Getting insight into training needs in the South: Comparing NFP TMT and Short Course Programmes
What does an analysis of TMT programme themes, in relation to NFP short course themes, tell us about the actual training needs in partner countries in the South?
The programmes
The NFP Tailor-Made Training programme (TMT) and NFP Short Courses (SC) are funded by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs and are two of several capacity building programmes which Nuffic manages on behalf of the ministry, within the context of international development.
Comparisons
The Ministry has a clever mix of capacity building programmes which have varying eligibility rules and policies in order to serve varying training needs and target groups in varying contexts. Of all programmes managed by Nuffic for this ministry, the NFP short course modality has the closest resemblance to the TMT modality. But there are also differences, making the two programmes complementary not competing.
TMT finances the training of a group of employees within an organisation with a shared capacity gap while SC trainees don’t have to originate from the same organisation or country. Both, however, target employed professionals. Analysis of the course themes clearly shows that TMT is geared towards applied knowledge while purely theoretical courses are possible within NFP SC. Perhaps partly for this reason, TMT does not impose minimum academic qualifications for participation while SC does.
TMT is fully demand-driven and does not impose restrictions on the sector or theme of the training. SC trainees on the other hand, can only select courses from a prescribed menu that currently has a relevance for development cooperation and in the near future to the priority themes of the Dutch development cooperation policy. These are: food security, safety and rule of law, water and sanitation, and sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR). Furthermore, the TMT training can be somewhat longer than the SC (maximum 2 years versus 1 year, respectively) and is almost always primarily carried out in situ.
The supply-drivenness of SC’s and the future focus on selected themes allows the Netherlands to share its expertise internationally, in areas in which the country has proven expertise. On the other hand, the demand-drivenness of the TMT programme allows us to also cater to the pressing capacity needs of our partner countries which do not fall within the priority sectors, but for which training experts can be found in the country.
Popular training themes
So, what does an analysis of TMT programme themes, in relation to NFP short course themes, tell us about the actual training needs in partner countries in the South?
Figure 1 shows a ranking of training themes within NFP short courses between 2003 and 2012. These reflect the coverage of the Dutch development cooperation priority themes in this 10-year period. Figure 2 shows a ranking of training themes within TMT in 2012.
We see that when the courses are supply-driven (Figure 1), preference goes to ICT-enabled environmental studies (excluding water sciences), water and sanitation, good governance (i.e. good professional practices rather than ‘safety and rule of law’) and food security, in that order. This covers only two of the current priority themes (water and food security).
On the other hand, when courses are not prescribed, the preferences have a different ranking. Education, private sector development, rural development, safety and rule of law, environment (excluding water), good governance and food security are most important, in that order. Again, this covers only two of the current priority themes (safety and rule of law and food security).
Courses in the water sciences do not seem to be in demand within TMT. This could perhaps be due to the sufficiency of the supply of NFP short courses in water. Furthermore, the priority theme SRHR does not seem to be in huge demand in either the supply-driven or demand driven courses.
Figure 1: A ranking of training themes within the NFP SC between 2003 and 2012.
NB - In this diagram, all applications are considered and not only the accepted applications since we want to reflect the actual demand.
Figure 2: A ranking of training themes within the NFP TMT programme in 2012.
NB - In this diagram, all applications are considered and not only the accepted applications since we want to reflect the actual demand.