representatives of the Afghan Technical and Vocational Education Training Authority (TVET-A) inaugurated the Takhta-Pul TVET Campus in Mazar-e Sharif, Balkh province.

The campus offers capacities for up to 2,200 students, offering education in engineering, agricultural veterinary and technical teacher training. The campus resides on an area of 52.5 jeribs (10.5 hectare), the size of about 14 football fields. The Afghan-German Cooperation financed construction works at a total cost of about AFN 113.7 million.
 
Already more than 1,300 students from Balkh and neighbouring provinces, including almost 300 women, are enrolled at the campus. Applicants can choose subjects at Balkh Engineering Institute (BEI), Agricultural Veterinary Institute (AVI) and the Technical Teacher Training Academy (TTTA).  BEI teaches infrastructure trades as well as industrial and civil construction. AVI offers courses related to agriculture. Lastly, TTTA covers areas such as machine and metal technology, automotive technology, electrical engineering, information technology and business administration. TTTA students also acquire the required skills to become TVET teachers themselves in the future. The campus will also offer educational opportunities to staff of line ministries as well as public energy and water suppliers.
 
A business administration student, Mr Aarif Khan, emphasised, ‘The Takhta-Pul complex is the best educational environment I have ever seen in Afghanistan. Calm, modern, and with all facilities required for an academic environment’. A teacher, Mr Ajmal Ghafari, added, ‘With funding such a well-equipped educational complex, Germany really proved its friendship with Afghanistan.’
 
The complex offers accommodation for over 500 male and female students in separate dormitories. There is also space for social activities such as volleyball and soccer, including a multi-purpose hall. The campus also has its own Kindergarten. All facilitates have access to fresh drinking water and electricity and are equipped with sewerage water disposal.
 
Within the framework of the Afghan-German Cooperation’s programme Supporting Technical and Vocational Education and Training in Afghanistan, six TVET institutes have already been built and one has been reconstructed. They offer about 700 students educational training. Additional TVET facilities are planned to be built in other provinces.  
 
The programme Supporting Technical and Vocational Education and Training in Afghanistan (TVET) is implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH and KfW Development Bank on behalf of the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).  TVET aims at expanding and improving the formal vocational education and training system in Afghanistan to increase young Afghan’s employability. In addition, the programme is modernising the traditional apprenticeship system Ostad-e-Shagerdi in cooperation with the Afghan Technical and Vocational Education and Training Authority. After attending a formal TVET school besides Ostadd-e-Shagerdi for three years, apprentices can apply for 12^th-grade degrees, allowing many young people to attend advanced schooling. More than 2,000 apprentices, 12 % women, are currently benefiting from the programme.