Understanding Engineering Education in Displacement: A Qualitative Study of "Localized Engineering" in Two Refugee Camps

This study aims to promote the development of vocational education in our country energetically. The analysis is followed by introducing the course of development on vocational and technical education in Britain and summarizing the successful experience of vocation in our country with strengthening the funding and legislation for the state of vocational education as well as putting forward suggestions for reform and innovation of education to improve the system of certificates.

The Middle East is a geopolitically diverse region that includes large economies, such as Saudi Arabia and Türkiye; densely populated countries, such as Iran and Egypt; and smaller nations with a high gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, such as the United Arab Emirates and Qatar. Despite the differences in sociocultural, economic, and environmental contexts between these countries, individuals across the region must participate in the labor force and contribute to production to benefit from national wealth. Specialized technical skills offer a significant advantage in securing employment, and technical and vocational education and training (TVET) in higher education has become a viable pathway for various technical roles. On this point, through its varying national (e.g., population, GDP, GDP per capita, human development level, TVET starting age, TVET enrollment in higher education, gross enrollment in higher education) and TVET-related factors (quality of TVET, labor participation by TVET graduates, salary for TVET graduates, unemployment rate for TVET graduates), the Middle East presents an interesting case for examining the value of TVET in higher education to the labor market. Accordingly, this study aimed to compare the advantages (or disadvantages) of TVET graduation for people to access the labor market in Middle Eastern countries. The research was designed as a comparative quantitative study, following a descriptive survey model. The comparative analysis included data from Egypt, Iran, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Türkiye, and the United Arab Emirates to compare TVET in higher education and employment relations. National data for the selected countries were collected from various sources. The focus was on statistical comparisons using cross-tables and classification and regression tree analysis. The analysis showed that TVET is a good way to secure work in the case countries (with relatively lower unemployment for TVET graduates). Nonetheless, according to a comparison of national data, GDP emerged as the most significant factor, highlighting the demand for more professionals in larger-scale production within the related countries. The results also reveal that the TVET starting age and gross enrollment in higher education are among the influential factors for students choosing TVET programs in higher education (ISCED level 5), while TVET-related factors do not generate a distinction in terms of the number of students who prefer TVET programs at the higher education level. Potential policy developments and practices are also discussed concerning educational priorities in Middle Eastern countries to increase the attractiveness of the TVET system as well as its value to the labor market.

Analysis of the refugee children's education in the Kakuma refugee camp

Equitable access of market relevant TVET (Technical and Vocational Education and Training) programs is the first and foremost pre-condition to get the desired outcomes from TVET. The access and relevancy of TVET programs in Nepal are usually questionable. The major objectives of this paper is to analyze the access and relevancy of presently available long term TVET programs and identify its gap with the market demand. The analytical approach adopted for this paper is mainly quantitative and is based on the analysis of micro data of TVET institutes affiliated with Council for Technical Education and Vocational Training (CTEVT) and Central for Education and Human Resource Development (CEHRD) with corresponding information of their location, programs and enrolment capacity. Likewise, review of various other literatures including, journal articles, workshops proceedings, research reports etc. are also taken into reference. Significant variation is found between the ratio of district level enrolment capacity of long-term TVET programs to corresponding number of SEE graduates of the districts which raises question on the equitable access of TVET programs in terms of geography. Based on the analysis made in this paper, health related programs are justified as over accessed programs whereas a clear gap can be observed in the supply mechanism of TVET regarding tourism and agriculture sector. Attention is therefore needed to promote TVET programs in agriculture and tourism related sectors both in quality and quantity in order to mitigate existing mismatch between demand and supply.

Research of The Combination of Production and Education In Higher Vocational Education In The Period of Economic Transition

Technical and vocational education and training (TVET) programs are most successful at supporting youth labor markets when they combine education and employment. Education-employment linkage theory describes this combination in terms of power-sharing between actors from the education system and their counterparts in the employment system over key processes in the curriculum value chain of curriculum design, curriculum application (program delivery), and curriculum updating. The KOF Education-Employment Linkage Index measures linkage at every function in a TVET program where actors from the two systems interact, aggregating those into processes and phases and eventually an index score. We apply that index to the largest upper-secondary TVET programs in Benin, Chile, Costa Rica, and Nepal. We find that Benin has relatively high education-employment linkage, while the other three countries score very low. Benin's situation is unique because its TVET program is moving from employer-led to linked, rather than the typical employer integration into an education-based program. Other countries with large informal economies, low formal education and training rates, and existing non-formal employer-led training may be able to implement similar approaches using functionally equivalent institutions. Furthermore, we summarize the results of discussions with policy-maker focus groups in the four case study countries.

