Restructuring Technical and Vocational Training in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (PPP Initiative)

1. Restructuring Technical and Vocational Training in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia(PPP Initiative) By: Saleh Alamr, Vice Governor for Planning and Development

2. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia • Land Area: 2,000,000 sq km • Total Population: 27,136,977 • 8,429,401 foreign workers • Population Growth: 2.21% • Life Expectancy: 74 years

3. Larges Expansion Plan in TVET • 50 Colleges of Technology (Male) • 50 Higher Institutes of Technology (Female) • 162 Industrial Secondary Institutes • 4 Trainers Training Colleges

4. Diagnostic and Strategy Market Testing Implementation PPP Initative: The overall project consists of 3 main phases – second phase has just been completed and third is about to start May 2012 December 2011 July 2011 1 2 3 Activities • Develop analytic understanding of job demand and supply in the Kingdom • Understand setup and sizing of higher education sector (university vs TVET) • Deep dive on TVET and benchmark performance, provision and system setup • Develop/refine TVET strategy going forward • Perform “due-diligence” on existing vocational training institutions (financials and outcomes) to refine performance understanding • Test and refine strategic initiatives developed in first phase with international market participants: training providers, regulators and employers • Refine and detail recommendations from phase 1 based on market testing outcomes • Put enablers in place to implement strategy • Start implementation of recommendations Today

5. Key recommendation of phase 1 was to massively scale up the size of vocational training in the Kingdom… ESTIMATES Partnerships TVTC 2011 2013 2015 2020 456 Students Thousand 259 420 176 110 188 98 10 78 71 36 144 Graduates Thousand 86 58 135 31 61 33 3 25 25 9 15.1 Budget SAR billion 8.6 7.3 13.7 4.9 6.1 4.5 1.4 3.5 2.8 2.5 1.4

6. …and improve its quality further through 4 main initiatives. However, several issues open at the end of phase 1 Focus areas Key recommendations Key open issues 1 Scale up public-private partnerships • Expand involvement of international and private sector vocational and technical education providers • Ensure employer involvement in the design of vocational education programs, either through employer-lead model or with provider-lead model • Be very specific on framework and operating model to facilitate tendering process • How should new PPP model look like to ensure high performance but also keep costs under control? 2 TVTC transformation • Align TVTC colleges with expanded PPP model • How to ensure a consistent high-quality system across all colleges? 3 Establishing short work-readiness programs • Launch programs to provide short work-readiness training to the currently unemployed, possibly using employer-lead voucher model • How to align efforts of HRDF with future vocational activity? 4 Regulatory setup • Center should reduce its role to regulation, funding, information provision, policy coordination • How would new regulatory setup look like?

7. In the market testing phase we involved we set out to refine our answers and address open issues with lots of external input Benchmarking effort • Expert interviews • Engaged inter-national experts to define key questions to be solved for PPP and regulatory model • International visits • Tested PPP and regulatory model with providers and regulators • Gauged institutions’ interest in supporting reform implementation in KSA • Local benchmarking • Tested PPP and regulatory model with employers and existing providers in KSA • Detailed due diligence on TVTC performance Interviews conducted since December, 2011 • UK • 5 education providers • 2 awarding bodies • 1 industry body • 1 regulator • Germany • 3 education providers • Ministry of Labor • 2 research and advisory organizations • Canada • 5 education providers • 1 accreditor • 1 association of colleges • KSA • 5+ non-government colleges • Many employers • Philippines • Government regulator and manager • 2 education providers • US • 6 education providers • 2 accreditors • 1 association of colleges • Australia • 3 education providers • 1 association of colleges • Government regulator • Brazil • 1 education provider

8. Newly developed PPP model addresses these issues and received strong, positive feedback from providers abroad Model Highlights • Provider-led model, employer representation incl. through subject matter experts • Provider developing curricula (with employer-input), screening and selecting students, providing training materials, administering institute and internal quality assurance • Curricula development based on new Occupational Standards developed with employer input: Differentiated requirements and clarity on required graduate output quality • Providers “bidding” for new capacity (build but empty or upcoming) on a per-student funding basis, ~15% of funding performance based (graduation, long-term employment), incentives for employer sponsorships and government “offtake” agreements (limited in time) • Modular course structure – effective integration of short courses and regular TVET programs • Government provision of infrastructure, loans for equipment and process support

9. Further enablers need to be put in place to finalize PPP model • Develop detailed TVTC capacity forecasts(by region/program) to match need capacity with market needs (rough estimate for first batch of PPP colleges already existing) • Start development of new NOSS to understand skill requirements per job and capture further benefits (create transparency, promote mobility and allow national skills testing) • Conduct full cost-benefit analysis of vocational programs to complement “demand view” for new programs with view on macro-impact • Continuous refinement of data accuracy on performance • Communication campaign for new model • Potentially other refinements, e.g., voucher scheme to give employers and students “voting power” SOURCE: Team

10. Providers will be selected through a rigorous RfP evaluation process… Round 2: high-level business plan Long list creation Round 1: pre-qualification Round 3: final bid Proposals ~30-50 ~20-30 ~ 10-20 Finalcontracts Process • Creation of a long list of potential providers based on • Benchmarking trips • Additional references from umbrella organizations • Pre-qualification based on: • Accreditation • Students/staff1 • International experience • Programs • Finance and performance • Three steps process: • Individual discussions • Site visits to providers • High-level business plans • TVTC provides feedback and asks questions • Site visits to KSA colleges • Providers develop final detailed business plan • Providers bid for colleges (binding) Need to involve regional/low-cost providers in RfP process to ensure cost-efficiency – especially for “standard” programs 1 In full-time equivalents

11. Quality assurance model will be central for institutional and student level but left to market mechanisms for programs Rationale based on market feedback Final recommendation Institutional level • A single accreditor to ensure quality of all training providers, ideally in-house with external support to set it up (could also be outsourced) • Consistent standards • Organization operates at scale in KSA, with resources to inspect many colleges • Standards can be customized to KSA Program level • International programmatic accreditation strictly voluntary1 • Least intervention in the market • Program accreditation redundant if national student testing is in place Student level • National testing of all graduates in order to receive degree • Existing teachers can be leveraged to run tests with minimal training • Existing college facilities can be used to host tests • Direct comparability of college performance • Skills requirements are driven by employers • National skills standards can be set up relatively quickly • Skill standards also helpful to calibrate required inputs and costs

12. To deliver up to 10 pilots with proposed PPP model by the end of the year, enabler development needs to be complemented by starting delivery PRELIMINARY Months 1 2 3 4 5 New proposal developed and aligned based on revised TVTC data • Missing enablers/open issues to detail PPP package • Forecast capacity • Understand cost-benefit • Skill standards • Data accuracy • Communication • Further refinements Private providers on board Missing enablers Detailed proposals developed and agreed upon in last project phase Final PPP model PPP tender process (pilot in 2012 with up to 10 colleges) • Identify and select providers TVTC PPP unit • Build internal unit to manage PPP relationships Scale-up delivery Buildquality assuranceandregulator • Design system governance SOURCE: McKinsey, TVTC

13. Thank You