Country on the Rise
Without a doubt Myanmar has a huge development potential, not only because of its rich resources (Si Thu, 2011, p.157). Recently, the country’s business climate is flourishing with an estimated growth of 7.7% in 2014, which will - according to anticipations - increase to 8.3% in fiscal 2015 (Devex, 2015). As Myanmar’s economy has already embarked on a substantial upswing, the targets of the labour market concerning TVET systems are the development of a demand-driven TVET system and with it the widening of access to the labour marketfor workers as well as the quality assurance in TVET (ILO, 2014). However, holding rank 150 out of 187 countries in the 2014 Human Development Index (HDI) and with only ordinary progress towards the MDGs1, Myanmar is classified by the United Nations as country with low human development (UNDP, 2014).
Since Myanmar’s democratic elections in 2011 the constitution of a new civilian government opened up politics and economy so that the European Union was given a chance to resume its efforts (GIZ, 2012). With the opening of the country many economic sanctions were abolished and hence economy and industry have begun to grow increasingly. This has encouraged a multilateral international development cooperation which in the first place mostly aims at technical and financial cooperation. In terms of funding in TVET, it refers to the contribution of international partners and institutions through projects and programmes for the support of public or governmental activities (Ouédraogo, 2011, p.71). The Myanmar government is receiving support from many development partners since the isolation of the country from the global process is over. International development aid increased rapidly and reached with $7.6 billion in 2013 the tenfold amount in comparison to the year 2009 (Devex, 2015). However, pertaining challenges along the process of developing technical capacities have decelerated the progress (ILO, 2014).
Education and vocational skills development in Myanmar’s growing sectors is vital for a future sustainable development and growth. Potential sectors are manufacturing, construction and infrastructure development as well as hydroelectric, energy, and tourism (ILO, 2014, p.1). Nevertheless, as indicated by UNESCO (1973, p.15) in all branches there will be provably the same barriers to overcome just like in other countries, which started to develop their TVET sectors during the last century. In the education and vocational education sector these limitations refer to such as the lack of funds and resources for qualitative teaching or the reserved attitude towards TVET as well as few experiences in the field of the teaching staff.