Since the mid‑2010s, Russia has been witnessing a redistribution of student flows between higher education and TVET (Technical and Vocational Education and Training), more and more school leavers applying to TVET institutions. Postsecondary educational choices are closely associated with socioeconomic status of the family, so changes in the patterns of educational transitions may indicate both changes in the education system and shifts in the national socioeconomic system. In available literature, the growing enrollment in TVET is mostly explained by “push” factors repulsing students out of secondary and higher education systems and by the so-called “bypass maneuver” of accessing college via TVET that is popular among Russian school leavers.This article attempts to find out whether the demand for TVET is actually increasing, what may stand behind it apart from the factors within the education system, and whether there is a socioeconomic dimension to this change. Research results allow debunking the myth of the TVET sector growing by virtue of using TVET programs as a springboard to college. Demand for vocational educational trajectoriesis growing beyond the “bypass maneuver” — not only among middle school graduates, who are at the main fork in educational trajectories, but also among highschool leavers. Changes in the demand for TVET programs has exposed rigidity of the TVET system, which manifests itself in enrollment capacity being unable to satisfy the demand for particular specialization, excessive growth in tuition-based enrollment, and the “invisible” demand from high school leavers. The increasing popularity of the vocational track results from the mutually reinforcing factors in the education system, negative economic growth, and labor market situation. The most important trigger behind the growing demand for TVET is the shrinkage of household disposable income: coupled with reduced access to higher education, it “pushes” school leavers with low socioeconomic status out of the academic track.

There has been a substantial convergence in the educational systems of many countries.' Starting with different educational backgrounds, political systems, and economies, both advanced and developing countries have developed similar educational ideologies, institutions, and curricula. One link among some common developments is vocationalism-the orientation of education around preparation for labor markets. In both advanced countries and LDCs, there has been a tendency to consider specific skill training, especially secondary-level vocational education, to be the principal manifestation of vocationalism. This conception is too narrow: every level of schooling, including the university, has become suffused with vocational goals, differentiated along vocational lines, and judged by vocational criteria. To understand the power of vocationalism, it is important to examine the full range of its consequences. In the first part of this article I will discuss different manifestations of vocationalism-understood as specific skill training-in both advanced countries and LDCs. The second section examines some larger consequences of vocationalism, especially its role in educational inflation and in defining the social roles of education. A finding common to many countries is that, despite claims of economic "relevance," vocationalized approaches prove to have little economic justification, fail to resolve the problems that they are designed to address, and generate new problems for education systems. The final section hypothesizes why, given these discouraging findings, vocational solutions to educational and economic problems continue to surface.

Kenya, like other countries in the Sub Sahara Africa (SSA), Technical, vocational education, and training (TVET) is believed to be an obvious remedy to youth employment across the region. As we view TVET in this way, the perception in many if not all the countries across SSA is that TVET is a salvation for the intellectually incapable or those with less or no aspiration for better paying jobs. For the elite and middle class, TVET is in reality not for their children, as it seems almost ‘useless’. Interestingly, even with such perceptions, Kenya and other SSA countries have continued to ‘embrace’ TVET in their education systems but with little investment towards those TVET programmes. In 2018, there was a shift in policy in Kenya with TVET receiving more attention, and as a result attracting a larger budget allocation. The government slashed fees for students in technical and vocational education institutions, and raised public funding in its latest bid to grow the critical skills base needed to achieve the country’s economic ambitions. To support this policy, the government agreed to give an annual bursary of US$300 for every student who joins the technical institutions (University World News, 2018). The students will access the funding through the Higher Education Loans Board (HELB), the agency that disburses loans to university students on behalf of the government. This policy comes as a result of the World bank warning regarding a widening disconnect between labour market skills needs and the graduates of higher education institutions. This paper provides an overview of the state of TVET in Kenya, challenges and possible recommendations to support the new TVET reforms towards making it more attractive for learners in Kenya.

