UBTEB evaluators exhibit skills after training

WAKISO – The Uganda Technical and Business Examinations Board (UBTEB) on Wednesday handed over 143 examiners who were trained on the new requirements of the world of work.

The week-long training was aimed at technical and vocational education and training (TVET) assessors to improve their capacity in using competency-based assessment (CBA) approaches for TVET and assessment.

Different groups exhibited their skills in their different programs and noted that it will help them transmit them to the students.

Speaking at the handover event at the Luyanzi Institute of Technology, the board’s executive secretary, Onesmus Oyesigye, said they have so far trained a total of 904 testers and verifiers in partnership with the industry.

“In this regard, I wish to applaud all the industries and companies that have worked with the Board over the years in reshaping and training the Advisors.”

“I urge you to cascade the competencies and tactics acquired to evaluate students on the evaluation principles of the Competency Bases to other actors in both training and evaluation,” he added.

Represented by his deputy, Dr Alfred Namanya, Oyesigye noted that the training cohort had 15 participants from the industry and 128 from training institutions. He is optimistic that the interaction and exposure they gained during the training and development of test items will enable the Board to record continuous improvement in the quality of test items for quality assessment.

He was very impressed with the development of practical and theoretical test items, the application of assessment strategies, techniques and tools, and the implementation of assessment in accordance with industry standards.

Oyesigye noted that the test items developed as seen in the exhibition are a manifestation of the good work they have done.

With the completion of the seventh phase of training, he said they are close to their goal of having 1,000 evaluators re-equipped.

Ms Nasaza Jalia, director of vocational training at UBTEB, who was also the leader of the training team, said their main focus was how to write exams. She said participants were guided through theory and developing practical elements.

For the practicals, students were taken and tested in places in the working world to see how long the test item is and the stages they are supposed to cover.

“We found that some of them were not exposed to this new system, so we made a mindset change in the instructors.”

Although some of the necessary equipment may not be found at training institutions, Jalia says the concepts remain the same.

“So from here we expect a huge improvement because how they came is not how they left and when they come back and continue practicing, they will improve the TVET system.”

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