Assessment Challenges Faced by Technical Vocational Education (TVET) Stakeholders in Pakistan: Stakeholders’ Perspectives

Abstract

In the modern developmental era, the role of highly trained individuals in national development has become crucially important, but it is also an undeniable reality that Pakistan’s shortage of highly qualified workers is growing. Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) was established to prepare a skilled workforce for various industries and sectors in Pakistan; however, the 60 percent level of young, unskilled, and semi-skilled labor emerging is mainly attributable to the failure of TVET to meet the country’s needs for the trained workforce for the economy. This paper aims to develop an understanding of Pakistani NVQ stakeholders’ perspectives on current assessment issues, effective implementation of assessments, and potential roles and responsibilities of related stakeholders. This article examines the assessment challenges encountered by TVET stakeholders in Pakistan. This study’s primary objective is to understand Pakistani NVQ stakeholders’ perspectives on current assessment issues, the effective implementation of assessments, and the potential roles and responsibilities of related stakeholders. By adopting a qualitative research design, the data were collected from 40 TVET stakeholders working in different positions in TVET sectors.. The findings from this study highlighted six main challenges that are: difficulty in managing professional courses, internal/external trainers’ problems, implementation of CBT as a challenge, industrial-related challenges, language problems, and student competencies as a challenge. Each one of these is discussed in detail.