In South Africa, the concept of ‘higher vocational’ education and training is multi-layered and understood very differently depending on which institutional type it is being associated with. In spite of the establishment of a National Qualifications Framework (NQF) in 1995 which was intended to bring about some coherence across the education and training system, and enhance portability of credits and articulation, perceptions of institutional hierarchies and the ‘value’ of their qualifications have persisted. Public Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) colleges (FE colleges in the UK) have historically offered vocational qualifications which in NQF terms (Levels 5 and 6) are within the university/higher education space, but these qualifications have never been accepted as ‘higher education’ due to their location in TVET colleges, and the fact that they have not been accredited within the university quality assurance structures. In the university system on the other hand, the term ‘higher vocational’ is rarely used to refer to qualifications that are closely related to work or practice, with the term ‘professional qualifications’ being preferred.Notwithstanding, in the last decade there has been growing recognition of the need for qualifications that span the boundary between TVET colleges and universities, and allow greater access to further and higher education for young people who for various reasons cannot access university. Moreover, in terms of government’s national plan for post-school education (White Paper on PSET, 2013), the TVET subsystem is set to grow by a much greater margin than the university sector. Albeit to a limited extent, universities and TVET colleges are collaborating in the design of Level 5 ‘Higher Certificates’ that can be offered by colleges, or universities, and become pathways into university programmes. These higher certificates enjoy higher status than historical TVET Level 5/6 offerings, due to their having the input and approval from universities at the outset, although much of this provision is being driven by universities of technology and comprehensive universities at present, rather than what in the South African differentiated higher education system are designated ‘research’ universities.This chapter traces the convoluted pathway that TVET colleges and vocational education in South Africa have traversed, and the significant reversal of integrated higher vocational education systems within South Africa’s post-school education and training sector. This chapter outlines policy approaches to higher vocational education in South Africa, which largely position vocational higher education in higher certificates and diplomas that do not articulate with professional undergraduate degree qualifications, hence preserving the status quo.South Africa’s higher education institutional landscape has undergone significant restructuring since the advent of democracy in 1994, and this chapter outlines ways in which these changes have privileged academic disciplinary learning at the expense of vocational higher education. Furthermore, we focus on instances of TVET college higher education vocational provision and identify some of the key challenges for college participation in higher vocational education.Conceptual framings that we draw on in this chapter are those of David Raffe and others with regard to scholarship on the notions of parity of esteem and unification.

Of the hundreds of thousands of people that formed the huge migratory flow of the refugee crisis, many are living in refugee camps, at times without basic conditions. This research aims to describe the experience of asylum seekers in the transitional context. Being a qualitative study, the data was colected with 15 asylum seekers in Kara Tepe refugee camp (Greece), through semi-structured interviews and participant observation in the natural context. The main results point to a negative experience in Moria refugee camp, with reports of overcrowding, hunger, lack of higiene conditions and health support, insecurity and violence. The psychological impact of the high number of adverse experiences in this population living under these circunstances stood out, with negative emotional experiences and the risk of depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress symptoms. These results show how crucial it is to implement changes by addressing basic needs, but also in the way the asylum applications are processed.

Northern Pakistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) is low malaria endemic area characterised by seasonal transmission with predominantly vivax malaria. Migration of high number of Afghan Refugees in 1978 into KP led to concerns for an increase in malaria, as the malaria incidence in this group was reportedly high compared to the local Pakistani population. Considerable progress has been made in controlling malaria through operational research in the camps where the Afghan refugees reside. However, this process requires effective, repeatable active surveillance tools for monitoring malaria control as availability of accurate data is the major challenge at present. The aim of this PhD project was to generate current information on malaria infection rates through parasite prevalence and malaria exposure using antimalarial antibody responses.The project also investigated the risk factors of malaria and heterogeneity in the geographic distribution of malaria in the camps by using GIS data with serological responses and parasite prevalence data. As an ancillary objective the project aimed to determine the prevalence of G6PO deficiency in the study population. A cross-sectional survey was conducted in five Afghan refugee camps of KP between June and September in 2010. Blood samples were obtained on filter paper from 2526 individuals and tested by rapid diagnostic test, paraSite species specific PCR and ElISA for antibody responses to Plasmodium vivax and Plasmodium falciparum. A questionnaire was administered to collect household and individual based information to determine the potential risk factors of malaria. Heterogeneity in malaria was observed between the studied camps based on seroprevalence, which ranged from 17%-45% for P. vivax and 3% to 11% for P. falciparum. Variation in P. vivax infection prevalence was also detected between the camps, which ranged from 0.4-9% (ROT) and 5-15% (peR). Variation in the distribution of malaria was also found within the camp using spatial/GIS data with clear foci of infection identified in 4 of 5 camps. The results showed that as expected parasite based prevalence measures (ROT and peR) are significantly lower than serological measure of exposure. P. falciparum infection prevalence (ROT and PCR) and seroprevalence was found to be extremely low with P. vivax infections predominant. Age seroprevalence changes were more pronounced for P. vivax than P. falciparum and seroconversion rate was strongly associated with parasite rate. Increasing age .and poorly built houses were associated with increasing risk, while staying in the same camp for the last 6 months and using measures to reducing vector biting such as repellents repellent, coils or insecticide spraying were associated with reduce risk of falciparum malaria. The risk of vivax malaria was observed to increase with increasing age, sharing house with cattle and having fever within 24 hours or two weeks and a reduction in the risk was seen in the individuals who reported use of Insecticide treated Bed Nets (ITN) night prior to surveyor used self protection measures from vector. The 563C-T polymorphism of G6PD gene was observed in only 2 unrelated individuals out of 505 individuals tested (O.4%). In conclusion, both parasitological and serological measures were able to detect spatial variation in infection and exposure to malaria at the micro epidemiological level within the camp. This data will help to provide beneficial and up-to-date information to manage control activities in the study area.

