Enabling and Impeding Factors in the Provision of Business, Vocational, Entrepreneurship, and Technical Training Education under COVID-19

Abstract

Education systems have been grossly negatively impacted by COVID-19 globally. Education Institutions including universities, colleges, and elementary schools were closed to prevent the disease from spreading. Lockdown and social distancing are some of the disease preventive measures that imposed the greatest challenges on the education system. Different training and learning strategies were adopted to ensure continuity in the provision of Business, Vocational, Entrepreneurship, and Technical Training (BTVET) education across the globe. These strategies include individual learning, online or remote training, and focus group discussion. Several Scholarly studies show that it was not easy for developing countries like some African countries to adopt the online or remote education mechanism while the developed ones took a temporary short period to adjust to the new system. In this article, we used systematic literature review methodology to examine the enabling and impeding factors associated with COVID-19 pandemic that impacted the provision of BTVET education in African the setting right from the onset of the pandemic. We also identify mitigation strategies that should be put in place to abate similar future occurrence. We argue that the lack of strategic foresight in emergency readiness was a major cause of national failures to promptly combat COVID-19 in most African countries including Uganda. BTVET education in Uganda was not spared the bitter effects of the pandemic. However, the pandemic taught a number of hard lessons to the Government of Uganda to strategically outmaneuver the effects of the pandemic. We recommend a number of strategies for outmaneuvering any future effects of pandemics on the provision of BTVET education in Uganda.