The Ministry of Science & Education is considering upgrading the existing Federal Technical & Vocational Training Institute into a technical university.

For the upgrade of the Institute, the Ministry of Science & Education is amending the establishment regulation of the Institute. The Ministry has also allocated 200 million Br for the upgrade project.

The university will provide comprehensive and technical training and conduct research activities, according to Teshale Berecha, director general at the Institute, which provides training to teachers and individuals in leadership positions who reach level four or five in TVET programmes or have diplomas.

The Institute expects the construction of the university to commence next year after the regulation is approved by the Council of Ministers.

Along with the upgrade of the Institute, the Ministry drafted a road map to restructure the existing 44 universities, making some of them provide comprehensive and technical training and conduct research activities, according to Teshale.

The road map drafted for 2018-2030 pointed out a need to open applied universities to link theories at schools with practice and engage more in scientific research. Last month Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed (PhD) disclosed his administration plan of turning five to six existing universities into applied universities giving hands-on training.

Recently, the government launched a project that aims to create three million jobs in a year. In a bid to realise this plan, the government is making new changes, such as building the capacity of educational institutions to give hands-on training to the workforce that will join the job market.

Operating with 200 lecturers, the Institute which enrolls 9,000 students at a time, plans to add some more foreign professionals after the expansion.  Now it enrolls students into 22 technology departments with bachelor’s degrees and eight departments with master’s degree programmes.