Community Technical College

A community technical college is a training institution whose educational facilities are available to youth and other members of the community. It can also be an institution established in a community, owned by a community and run by a community to cater for youth and adults who would like to further their career and those who did not complete their schooling or never attended school. A Community Technical College offers training up to level 2 unlike National Technical Colleges which offer training up to levels 3 and 4.

Establishment of Community Technical Colleges

Access to Technical, Entrepreneurial and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) in Malawi has been so low compared to other Southern Africa Countries. Enrolment into formal TEVET institutions is far below that other Southern African Countries like Lesotho, Mozambique, Botswana and Mauritius. Therefore, in an effort to increase access to TEVET, Malawi Government established community colleges as a way of increasing access to Technical, Entrepreneurial and Vocational Education and Training (TEVET) by out-of-school youth and adults who fail to make it to formal TEVET due to limited capacity and restrictive entry requirements. Government, therefore, introduced community colleges in each district to offer livelihood skills to youth to make them useful citizen in the country. The community colleges have assisted youths to become self-employed, and/or allow them to proceed towards attainment of higher qualifications.

List of Community Technical Colleges

There are fourteen (14) colleges that are providing training and thirteen others are under construction. Resources for constructing these colleges are coming from Malawi Government, TEVET Authority and the Peoples’ Republic of China. The Malawi Government is constructing seven colleges whilst TEVET Authority is constructing one and the Government of China is constructing five colleges.

Table 2: List of Community Technical Colleges

Identification of Sites and Contractors

The role of the Ministry in site identification is to provide technical guidance by providing recommended factors to consider when identifying the sites. The factors are:

• Within communities where youth will come from.
• Near electricity sources so that less resources are spent in installing electricity.
• Near water source to avoid spending a lot of resources installing the same.
• Proper access road to the site.
• Identification of sites to establish community technical colleges is done by District Councils.
• Contractors for rehabilitating the first ten Community Technical Colleges were identified by the District Councils but payments were made at the Ministry Headquarters.
• Currently, all construction that is being done has been procured at the Ministry Headquarters.
• Procurement of training tools and equipment is done at the Ministry Headquarters.

 Recruitment of Students in Community Technical Colleges

The Ministry provides recruitment guidelines to District Councils. Key to the guidelines are:

Applicants should:

• be within 16 to 36 years old.
• have Malawi School Certificate of Education (MSCE). Holders of Junior Certificate are also considered but they cannot proceed to National Technical Colleges.
• Be from the surrounding communities or within the district where the college exists.
• Recruitment is done by the District Council in consultation with management of the college and College Management Committee.
• Recruitment processes are:
• Adverts inviting suitable applicants to apply are placed all over the district using any available means.
• Shortlisted applicants are invited for interviews (whether written or oral).
• Successful candidates are informed using available means.

Benefits of Community Technical Colleges

• Training is conducted in the beneficiary communities thereby reducing the cost of training on the part of the student.
• Training benefits the community by increasing skills base in the community which can be utilised in community development projects and establishment of local enterprises.
• They reduce the prevalence of unemployment among unskilled and unproductive youth.
• They create job opportunities for many Malawians who are working at these colleges in various capacities.
• Have increased access to TEVET by young men and women.