Vocational Training Corporation urges young people to join diploma programmes

AMMAN — The Vocational Training Corporation (VTC) is working on a plan to encourage young people to join two diploma programmes that teach highly demanded skills and open the door for students to pursue higher degrees.

Sector experts and officials have over the past years attributed the lack of interest in vocational training to the fact that training stops at the level of skilled worker, without giving excelling students a chance to seek higher degrees in a community that values college education and respects people with university degrees.

Acknowledging that the public needs to know more about the advantages and benefits of this training, VTC Director Majed Habashneh said the two programmes started in 2008, in collaboration with Balqa Applied University.

Habashneh told The Jordan Times in a recent interview that the first is a 72-credit-hour programme open for secondary school graduates who passed the General Secondary Certificate Examination (Tawjihi). 

The diploma is accredited by the VTC and the university, allowing graduates to sit for the annual comprehensive final exam for community college students (Shamel) and apply to bridge for a university degree, including engineering. 

Those who have not passed Tawjihi can join the second diploma course. They receive similar training, but their certificate is only accredited by the VTC, so they cannot sit for the Shamel or continue their education.

However, Habashneh said, there is a way. If students enrolled in the second diploma pass the Tawjihi during their training under the Ministry of Education’s home-study system, they automatically join the first group and benefit from the available opportunities.

Students of both groups can join an array of programmes including vehicle maintenance, automation, communications technology, medical devices maintenance, applied software, and welding and metal technologies. 

The training is offered by the VTC-run Jordan Korea Institute for Technology and the Vocational Training Institute in Yajouz.

Students are offered subsidised tuition fees, free accommodation and help to secure jobs after graduation. 

In fact, the employment rate for graduates is 100 per cent, Habashneh said, simply because the specialities are selected after coordinating with employers to identify the most demanded skills.

Among the more than 500 students enrolled in the two facilities, there are only seven females, with plans under implementation to encourage gender balance, especially since some of the training programmes are suitable for women.