TVET Instructor’s Work Stress Related Problems and Solution Recommendations, the Case of Addis Ababa City TVET Institutes

TVET Instructor’s Work Stress Related Problems and Solution Recommendations, the Case of Addis Ababa City TVET Institutes

Kahsa Alem Tewelde, Yang Dawei

Tianjin University of Technology and Education, Tianjin, China

Abstract: This paper studies the job stress of TVET instructors in Addis Ababa city administration as the teachers are expressing their dissatisfaction on their work due to unreasonable workload that result a work stress. Document study and survey questionnaire method had employed to identify the root cause of the problem. The study identified that, among the many things, the estimated workload from duties and responsible teachers in TVET institutes is 106.5 hours per week which way beyond the Article 61 of the Labor Proclamation of Ethiopia and which cannot be realized by one teacher. According to the study, the highest percentage of the workload of trainers in government colleges and institutions are from supporting and training small and medium scale enterprise workers (81.3%), finding and monitoring collaborative training industries for the trainers (80.7%), and supporting and aiding industrial extension related jobs (79.1 %). High workload can cause great emotional distress to the employee and low levels of work satisfaction, stress, and anxiety. This problem can lead to financial problems for the teacher. Therefore, in order to solve this problem, the government should reduce the workload and maintain the satisfaction and readiness of the teacher.

Key words: Workload, Work stress, TVET teachers, TVET institutes, Higher education work load

1. INTRODUCTION

   Ethiopia has emerged from poverty and is one of the middle-income countries in the world that TVET training plays an important role in our journey of developing a transformation plan. As we know, our country recognizing that the key focus on poverty alleviation is manpower development, the government is committed to TVET education. Based on the education policy [1], the government developed an outcome-oriented TVET strategy that addresses the industry needs at low and medium skilled worker level. And also TVET is important sector in producing skilled and entrepreneurial citizens. The TVET sector also work with micro and small enterprises by providing industry extension service support by providing problem-solving technology and quality and productivity. The mission of TVET training is to provide sustained support to ensure their competitiveness it plays a big part in getting out.

   For successful implementation of TVET strategy teachers or TVET instructors are the main factor among the many factors that affect the realization of effective TVET system. It is unthinkable to realize the vision and mission of the TVET sector without the leadership of the trainer.

   Although teaching is a highly regarded profession that requires a lot of preparation and a stable mindset, it is now beyond the reach of the average person workloads for teachers in Addis Ababa City Administration TVET colleges and institutes as they are expressing using various means about their dissatisfaction on their work. They are indicating that the work load is against what is stipulated in Article 61 of the Labor Proclamation of Ethiopia which dictates that a worker shall not work more than 40 hours per week and 8 hours per day. That is, they are informing that their work load is extremely exaggerated and violates the legal rights of the trainers. The main reasons for this may be the trainer works alongside with the training they perform in classroom there are the other additional tasks: giving industrial extension support service, giving short training, adapting and transferring technology to micro enterprises, conducting action research, finding a cooperative training company for the trainees; monitoring cooperative training re-training trainees until the trainee be competent. The workloads listed above resulted work stresses which in turn are the main cause of teachers leaving the teaching their job in search of alternatives with an opportunity of earning more income with fair workload. To that end this research has studied the workload from official documents of Addis Ababa TVET administration and also studied the working stresses of TVET teachers using survey research questionnaire method to recommend actions that must be taken to promote the effectiveness of TVET teachers in Addis Ababa city and by that the TVET system in general.

   The research attempted to answer these basic questions: What are the workloads? What are the problems with instructors due to workload? What is the impact of the instructors workload on the training? Do instructors get paid when they do overlapping jobs? Accordingly, provide recommendations and actions to be taken by educators and leadership.

2. LITERATURE REVIEW

   1. The Impact of Workload Performance

      Job satisfaction is the level that an employee gives for his/her satisfaction and the way he/she express his/her satisfaction [2]. According to the study of Okolocha [3] the productivity of an employee is positively linked with sub satisfaction.

