The VEFF is a project under Lao-German Financial Cooperation, implemented by MoES, co-funded by the German Government through KfW Development Bank.
The MoES, represented by its Department for Technical and Vocational Education (DTVE), and the German Development Bank KfW partner for this project.
The implementation is supported by a consortium of international consulting firms lead by PLANCO (Germany) and further comprising IPC(Germany) and LGDC (Lao PDR).
The objective of the VEFF is to improve the quality and labor-market relevance of TVET and Skills Development through the improved delivery of Dual Cooperative Training (DCT) and support the efforts of Ministry of Education and Sports (MoES) under its education reform agenda to develop sustainable TVET financing structures.
VEFF supports joint proposals of vocational training institutes and enterprises for vocational training in a dual-cooperative approach.
A Separate Agreement to the Financing Agreement signed 08/05/2018 defines the terms of the VEFF project, which consists of two components:
Component I – Investment Measure: The Vocational Education Financing Facility (VEFF) shall promote Dual Cooperative Training (DCT) in Laos by providing support to partnerships between vocational trainings institutes (VTIs) and enterprises. The focus is to support the development and implementation of DCT programs proposed jointly by VTIs with their cooperating enterprise partners.
The VEFF applies a Challenge Grant Fund approach. Challenge Grant Funds are funding instruments that distribute grants on a competitive basis. The VEFF grant support will consist of both in-kind advisory support services for the design and implementation of DCT programs and direct financial support to the VTIs and their partner enterprises for the additional costs incurred for implementing DCT programs compared to standard practice.
Component II – The Accompanying Measure (AM) is designed to support the development of a sustainable TVET financing framework in Lao PDR. Component II shall be the subject of further discussion between MoES and KfW to finalize and agree on a set of support measures which support the implementation of VEFF and the development of a sustainable financing framework.