Despite being historically spatially contracted and socially constrained, Palestinian camps in Lebanon have turned once more into “transitional zones of emplacement” (Janmyr and Knudsen, 2016) for thousands of people recently fleeing the Syrian conflict. The research investigates how refugees living in camps experience different scales of mobility and develop a wide range of daily practices that extends beyond the camp's boundaries, exploring how imperceptible and hyper-mobile tactics of existence re-elaborate Palestinian refugee camps into meaningful places of elusive contestation. Moving from newcomers’ strategies for protection mainly mainly performed during nighttime, my work expounds on how refugees reinterpret boundaries between camps and “forms of camp spaces” (Fiddian-Qasmiyeh and Qasmiyeh, 2013) through a wide spectrum of practices grounded on translocal informal networks. Mainly grounded on two-year fieldwork started in 2014, the research hinges on the interconnectivities evolving around the Palestinian Bourj el Barajneh camp and Hezbollah-controlled Beirut southern suburbs.After playing for several months with tens of young Palestinian and Syrian young men informally gathering at the pitch, I significantly deepened my presence and connections in the camp by becoming part of one football team regularly playing in the camp.By extensively investigating practices of mutual recognition and invisibility emerging between the “habitual” residents and Syria’s refugees inside and outside the football field, my work focuses on how transnational discourses and outdoor practices in locality effectively contest international gaps in protection, national securitization policies and arbitrary measures by local non-state actors.

The author is an expert psychotherapist narrating how he became a refugee in his own country of origin after long years of persecution from an Arab-dominated regime. As the war broke out, the author, a young person at the time, was forced out of the country and sought refuge in Itang refugee camp in Ethiopia along with his parents. As a result of this displacement, the author then settled in a number of refugee camps in Ethiopia. During this time, he volunteered as a community worker and his interest in psychology was sparked. Upon arrival in Canada, the author began to pursue his studies and graduated with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Psychology and a Master of Counselling Psychology. In 2019, he then was certified as a Canadian Certified Counsellor. While in the process, the author worked for the Catholic School District Board at an Intercultural Wellness Programme as a Family Liaison Support Worker.

In the increasingly urbanized Zaatari refugee camp, one prominent market street, Al-Souq, stands out as contributing to the creation of a camp city, thereby challenging the view of camps as temporary settlements. While the spatial transformation of Zaatari is indisputable, there has been little investigation into how such a transformative process has taken place. This paper questions how the interplay between human agency and structure produces space in the camp, and, eventually, the city. To this end, Al-Souq, the main market street in Zaatari, has been chosen as a case study. Employing an explorative narrative approach, the main findings denote a constructive exceptionality that facilitates space creation as well as a consequential inclusion of refugees in the camp. Furthermore, the spatial construction of Al-Souq shows that refugees are in fact active agents. Therefore, the paper concludes by offering an alternative conceptualization of camps, i.e. that they are not necessarily temporary, as well as refugees, i.e. that they are not aid-dependent victims. These notions contradict traditional humanitarian perceptions.