Change for Good

In its overall reform of the Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) system in Ethiopia, the Engineering Capacity Building Program (ecbp) has placed a great deal of emphasis on practical, demand-driven training. An ideal tool used by ecbp’s TVET reform to ensure a practical education is in-company training. This is the practice of conducting training sessions with staff in a company where all of the regular tools and materials are already available. The end result will be better qualified workers capable of increasing the capacity of the company.

However, without commitment and involvement of the management nothing can move forward. This is especially true if it comes to implementation of tools for change. After an introduction session to more than 250 managers of various companies about in-company training and Kaizen principles, 7 companies were selected to undergo the joint implementation of in-company training and Kaizen principles. Currently, the number of companies has already increased to 16 based on the earlier success of the original seven and the approach is being introduced into the TVET institutions for use in their day to day improvement process.

As part of the Kaizen approach, safety measures are followed more carefully, such as this welder wearing eye protection while working.

 

The Kaizen approach is a model of self improvement which has been adopted and adapted from Japan. The word Kaizen means ‘continuous improvement’ or literally ‘change for good’. The two key principles of the approach are incremental and continuous improvement and the involvement of the entire workforce.

Immediately after a two day training for the training coordinators and managers of the selected companies by experts from ecbp, all the companies began implementation activities. The role of the ecbp experts now is to monitor the ongoing continuous improvement and give advice where necessary. On a biweekly basis there is a visit to see the place where the work is done and advise the company’s KAIZEN team on how to go ahead for further improvement.

Now, 6 months after the theoretical training, the ecbp experts have visited the companies a number of times. The results are outstanding. All the companies’ KAIZEN teams are highly motivated and working hard to fulfill the ecbp experts’ advice while going the extra mile to perform better than before. Change and success is visible in the companies’ workshops. Every working team has implemented an “improvement board” which includes staff performance, idea collection and improvement graphs. The new team spirit and encouragement is leading to continuous small improvement steps as the teams are motivated to realize their ideas independently, without asking for money and approval from management. In no time, more cleaning, better tool arrangement, increased focus on safety and health and ownership of responsibility for sustaining the improvement steps has been realized.

ecbp expert, Michael Buechele (next to wall), discusses the 'improvement board' with workers from an EFFORT group company in Tigray on one of his evaluation visits.

 

The secret behind this success story is management involvement, trust in and encouragement of employees and day to day informal in-company training. As soon as the need for training is identified, it is given to the employees. In addition to that, ideas are used as a source for change and improvement. Further training, both informal and formal, can be provided following the occupational standards modules. For this the TVET institutions should be a source for training to upgrade the skills of the employees.

As this is only the beginning of the KAIZEN approach, in particular being used together with TVET in-company training, the involved companies will be used as models for other companies from all regions and sectors.