What is KOJO?

Why is Local Training Governance needed?

Financing and governance of vocational education and training in Kyrgyzstan — a core issue

Although the central Government has realised the need for reforming the Vocational Education and Training System, it lacks strategies to approach the problems of financing and resolve the lacking relevance of training contents for the requirements of a market economy. The system as such and the vocational schools as providers of education are financially as well as institutionally struggling to fulfil their functions to provide the country with the required professional labour force. Very limited and non-timely financing as well as outdated curricula and deteriorating infrastructure result in a decreasing reputation of vocational education which again leads to decreasing student numbers.

 

What is Local Training Governance?

Four functions of education

Education has according to the New Public Management theory four main economic functions:

1. Financer: defines policies and makes respective resources available. Typical financers include Governments, participants through fees, other users through voluntary or compulsory contributions, donors or sponsors. The financing function is linked to quality control.
2. Owner: define what they want in relation to the price, e.g. training contents, delivery patterns, course duration. Typical owners include Government departments, employers, user groups, in development cooperation also projects.
3. Provider: deliver training to the users. Typical providers include vocational schools, on-the-job training venues or apprenticeship companies.
4. Users: appropriate the benefits of training. Apart from participants themselves also their livelihood coalitions and employers benefit from training.

In the Kyrgyz VET, formally the State is the financer, owner and provider of vocational education and training. However, the State increasingly struggles to fulfil all these functions up to the satisfaction of the users. A pure market model, within which all three functions are private, usually only works in urban areas and for trainings with low capital investment such as computer, business administration or language training.

Local Training Governance (LTG) seeks to find a compromise between the state and market model by assigning ownership roles to local governance bodies and the financer role to a wide spectrum of financers. In other words, Local Training Governance can also be described as a “local training fund”.

 

Who is involved in Local Training Governance?

Local ownership

Through social mobilisation, AVEP/ Helvetas strives to initiate the local community and its vocational school, to create a Local Training Governance NGO and register it as a fund according to Kyrgyz legislation under the name of KOJO. Potential members are all sections of the local community who have an interest in vocational education for the local youth (such as school representatives, farmers and parents, representatives of the local administration) but also the Government as well as the financers of the fund (such as enterprises, local and national sponsors as well as international donors). The functions of the KOJO are to:

• Raise funds for achieving full financing of the training course by contracting financers;
• Decide on training fees;
• Contract the vocational school to provide the training;
• Monitor the training delivery;
• Disburse contributions according to the conditions of the financing contracts;
• Promotion of the training offer.
  

 

How is Local Training Governance financed?

Multi-source financing

Several members of the KOJO will have not only an ownership but also a financer function (e.g. enterprises, local and national sponsors, donors, Government). Furthermore, the KOJO will require the school to raise fees from the participants.

During the first years of the Local Training Governance, international donors such as Helvetas will contribute the lion share of the training delivery costs. However, there will be always more than a single financer involved in one LTG arrangement and financers will work along a pre-defined financing plan with decreasing grant contribution. A financing plan for one school could look as follows:

	Year 1	Year 2	Year 3	Year 4	Year 5	Year 6	Year 7
Donors & intern. companies	86 %	80 %	60 %	50 %	30 %-	10 %-	—
Training fees	5 %	5 %	10 %	10 %	15 %	15 %	20 %
Local/national sponsors	4 %	5 %	10 %	10 %	20 %	25 %	25 %
Local enterprises	5 %	10 %	15 %	20 %	20 %	30 %	30 %
Government	—	—	5 %	10 %	15 %	20 %	25 %

 

Where is “Local Training Governance” applied?

Pilot Project of Helvetas Kyrgyzstan

As of 2006, AVEP, the Agricultural Vocational Education Project of Helvetas Kyrgyzstan, starts a pilot project on Local Training Governance in the Issyk-Kul and Chui oblasts. Vocational schools in these oblasts can apply for piloting Local Training Governance by setting up the KOJO and fulfiling minimum conditions for training provision. The LTG-approach will be used for supporting the vocational schools to introduce a modularised training course for young rural adults to become farmer entrepreneurs. The course development is based on the existing 3-years course implemented by the AVEP partner schools in Naryn and Batken oblast since 2000. The course will have a duration of 1,5 years and contain a winter course in basic farm management, a summer farm practice with a combined business planning exercise and a winter course with modules tailor-made for the training needs of the participants.

Vision

Once Local Training Governance is established in several schools, the locally established KOJOs shall form a national association in order to resume ownership at the central level for course, curriculum and teaching material development as well as for training of trainers and lobbying.

The vocational schools as training providers shall gain a tool for promoting and co-financing not only farmers training but also other training to the rural community.

 

Why to support "Local Training Governance?

As a donor, sponsor, enterprise or businessman you might ask yourself, why you should support the KOJO training fund and vocational education in general:

If you are representing a donor organisation...

Your organisation has the opportunity to:

• Support rural youth in getting a practical and market-oriented training on agriculture developed and tested by AVEP and its stakeholders over more than five years
• Alleviate rural poverty by contributing to the Millennium Development Goal of Education for All.
• Achieve with the support of Helvetas/ AVEP your own project or programme goals of educating rural youth and/ or farmers.

If you are representing a private company...

You achieve that:

• Your suppliers of agricultural crops and livestock products for processing will deliver better quality (raw) products and thus you can improve your own product quality.
• Your clients acknowledge the good reputation of your company as you are investing into the future generations of the Kyrgyz nation.
• Your promotion campaign can highlight your engagement for educating rural youth and the farmers.
• You can have your say in what skills your future suppliers of raw products or your employees on your cooperative/ farm holding shall learn during vocational education.

If you are want to be a sponsor...

You can be sure that

• Your contribution will be used for the benefit of the Kyrgyz rural youth.
• You will gain personal reputation within your local community or even at regional or national level.
• If running for elections, your election campaign will be more attractive.

 

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KOJO stands for Кесиптик Окутуунун Жергиликтуу Органы (Local Vocational Training Body). At the same time in the Kyrgyz language “KOJO” is used in the sense of owner or host.