Addressing the Challenges for Skills Development Through

International Partnerships

Tunisia: Harrow College, Dudley College, Centre de Formation et d’Apprentissage de Bizerte

Afshan Baksh, Sanjeev Ohri, Fadhel Sefi / Anis Chtiti

Overview

• June 2012 till June 2014

• Textile industry

• Apprenticeship / Employer Engagement / Career Orientation / Quality

• The aim of the project is to support our partners in developing robust processes in the areas identified above. Our intention is to build capacity and to ensure that the methods we use will support continuous and sustainable improvements and that methods can be applied easily to other areas of the institution.

DudleyCollege

HarrowCollege

Centre de Formation et d’Apprentissage de Bizerte

The Challenges of Working Towards Effective Education Through Skills Partnerships

So, what are the challenges

• Managing expectations

• Commitment to project

• Pressures of other commitments

• Motives and motivation

• Cultural differences

• Lost in translation – Language differences, communication

• Geography

• Mismatch between priorities

• “Too many chefs spoil the broth”

• External factors

Lesson Learnt

• Importance of setting rules & agreement on how you will work together

• Partnerships require work, all the time! Spending time on the partnership early is beneficial throughout the project

• Establish that PM is the leader of the project

• A good project manager will lead the project but implementation and delivery is a collective responsibility

• Clarity about what project will deliver (and what it wont do)

• Project needs clear benefits and value for all involved

• Capability and capacity clearly identified

• Partners needed to take responsibility for the project in their own institutions

• Developing collective aims and objectives for the project

• Importance of deadlines to everyone

Future Plans

• Key Question: How can you get the most out of the partners and partnerships?

• Assign different roles and responsibilities for people

• Active involvement from all involved– build ownership

• Acknowledge achievements along the way

• Be transparent about decisions

• Be decisive about ways forward – need agreement on how to tackle these issues

• Engage senior managers and build advocacy for the project

• Identifying the potential barriers for success for

• Each institution

• Departments within the institutions

• Individuals working on the project

abaksh@harrow.ac.ukAfshan Baksh

Head of Higher Education & International DevelopmentHarrow College, UK