The Office for the Promotion of Small and Medium-Sized Congolese Enterprises (OPEC) in conjunction with The Technical and Professional Institute (ITP) - BUMBU, in fulfillment of the National TVET Qualification Framework (NTQF) that set qualification of TVET Programs in DRC, requested Africa Leather and Leather Products Institute (ALLPI) to facilitate the development of Footwear and Leather goods Design and Production levels I, II and III. The participants of the workshop were drawn from the public sector, comprising of officials from the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Science and Technology, Ministry of Commerce Trade and Industry and the Standards department. From the Private Sector comprising of experienced officials from the Tannery, Shoe factory, Cluster Management and artisans. From the Academia comprising of experienced officials from Technical colleges who are curriculum developers and trainers.
The Curriculum development process involved carrying out a needs analysis by public, industry and academia to ascertain the employment opportunities that demand it, the technological development and activities at workplace or industry and the competency profiles needed to implement the curriculum after it is developed. The needs analysis was then followed by the design and development of Curriculum at levels 1, 2 and 3 in line with the TVET framework and finally the formulation of the Curriculum implementation and evaluation matrix.
ALLPI is spearheading the skills portability project in Africa in Collaboration with International labour Organization (ILO) and this Curriculum development exercise for Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) was conducted with the overall vision of fitting in the skills portability and recognition on the Africa continent. The workshop was conducted through a virtual conferencing mechanism due to the travel restrictions caused by the COVID 19 pandemic. The duration of the workshop was 5days.
In an effort to increase the uptake of training by students and scaling up on the skills development for the leather sector in DRC, the developed Curriculum is earmarked to be implemented in all the technical colleges in DRC.