      An employee's attitude, readiness, and job satisfaction depend on the nature and type of work. When workers are under heavy burden from work overload, and exposed to internal and external factors, it has a negative effect on their job satisfaction. According to Bedeion and Armenakis [4] study, if there is no justified work division/distribution among the workers in an institution, it resulted a disagreement and then a conflict among them.

      Casper and Sonnentag [5] argued that work over load is one of the main forecasters of being exhausted, the sense of being tiredness and mental fatigue. Nirel, Goldwong, Feigenbeng, Abadii, and Halporn, [6] study showed that high workloads can cause great emotional distress and low job satisfaction. In addition to these, according to Beahr and Bhagat [7], when there are cascaded/overlapping workload/work stresses, workers get tension worrying that they cannot finish the jobs on time. Such confusion and resulting tense situation led workers to a heavy worry and stress.

      According to Spector and Jex [8] when employees have to do more with his / her work that may be required to ignore certain characteristic of job or life, there may be most chance of frustration.

      According to study by Kawakami [9], working long hours and putting pressure on employees can be very stressful.

      Numerous studies on the working conditions of workers have shown that workload affects the physical behavior and physiological rocks of the worker's environment [10].

   2. Job Satisfaction

      Job satisfaction is a reflection of a person's attitude and feelings about the work he or she is doing. This means a positive or negative feeling of satisfaction or dissatisfaction with an employee's contribution to the work he or she is doing and to the development of the company in which he or she works [11]. An organization can increase the productivity and demand of an organization by providing appropriate incentives and training to address the above- mentioned problems and increasing the efficiency and satisfaction of employees by identifying existing workloads [12].

   3. Employee performance

      Performance is the process by which an employer or an organization measures the weight and time required for the work of all employees [13]. Performance is an effort in which employees in an institution share the same roles and time with each other in terms of performance and efficiency [14].

   4. The workload of the teachers in higher institutions in thiopia

      There is a need to set in time frame the workload of teachers in conducting teaching, counseling, tutoring, academic & administrative work, research and extracurricular activities. When the work and responsibilities of individuals are clearly identified in this process, it will be important to assess their effectiveness in this regard, as well as the availability of the necessary manpower and the development of efficiency. It also helps

      teachers get paid for their work and responsibilities. Although it differs from institution to institution, the workload of teachers in general is related to the following activities: teaching in the undergraduate program; teaching in a postgraduate program; field research, laboratory and theoretical work; consulting undergraduate dissertation; test preparation & correction; and participate in product and social services.

      The details of the system's ability to provide voluntary and paid services outside of the institution should be determined without compromising the teaching-learning and research process of the institution, as well as with the permission of the management of the institution.

      Although generally not considered as a permanent and final standard, the following criterion should be used as a starting point for each institution depending on the nature of the work and the degree to which it is offered, such as diploma, bachelors and master's degree. The criteria for teacher workload should be taken into account: If he is only working as a teacher, he is required to teach 12 hours a week; Teachers engaged in teaching and a research are required to teach 9 hours a week and do their research work 3 hours per week; Teachers that are assigned to various positions in the institution are required to teach 3 – 6 hours a week; and for research institutions, teachers main task is to spend 75 % their time on research and 25% of their time on teaching [15].

      Even though TVET institutes considered as a higher institutions in Ethiopia, the working load of TVET institutes teachers are different from the workload of universities teachers. The working load of TVET instructors are generally very compared to the university teachers. TVET teachers have expressed their discontent towards the workload they carried.

      Due to the low profile given to the TVET sector for many years, the working environment is not attractive for many competent teachers. That means as a result of this low regard for TVET system in general, the sector has not been able to attract high-skilled professionals to the TVET institutes. Therefore, the TVET strategy should focus and give priority on creating conducive work environment for teachers, management and administration. Accordingly, they should be able to provide salaries and benefits to attract TVET professionals.

