-building & problem solving Market Development and indirect benefits for SHFs: Research & knowledge creation Policy analysis and development Increased agricultural productivity for smallholder farmers and the agricultural sector as a whole Teaching and training With strong linkages to and feedback mechanisms from: Smallholder farmers Researchers Agribusiness Extension workers Policymakers Linked to and supported by regional and global institutions, networks and collaborations

5 Four investment opportunities Create preconditions SHF aligned ag. dev. policy environment Government commitment to the sector Supportive environment: Strategic priority for agricultural and rural development Sufficient and sustainable funding for TAE institutions Supply of secondary school graduates Right institutional mix Universities Polytechnics Technical colleges Other With adequate resources: Faculty Curriculum Facilities/ Resources Research capacity Build AET capacity Expand/create new programs Improve quality and alignment with needs Graduates with appropriate skill mix and levels: PhD MSc BSc Diploma/certificates In adequate numbers to meet sector demand for: Researchers Faculty Policy makers and bureaucrats Managers and entrepreneurs Extensionists To fill needed roles in the sector, with direct benefits for SHFs: Skill-building & problem solving Market Development and indirect benefits for SHFs: Research & knowledge creation Policy analysis and development Increased agricultural productivity for smallholder farmers and the agricultural sector as a whole Smallholder farmers With strong linkages to and feedback mechanisms from: Researchers Address country systems barriers Pro-SHF decision systems Improve AKIS* coordination Decentralize AET/AKIS* Strengthen funding platform Agribusiness Extension workers Linked to and supported by regional and global institutions, networks and collaborations Policymakers Teaching and training Strengthen regional/global initiatives Regional AET institutions Access to information resources Research collaboration *AKIS Agricultural Knowledge Information System

6 Critical forces and influences affecting the potential for transformation in the AET system Source: Ofir, Swanepoel and Stroebel (2013)

7 Networks for agricultural development based on a notion of capacity building In the context of competitive and knowledge-intensive economies, capacity building must refer to more than technical training and transfer of skills A more systemic definition of capacity building would include, in addition to technical skills transfer: institution strengthening, the improvement of inter- or intraorganizational structures, and the imparting of entrepreneurial competencies and business acumen The emphasis must be on doing and accomplishing, not just on training and learning

8 Human and institutional capacity framework Source: Moock (2011)

9 Appropriate trained graduates (1) Reorienting them towards a multidisciplinary, systems approach Educating them from within African contexts and with African experiences and solutions, but with international experience coupled to incentives to return to Africa Focusing on holism and generalism Embedding gender, sustainability, quality assurance and other key concepts in the underlying knowledge systems Ensuring expertise to engage with old and new user communities, agribusiness and global value chains Enabling the construction of knowledge and access to information based on multidisciplinary approaches and on engendered approaches to their learning, research and work

10 Appropriate trained graduates (2) Encouraging organisational and social entrepreneurship, with a mindset that favours proactive action, risk taking, competitiveness, autonomy and innovativeness, Cultivating the right set of values towards people and towards the complementarity between agriculture and the environment Understanding SHFs and the rationale for technology development and use, and being able to participate in shared impact-oriented progress assessments that promote self-reliance Developing extension agents who can act as agents of change among farmers and in their relationship with other parts of the system. These agents should be catalysts - initiating learning and being conduits for knowledge resources, while respecting and activating agency in the farmer

11 Relevant curricula (1) Updated systems, and in particular farming systems approaches, with a strong focus on both local (social inclusion; environment; sustainability, resilience), regional and global challenges (trade, climate change) Integrating multi- and interdisciplinary foci, thus cultivating both specialists and generalists Synthesising and integrating knowledge in domains such as production, environmental integrity, social benefits, consumer requirements (health and food safety), sustainability science, and others Supporting interaction with farmers - providing them with feedback for evaluation, and exposing students to practical application in the field Developing frameworks and models for that Africans own, with African examples and case studies based on African agribusiness experiences Focusing on SHFs, with all the characteristics expressed in this chapter and elsewhere

12 Relevant curricula (2) Emphasising the implications of global and regional policies and value chains, and the interface between political and technical issues in areas such as trade, foreign direct investment, international protocols and controversial technologies such as genetically modified organisms and food Co-creating curricula with SHFs in such a way as to ensure genderresponsiveness at all levels of the AET system and the agriculture sector Maintaining entrepreneurship and innovation as central tenets for working both within and outside agricultural value chains, including food and nutrition. Curricula for entrepreneurship and innovation require a systems orientation, multi- and interdisciplinary approaches, and experiential and work-integrated education and training. Prerequisites for success are individual and collective capabilities in innovation and entrepreneurial activities, supportive organisational cultures, external networks and tailor-made pedagogical approaches. In practice it is hard for those who are not innovative and entrepreneurial to teach these characteristics and approaches.

13 Networking to attract and retain staff Generating economies of scale among research universities that are small and cannot cover core and specialized courses in most postgraduate agricultural fields; Building of credibility and legitimacy for African governments and donors in demonstrating solid academic programs that engage with other stakeholders in the agriculture sector and produce employable graduates; Exploiting both the lessened inflexibility of faculties under more democratized and decentralized university management, and complementarities and synergies in innovation; Promoting quality assurance through interaction, information sharing, and peer review; Strengthening links between academic research centers and the private sector; Building a critical mass of female scientists in the face of the narrow pipeline of female students surfacing from undergraduate studies at individual universities; and Harnessing movements toward regional integration that present opportunities for reducing costs of research and training and avoiding duplication Create dynamic self-teaching systems that speed up innovation (Juma, 2011) Produce scientist entrepreneurs, create professional career structures, build economies of scale and serve as leverage points for translating knowledge into innovation and application (Moock, 2011).