January 24, 2010: The need to recruit more instructors and teachers was among the many important issues raised during the 2nd Bi-annual Conference held by the department of human resources for the Vocational Training Institutes (VTIs) and Institute of Zorig chusums (IZC) last week.

The conference discussed the lack of quality instructors and that the present crop of instructors were not sufficiently skilled as they were recruited right after graduation. They still needed to undergo training especially on the IT side.

The labour ministry organized this conference with the aim to enhance access to Vocational Education and Training (VET), strengthen quality of VET, build quality workforce for productive employment, and improve management and administrative capacity of VTIs and IZCs.

The Secretary of labour ministry, Dasho (Dr) Sonam Tenzin said, “Instructors are one priority, they must be skill oriented though they lack the basic skills at present.”

As per the current status, there are 136 instructors and the ministry will be employing more. For selection and recruitment of the instructors, the minimum criteria will be a graduate because they want to promote regionally balanced employment opportunities for the graduates. The selected candidates will be trained within Bhutan and outside as well.

“Big mass of recruiting institutions will be outsourced,” said director Sonam Rinchen of labour ministry.

 “More research has to be done as none of the institution has come up with new ideas and programs. So we must make a proper assessment to bring down the unemployment issues, and to empower the vocational training institutions,” said Dasho (Dr) Sonam Tenzin.

The process of improving management and administrative capacity of Vocational Training Institutes were also discussed followed by the discussion on the renaming of the Institute of Zorig Chusums.

The labour ministry along with the heads of institution planned to promote development of national skilled work force.