   5. Duties and responsibilities of trainers in Addis Ababa TVET collages and institutions

   Currently the lack of job description for the trainers has created problems on the trainers. Although there is no job description of the trainer, the works carried out by the trainers are available from the TVET agency city administration and they are listed and described as follows.

   1. Regular training duties and responsibilities

      A trainer takes 4 hours a week for lesson preparation, 20 hours to train, 3 hours to support the trainees, 2 hours to build capacity, 10 hours to 1 to 5 supports group discussion. The number of trainers is decided by the number of trainees in the school and the occupation required [16].

      The above-mentioned job description based on time-frame is only for outcome-based work process, and in addition to these the industrial extension directive lists the following additional responsibilities in the Industrial extension and technology transfer activities to be conducted by the teachers.

   2. Duties and responsibilities of the trainer on industrial support in government technical and vocational colleges and institutions

      These are the duties and responsibilities of trainers in performing their duty in giving industry support: Performs industrial extension services in parallel and equally with the regular training program; Provides complete and effective industrial extension to the enterprise recruited by the relevant body; Identify the skills gaps of enterprises and carry out capacity building activities that can fill the gaps; Develop a program with the user of the industrial extension service program; Evaluate the changes brought about by the enterprises and implement corrective action to address the problems identified; Facilitates the use of industrial extension services for certification assessment; Provides arrangements that those enterprises to take competency evaluation and be qualified for further leadership training; In addition to these it also expected from the teachers side to protects the confidentiality of the enterprise [17].

      2.4.2.1 The standard of annual service provided by trainers to micro and small enterprises

      The requirement of trainers in giving support to micro and small scale enterprises are as follows: Satisfy the customer 100% by providing quality, and timely training based on the need assessment result for the 600 hour interval; Satisfy customers 100% by copying, adapting and transmitting appropriate technologies having required quality with low cost within 1010 hours; Satisfying 100% of customers by providing Kaizen service that reduce time, space, conversation and similar wastes by providing 450 hours of service and training and then enabling the enterprises to ensure their sustainability on their own; Providing current and modern business management in 480 hours of training that create 50% job and result 100% satisfaction of the customer by creating a creative and efficient and modern business management [18].

      According to the requirements stated above the total annual services provided by trainers to micro and small enterprises is 2980 hours, which is divided into 11 months, 270 hours per month, and then for weeks indicating that the trainer should work 67.5 hours a week.

      The implementation of the Industrial Extension Service shall be carried out without interruption of the working hours of the enterprises, mainly during normal working hours and may be provided as required, including holidays; for the Industrial Extension Service trainers should supports 3 to 5 enterprises per year.

   3. Duties and responsibility of trainer related to technology transfer

      Trainers also have duties in developing and adopting problem solving technologies and then transfer the technologies to micro enterprises to be marketed. Accordingly, they have the following duties and responsibilities on this regard: Prepare a full copy of proposal for survey study or data collection; Compile, organize, and prepare value chain analysis on the data collected; Selects effective and problem-solving technologies based on the analysis; Identify the technologies that will be required by the customers as a result of the study; Prepare a specification of the required technologies; From selected technologies to be supplied to the local industry based on the focus of the industries conduct Product Value Chain Analysis works in collaboration with them; Identify the problems and gaps in the value chain analysis with the participants; Identify the problems and gaps in the value chain analysis of the products with the participants; Provide the necessary technological options for the specific production processes and identify the best ones based on the feasibility principles; Prepares Blue Print for selected technologies; Prepare standardized sample or prototype according to design; Provide training on the process of testing the prototype passed to the selected micro and small enterprises intended for mass production, and adapts, improves and made familiarized technology, and conducts field inspections; and finally transfers the technologies [19].

