New TVET system to harmonize health training for proper service delivery

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Uganda’s newly enacted Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) framework is expected to streamline and strengthen the training of health workers by improving coordination and professional standards across the sector.

Speaking at the sidelines after the Annual General Meeting (AGM) on Friday, Eroni Mukiria Namasa, chairperson of Medical Educationist Association (MEA) Uganda, said the TVET Act 2025 introduces a unified system that brings together previously fragmented training structures.

“Previously, TVET was provided in a segmented manner, but this Act brings all providers into one coordinated system,” Namasa said.

He explained that the new system is structured into three arms — regulation, assessment, and training.

The TVET Council oversees regulation, while assessment is conducted by bodies such as the Uganda Health Professionals Assessment Board and the Uganda Vocational and Technical Assessment Board, with training institutions implementing programs under the Department of Health Education and Training.

“What TVET is bringing is not new skills, but coordination. It is aligning these arms that previously operated independently,” he emphasised.

Under the law, all health workers and trainers must now be registered and licensed, a move aimed at professionalising the sector.

“When you become a trainer, you must also be licensed to train… the new Act transfers that mandate to the TVET Council,” Namasa noted, adding that implementation is ongoing as guidelines are finalised.

However, he warned that delays in establishing governing councils for training institutions are slowing recruitment of tutors and worsening staffing gaps. “In public institutions, only about 30 percent of the required tutors are in place,” he said, urging faster implementation.

Echoing the call for reforms, Engineer Richard Kalanzi, representing the TVET Council, said quality healthcare begins with quality training.

“If we are to achieve quality healthcare, it does not start at the hospital — it starts in the classroom and in the simulation labs,” Kalanzi said, stressing that mandatory licensing of trainers will ensure better skills transfer.

Meanwhile, experts have highlighted persistent gaps in training capacity. Pearl Mugala of Enable, the Belgian agency supporting Uganda in implementing some priorities of its 30-year National Development Plan (NDP), observed that overcrowded classes, limited equipment, and inadequate practical exposure continue to undermine learning outcomes.

“In some cases, you find 120 to 400 students in one class being trained by a single tutor… many at the back cannot see what is being taught,” she said.

Mugala added that such gaps affect not only technical competence but also professional ethics, raising concerns about the quality of care delivered in health facilities.

“We are striving to improve the training of health workers so that we have a better healthcare system, because a health worker is only as good as how they are trained,” she said.

Stakeholders agree that while the new TVET system provides a strong foundation for reform, sustained investment in training infrastructure, staffing, and tutor capacity will be critical to building a competent health workforce and improving healthcare delivery in Uganda.