CEMETS iLab Nepal: Supporting local TVET reform
The CEMETS iLab Nepal has officially come to an end. Discover how this project contributed to Nepal’s TVET sector and meet the winning team.
By Patrick McDonald & Marit van Dekken
The CEMETS Implementation Lab (iLab) Nepal aimed to build capacity among Nepal’s TVET leaders to help the sector continue to improve. As a collaboration between external page Kathmandu University and CEMETS, with funding from the external page SDC, the iLab provided online course content, live online events, in-person events, and workshops to link current TVET research to the Nepali context.
Winning team
The winning team from the first cohort comes from Madhesh, a province in Nepal’s tropical south bordering India. The team’s reform case involves setting up a local TVET unit and inter-municipality coordination between three rural villages. This innovative approach for Nepal involves leveraging and improving local economic activity – in this case, agriculture. It also entails combining efforts amongst small government units to maximize reach and efficiency.
“The reform case of the winning team involves setting up a local TVET unit and inter-municipality coordination between three rural villages.”The team is from Madhesh, a province in Nepal's tropical south bordering India
It has been inspiring to see the breadth of TVET innovations across Nepal during the iLab. Teams have taken the opportunity to test new reform ideas, from changing the way classrooms are set up, to partnering with local hotels to test short programs, through to updating and reforming curricula. Especially heartening has been to observe the level of involvement from different actors – from NGOs, to businesspeople and government officials, all the way up to the Prime Minister’s office!
The first cohort of the CEMETS iLab Nepal has reached over 50 TVET stakeholders ready to lead some amazing projects and start a network of TVET experts in the country. We are excited to see how this continues to develop.
Special thanks go to the local iLab Team: Mahesh Nath Parajuli, Prakash Kumar Paudel, Prakash C. Bhattarai and Suresh Gautam from Kathmandu University School of Education, and Usha Bhandari from SDC Nepal, for all their hard work in organizing content and physical sessions, and closely accompanying the teams.
From the CEMETS Switzerland team, Ditjola Naço oversaw the smooth running of the Moodle Platform, Mike Ebner produced hours of excellent video footage, and Ursula Renold, Patrick McDonald, and Katie Caves provided content and evaluations for the teams.