The Uganda Business and Technical Examinations Board (UBTEB) celebrated ten years of Competence based Assessment and Training on Tuesday 23rd November 2021.
The 10th anniversary celebrations will be climaxed on March 25, 2022 with a conference and dinner. The theme of the conference is “Competence Based Assessment for Competitive Labour Force and Economic Development”.
The Board lined up events to be carried out including; exhibitions, the media campaign, the Corporate Social responsibility at regional level, seminars and stakeholder engagement meetings.
According to Mr. Onesmus Oyesigye (CPA) the UBTEB Executive Secretary in his speech he said; “Ten years in Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) Assessment is a milestone. UBTEB is extremely happy and proud to be celebrating and marking this Anniversary as a very significant and remarkable milestone achieved.”
“Looking at the memory lane of UBTEB, I acknowledge with appreciation the tireless contribution of the first Board 2010/2013 steered by Prof. Simeon Wanyama and pioneer staff headed by Hon. John Ntamuhiira Twesigye as the first Executive Secretary; Mr. Xavier Lubanga and Mr. Okinyala, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Education and Sports and Commissioner BTVET respectively during the Board’s establishment. Their hard work saw the Board’s take-off to make a great impact in TVET Assessment.”
“In the same spirit, allow me to thank you as an incumbent Minister of Education and Sports for the timely support and guidance to the Board. Particularly, we take stock of the Policy guidance which you have provided in the TVET policy 2019, and its attendant structures, institutions, and frameworks for the TVET system. The other Support to the Board has been felt from Members of Parliament of Education and Sports Committee, Permanent Secretary and technical team of MOES. The Board chairperson and his members have empowered me and my Technical team to work hard and change the perception, content and relevancy of the TVET Assessments.”
The story of UBTEB has increasingly been fine tuned to address the priorities and demand driven skills needed by the world of work. For instance from shared printing equipment with UNEB in 2013, today the board celebrate the mini-printery that was installed by the Board to guarantee security and safety of examinations and assessments. The 10 years of UBTEB are a testimony of competitive growth and provides lessons for the future.
The skills landscape in Uganda and globally is changing and providing new opportunities and challenges. As the Board, they have undertaken and implemented interventions in line with the TVET Reforms.
“Our partnership with the world of work, global membership are a testimony to the years of progress and achievement. Our next focus will be on ICT integration, automation of systems and modularized assessment. The future of the Board is outstanding and greatly promising in view of the great strides and commitment by Gov’t to TVET and the increasing interest in TVET by the industry players in Uganda,” Mr. Onesmus Oyesigye said.
The Minister of Education and sports informed the audience that the Ministry pledges to continue with the support to UBTEB systems and procedures of ensuring quality assessment of TVET candidates especially the Competence Based Assessment, the Capacity Building for TVET trainers, assessors and verifiers. This has made trainees more practical and possess hands on skills.
