Graduate perceptions of relevance, employability, and curriculum-industry alignment in Namibian TVET centres

Abstract

Namibia's Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) sector is central to national efforts to address youth unemployment, currently estimated at 44.4% among 15–34-year-olds, and to align skills development with the African Union's call for demand-driven training. Yet Namibian evidence on how TVET graduates themselves experience this alignment remains scarce. This study investigates how graduates of Namibian Vocational Training Centres (VTCs) perceive their programme's effectiveness—satisfaction, employability, and perceived skills gained—and how well its curriculum has kept pace with changing industry and technological demands. A convergent parallel mixed-methods design was used, with 20 graduates completing a single online survey combining closed- and open-ended items, analysed through descriptive statistics and thematic analysis and integrated via a joint-display approach. Graduates rated instructor knowledge and programme relevance favourably, and identified practical, hands-on lessons as the most valuable programme component. However, only 35% were employed in their trained field, and graduates independently identified the same gaps found in the regional literature: limited business and entrepreneurship content, weak internship support, and facilities that lag industry standards. These findings, though drawn from a small, non-probability sample, converge with wider SADC-region evidence and point to curriculum-industry linkage, not teaching quality alone, as the priority for strengthening TVET's contribution to graduate employability in Namibia.