Technical and Vocational Education and Training(TVET)

Formal vocational education starts after basic education and lasts two years. After graduation, students can join university colleges(diploma in 2 years or Bachelor in 4 years) or colleges(2 years). There are five streams in school-based vocational training: industrial, agricultural, commercial, hotel and home economics. Fifteen secondary industrial schools offer 17 specializations and 2,185 students are enrolled in 2004/05. All but three of these industrial schools are funded by government. Sixty four academic secondary schools offer commercial subjects and nearly 3,000 students are enrolled. The two hotel training schools are private. Total students enrollment for the five streams increased from around 3,000 in 1999/2000 to 5,561 in 2004/05. This is considerably lower than the MOEHE 2000-2005 target (9,000 students enrollment). This is partly because this type of training remains unpopular among most students and parents/guardians.

The demand for most vocational training is weak. A few community colleges with limited capacity of 200-300 students have high applicant-place ratio (especially for nursing and the UNRWA Gaza Training Centre). The rest of community colleges have only around one applicant-place ratio. Manual skilled occupations continue to have low status and only the least academically able students are expected to enroll at TVET institutions. The majority of colleges have low student-teacher ratios and high unit cost.

In addition to community colleges, the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs provides other TVET opportunities. Twelve Rehabilitation Centers that target dropouts, slow learners are run by this Ministry. Total enrollments were around 850 in 2004/05 with 380 graduates. The Ministry of Ex-Detainees also offers TVET to around 1,000 students and most of them are males. Four hundred fifty students are enrolled in the National Institute of Information Technology. The ministry also handles TVET centres (enrollment: 6600 students, which offer curriculum in trade (2 years), technical/semi-professional (2 years) and certificate courses (1 -2 years). Besides, The UNRWA provides short-term courses (8-40 weeks).