It is heart warming to read that the University of Mauritius (UOM) has decided to embed work-based learning (WBL) in all its programmes. This is a major leap in the right direction to serve the needs of Mauritius and to equip our youngsters with reality-based knowledge instead of solely academic certification. It is wise at the outset for UOM to distinguish between WBL and the notion of Work-Related Learning (WRL), two different paradigms.

The silent campaign of many contributors to the national press has paid some dividends. It is delightful to see that the UOM perceives its role as a vehicle to work closely with businesses and improve quality of services through work-based learning. However, the latter’s success depends on how well work placements are willing and prepared to meet the students’. WBL will transform education, assessment strategies and the quality of our business environment.

The Mauritian education system must move to an approach where skills are the main focus of courses. The MOE must talk about acquisition and maintenance of world-class skills instead of world-class education. The difference may be subtle but the emphasis is tremendous. Employers look for skills; organisations serve their clients through skilful employees and clients’ needs are met through skilful interventions. Skill is the driving force of quality services. It gets a nation recognised in the manner it serves its population, deals with other nations and welcomes its guests and visitors.

So, the core of an education system must be skills and WBL will enhance our system and inculcate in our students reality-based skills, which are used daily and are of service to people. It is hoped that the UOM team will put skills at the top of the agenda because recent job fairs have only confirmed - what we have known for a long time - that Mauritius is deficient in skills but strong on memory-based learning.

As an employer, I am acutely aware of the skills shortage. There is a tremendous gap between what is required and what is actually available on the skills market. The levels of professional and technical skills need to be improved and this must be done in the context of national and international needs. However, the immediate need of the country deserves to be addressed as there is a dearth of skilful people.

The bakery industry, for example, is crying out for competent employees but there is hardly any available. We need employees with process-engineering skills, technical engineers with ethical, professional and management skills to improve the quality of our products. The plea is for the UOM to consider the bakery industry for work-based learning so that the quality of products and services can improve.

The bakery industry is one of the social enterprises, which serve the majority population daily, relentlessly, uncompromisingly and consistently. Daily bread is a must for most of us, if not all. The professionalisation of the bakery industry is well overdue. The work-based approach adopted has the potential to help the industry raise standards of a service needed on a daily basis and serve the different strata of our society. The industry is here, the challenge is here, work-based concept has arrived and the invitation to embrace the bakery industry for an innovative pilot scheme is ready and waiting.

Work-based learning is not only about employability but also about service improvement and self-management. If implemented correctly, Mauritius stands to benefit enormously. There will be hope and optimism for our graduates and non-graduates. We should not forget our CPE students and those who may not have been successful in early life. This is why the Institute of Vocational Training Board (IVTB) should be adopting the same model and working in collaboration with the UOM. Internal rambling and politics should be set aside for the sake of skill acquisition and to give our youngsters hope for the future.

Disturbing reports that students are misbehaving at some IVTB centres are indicators that all is not well and the model of apprenticeship needs revisiting. This is a golden opportunity for the TEC to be creative and explore how standards can be raised and maintained in vocational education. IVTB should be a leader and a pioneer in WBL to energise vocational education. It is proving too slow and a sleeping giant. Why is this so? There is a need to widen participation in WBL. It is wrong to perceive WBL as an add-on to academic courses to increase employability.

WBL is a concept designed to learn skills in real situations in the swampy lowlands of service provision and ‘messy’ world of work. I have called in the past and call again for the IVTB to work with the UOM to be reclassified as Institute of Skill Development (Skills Academy) under the TEC umbrella. This will be a great opportunity to be visionary and merge higher education with skills valorisation. Pampering academia with WBL will serve a fraction of our young men and women. The vision must be to serve the greater majority and this demands structural and political shifts in the UOM and the IVTB as well as the University of Technology.

Mauritius must come first, then internal politics. Smaller developing countries like Mauritius must realise that a skills economy is the Rolls Royce engine of sustainable growth. Our bright minister of Finance, the chair of the Empowerment Programme, and Enterprise Mauritius must take this concept on board more vigorously and support the establishment of the Institute of Skills Development.

The UK has recognised that vocational training deserves a much higher profile and must work in partnership with employers and universities. About one hundred universities are members of The University Vocational Awards Council (chaired by academics) championing vocational, experiential and reflective learning and work-based higher education learning. There is a clear understanding that knowledge informs practice but practice generates knowledge through experiential and reflective learning.

Academics in Mauritius must, if they have not already, have this debate. What comes first? Knowledge or practice? The economy is not dependent on knowledge but on new knowledge creation through skills application. This has to be of high ‘usability’ value to enterprises. The route to this aim is WBL. This is where WBL is an entirely different concept from WRL.

The implications are quite enormous for lecturers. If Mauritius is serious about a skills economy and is adopting WBL in higher education, there needs to be an adaptation from institutionally-based lecturers to field coaching. There needs to be a fusion of theoretical teaching with field studies and coaching at the coal-face level. Mentors at practice level will be very helpful in translating what is learnt in lecture rooms into concrete practice. In other words, the appliance of science has to have a place in the real world. This is critical if students are to embark on WBL, lifelong learning, new knowledge production and adding value to quality services.

The world of nursing education and social work are rich in evidence and expertise in work-based reflective learning, mentorship development and management. The UOM appears to be in partnership with the right team at Bradford University and they deserve all the encouragement and plaudits for this initiative. This scheme cannot afford to go wrong because it means so much for our youngsters, their future and the country. At long last, there is a real desire to improve education and the advent of the reform of school inspectors into quality assurance agents seem to indicate that the MOE is waving the right flag. Keep up the good work!

<B>Dr. Taleb DURGAHEE</B> <I>Email: [email protected]</I>