Skills for needs: Exploring skill demand, sector influences and the role of training and education in equipping technical personnel in water and sanit

The design and implementation of resilient water and waste infrastructure systems requires a competent workforce to address present and future challenges facing the sector. Although existing assessments provide some insights on human resource requirements, majority of these largely focus on quantity deficits (the inadequate number of personnel) with systematic perspectives on skill requirements (quality) being less salient.

Understanding skill demand is essential to responding to human resource needs and informing how training and education can be designed to equip the sector's workforce with the required skillset.

My research aims to study the skill requirements of technical personnel in the sector. To carry out my research, I have divided my study into three interdependent phases. The first phase will assess the skill demand of technical personnel in both government and non-government organisations.

The second phase explores the interaction of factors that influence skill demand such as new technologies and infrastructure, It also looks into the enabling factors within these participant organisations and how they affect the absorption of personnel into the workforce. The two phases will apply an ethnographic study approach, through participant observation of a cross- section of technical personnel and diary records of recent graduates joining the sector.

This will be supplemented by semi-structures interviews. The third phase will utilise data from the previous phases alongside an evaluation of learning outcomes in identified technical courses within the study country, to explores the role of training and tertiary education in technical training.

The intended impact of my research includes improved active collaboration between education and training institutions and industry practitioners in skills development. The study also seeks to contribute to the evidence base for i) decision -makers to invest in human resources and ii) policies that promote individual and organisational capacity development.