   4. Cooprative training

   Providing cooperative training is also the duties and responsibilities of TVET trainers. Trainers are responsible for finding companies that related to the training and also companies which are willing to give the training in cooperative with the TVET College. Accordingly, trainers have the following responsibilities on this regard: Identifies companies and organizations that provide collaborative training; By organizing trainings in the organizations, facilitates collaborative training; Explain about the training to the trainees; Develop a training plan in coordination with the companys industry teacher; Facilitate or find options for trainees to get work in the companies or industries; Coordinates the training plan with the work of the industry; Ensure trainees have the basic knowledge and competence in professional design ideas prior to practical training provided in the company; Report the progress of the cooperative training and its implementation to the training institute and the company management; Establish a close working relationship with the company's industry teacher; Assert whether the trainees acquire the required skills through collaborative training; Evaluates trainees at institutional level at all levels; Protects the safety of him/herself and the trainees at work; Provides adequate monitoring and support to the cooperative training; Ensures that cooperative training is according to the training level of the profession; Creates the favorable conditions that the companys teacher be competent in the art of training [20].

   2.5 The nature of work overload

   Various studies have shown that work stress resulted from overload is when an employee working in an organization is overloaded or overworked. Leiter and Schauteli [21] in their study showed that overwork, job insecurity and other factors that arise from overwork are the causes of job dissatisfaction. Workload is the amount of work an individual has to do. There is a distinction between the actual amount of work and the individual's perception of the workload. Workload can also be classified as quantitative (the amount of work to be done) or qualitative (the difficulty of the work). Overwork is resulted when the time assigned (40 hrs./week) is out of balance with the time required to accomplish the assigned work. Given the physical and mental capacity of a worker, the International Labor Organization (ILO) has set a maximum working day, and Article 61 of the Ethiopian Labor Proclamation stipulates that it must work only 8 hours a day. In addition, even though it is the worker which is the primary victim from the work stress caused by various factors in industries or in our case in TVET institutes, work stress also poses a serious problem for the services provided by institutions and offices directly and indirectly in their products or training quality provided by the institutes.

3. DATA COLLECTION METHOD

   A survey questionnaire method of research used to gather data. This is because it is believed to be descriptive and convenient to study the workload on TVET teachers. The location of the study is in government colleges and institutions under the TVET Agency of Addis Ababa City Administration. There are 5 polytechnic colleges, and 23 institutions. Data collected from a total of four polytechnic colleges (Entoto Polytechnic College, General Wingate Polytechnic College, Misrak Polytechnic College), three higher level institutes (Birhan TVET Institute, Kefetegna 7 TVET Institute and Kefetegna 12 TVET Institute) and three intermediate level institutions (Bole TVET Institute, Shromeda TVET Institute and Aware TVET Institute). The data collected from the participants using questionnaire in 5 point Likert scale.

4. RESULT AND ANALYSIS

   Table 1 showed the percentage (%) of data collected about work stress status of TVET teachers in Addis Ababa city administration resulted from their workload using Likert scales from Very High to Very Low point.

   Table 1: Data collected and its result

   No	Question items	Very Low (%)	Low (%)	Medium (%)	High (%)	Very High (%)	Rank
   1	Preparing curriculum and session plan.	10.7	11.5	30.3	26.1	21.4	13th
   2	Providing outcome based training on regular bases and preparation of TTLM (Teaching, Training and Learning Materials).	9.8	11.5	26.9	26.9	24.8	9th
   3	Preparing the training area for training (5s, Kiazen and Workshop layout)	9.8	15.0	29.1	23.5	22.6	12th
   4	Supporting and training small and medium scale enterprise workers	3.4	2.6	12.8	26.8	54.5	1st
   5	Finding and monitoring collaborative training industries for the trainers.	4.7	3.4	11.2	27.5	53.2	2nd
   6	Supporting and aiding industrial extension related jobs	3.0	4.7	13.2	27.8	51.3	3rd
   7	Importing and adopting new technological ideas and creating new technologies accordingly then transfer as a useful technology to enterprises	1.7	8.6	24.9	22.3	42.5	4th
   8	Advising and supporting trainees to have a save money so as to start their own business.	7.8	13.9	26.0	25.5	26.8	8th
   9	Retraining students who are not competent yet until be competent.	7.3	10.3	23.2	25.3	33.9	5th
   10	Planning projects and giving project based training	7.7	15.0	21.0	26.2	30.0	6th
   11	Evaluate trainees institutional assessment and qualify for national assessment	15.6	11.7	15.6	28.6	28.6	7th
   12	Participating in for 1 to 5 team unity	12.9	16.7	19.7	27.0	23.6	11th
   13	Participating in procurement and various committees or issues	10.3	14.2	28.4	23.3	23.7	10th
   14	Participating and conducting researches	19.2	17.5	19.7	22.6	20.9	14th

   Table 1 has showed that the work stress from question items 4 to 11 is very high. That is teachers duties and responsibilities in supporting and training small and medium scale enterprise workers, finding and monitoring collaborative training industries for the trainers, supporting and aiding industrial extension related jobs, importing and adopting new technological ideas and creating new technologies accordingly then transfer as a useful

   technology to enterprises, advising and supporting trainees to have a save money so as to start their own businss, retraining students who are not competent yet until to be competent, planning projects and giving project based training, and evaluating trainees institutional assessment and enable them to qualify for national assessment resulted in a very high work stress on TVET teachers in Addis Ababa city administration.

   And also Table 1 showed that duties and responsibilities of teachers in participating in 1 to 5 team unity arrangements and also participating and conducting researches resulted high work stress.

   Preparing curriculum and session plan, providing outcome based training on regular bases and preparation of TTLM (Teaching, Training and Learning Materials), preparing the training area for training (5s, Kiazen and Workshop layout) and participating in procurement and various committees or issues resulted medium work stress.

5. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

From the data collected and its analysis the following points can be said. According to the study, the highest percentage (81.3%) of the workload of trainers in government colleges and institutions is from supporting and training small and medium scale enterprise workers. And also finding and monitoring collaborative training industries for the trainers (80.7%), supporting and aiding industrial extension related jobs (79.1 %) and importing and adopting new technological ideas and creating new technologies accordingly then transfer as a useful technology to enterprises (64.8%) have resulting a high work stress among teachers. This indicates that these duties of teachers had a negative impact on the teacher in government colleges and institutions. These in turn will have a negative impact on the training process.

According to this study's findings, special circumstances are needed to make the training process more comfortable by studying the source of workloads on trainers and providing solutions. Accordingly Addis Ababa Technical and Vocational Education and Agency and its colleges and institutions should create opportunities for the teachers to ensure that new and junior teachers gain experience and knowledge so that existing and inexperienced teacher do not leave the college or institute and serve for a long time. They should use their experience to reduce the migration of teachers and enable them to carry out their mission. Due to the high workload of the teachers, the TVET Agency and the government colleges and institutions under it should have a clear working hours of 8 hours per day in accordance with the International Labor Organization and Article 61 of the Labor Proclamation. It is clear that the training has negatively affected the trainer due to the workload in government colleges and institutions. High workload can cause great emotional distress to the employee and low levels of work satisfaction, stress, and anxiety. This problem can lead to financial problems for the teacher. Therefore, in order to solve this problem, the government should reduce the workload and maintain the satisfaction and readiness of the teacher. The workload of teachers negatively affects the teachers and the training process. This means that it is impossible to do quality work because the teacher spends his time and mind on different tasks. The solution is to reduce the workload on the teachers and reduce the negative impact on both the teachers and the training process. To reduce the workload of the teachers, the Addis Ababa City Administration TVET Agency and its government colleges and institutions

should work together as follows. And also it is clear that without coordination training, the current 106.5 hours per week will not be effective by one teacher. Currently, it is not possible for the trainer to duplicate the job descriptions in the various documents, so assign different tasks to different teachers. There are two trainers who provide theoretical and practical training in university engineering courses thus, colleges and institutions of technical and vocational education and training are also in a position to implement this approach. In higher general education institutions, a teacher is required to teach 12 hours a week if he or she does not do research and other activities thus, TVET institutes should adopt this as the challenge from teaching is equivalent in both institutes.

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