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ISSN: 2637-4595

Latest Trends in Textile and Fashion Designing

Research Article(ISSN: 2637-4595)

Role of Family Support & Technical Training in Women Empowerment Volume 3 - Issue 1

Kamran Yousef Sandhu1* and Qurat-ul-Ain Ahmed2

  • 1 Kamran Yousef Sandhu1* and Qurat-ul-Ain Ahmed2
  • 2Research Associate, Pakistan Readymade Garments Technical Training Institute, Lahore, Pakistan

Received: December 03, 2018;   Published: December 11, 2018

*Corresponding author:Kamran Yousef Sandhu, Director Research, Pakistan Readymade Garments Technical Training Institute, Lahore, Pakistan

DOI: 10.32474/LTTFD.2018.03.000153

Abstract PDF

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this research is to explore the role of family support through the support of TVET towards women empowerment and socio-economic growth. This research has highlighted the challenges being faced by women and the recommendations to overcome those challenges and getting the required targets positively.

Design/Methodology/Approach: This is a quantitative study. The target population for the study is the women getting technical training from different readymade garment training institute Lahore. Total number of respondents are 130. A questionnaire was developed in close consultation with industry and academia experts and was used for the data collection. Data is collected using convenience approach. The questionnaire was based on the seven-point Likert scale. Reliability and Validity was checked through factor loading, composite reliability, average variance extracted etc. ADANCO software was used to test the hypothesis through regression analysis.

Findings: The findings showed that family support has significant impact on TVET. TVET has significant impact on Women Empowerment and Women Empowerment has significant impact on socio-economic growth.

Research Limitations/Implications: The research is limited to Lahore, whereas the same can be expanded to all over Pakistan for a deeper insight to understand the importance of TVET sector towards economic growth.

Practical Implications: This research can help understand the different aspects of empowering women and how it will support the socio-economic growth of a country. It will also help in understanding the weak areas to be considered and settle down.

Originality/Value: There are extensive research done on women empowerment, but there is little research done on the women empowerment with the mediating effect of family support and TVET sector in context of Pakistan. The model used in the research are original and designed by researchers themselves.

Keywords: Socio Economic Growth; Family Support; TVET Sector; Women Empowerment

Introduction

When basic necessities of life are not full filled than it develops socio economic problems in a country. Basic needs are basically food, clothing and shelter. Pakistan is the developing country and facing such kind of socio-economic challenges. The actual issue is not these problems, but the week policies been implemented presently [1]. The literacy rate of Pakistan remains static at 58 percent with 70 percent of males and 48 percent of females in it [2].

Pakistan is facing high level of unemployment in different sectors due to significant skill gap despite of the massive growth of the growth of TVET sectors in Pakistan. Industry is facing major hindrances due to non-availability of skilled workers. TVET sector has huge potential in reducing skill gap. Annual growth rate of 1.8% the proportion of (15-29) year population is around 28% with Male 51% and female 49%. It is reported that 3581 (vocational: 2,647 & technical: 934) public & private TVET institutions are found in Pakistan with annual supply of skilled labor force of 314,176 to labor market. This is relevant to mention that private institutions are contributing 11% in technical skills while 55% are share of vocational trade in skilled workforce [3].

Technical and vocational education has been defined as practically demonstrated occupational skill for different fields of technical and vocational training in fields like business, agriculture, cooperate and services sectors, health, marketing, trade etc. [4]. In order to attain sustainable economic growth, the key element is the TVET education in any developing countries. The importance of TVET sector recognized in terms of skill development. It helps to overcome the socio-economic challenges faced by women in their life. Skill development is not only improving the standards of person but also contribute in the growth of economy [5]. The role of industries is essential in producing quality people for job market. The government alone can’t produce needed workers for job market without the help of industry. The skills are not enough for the development but there is a need of place to show the results of that skills [3].

The major hurdle in solving these challenges are lack of education and the family support towards getting education. Major researches revealed that family support plays a major role in getting education and skills for both males and females equally. Many families are not in favor of technical education and not considered it suitable to work in industries especially for females [6]. Parents support and influence considered as important factor towards technical education. Research revealed that females having family support and encouragement are more successful their career [7].

Empowerment means the expansion in people’s ability to make strategic life choices in a context where this ability was previously not available to them. The term ‘Empower’ means to give legal power or authority to act” [8]. Women empowerment means equal opportunity in education, employment, rights and giving secure working environment. It means giving them enough confidence to participate and give suggestions to any discussion relating to them [8]. It has been explained that technical & vocational education and training in women empowerment process specifically in local level not only provide self-employment opportunity to the women but also trigger capability to exercise control over their personal and family life, make choices to improve well beings and take active role in decision making [4]. For economic development of a country, education and skill development play a vital role. TVET is basically a technique for overcoming socio economic challenges and promoting economic growth [9].

Research Objectives

The objective of this research is to analyze the women empowerment from different dominations.

a) Skill development is a powerful and short-term way towards women empowerment.

b) To analyze family support as major variable towards approval of female’s education.

c) Skilled women can financially support herself but also family.

d) Technical education and women empowerment contribute towards socioeconomic growth.

Research Questions

There are three research questions

a) Does Family support has a positive impact on TVET Sector towards skill development?

b) Does TVET sector has a positive association with women empowerment?

c) Does Women Empowerment has a positive impact on Socio economic growth?

Literature Review

Women Empowerment

When women has the capability to prosper and develop economically and the confidence to make decisions for benefits of the economy are known as empowering women economically. Women empowerment is important to understand their rights and increase the standard of their household/family and also for the growth of the economy. Empowering women is also helpful in attaining development goals like poverty reduction, unemployment, increasing productivity and efficiency, health, education and growth of economy [10].

To prosper the economy and increase the growth of economy, development programs put more focus on women empowerment. Economically strong is considered as one of the most influential tools to achieve their targets. When women have the skills, they can avail opportunities equally and contribute more towards their families and nation. Basically, women have good business sense and by their skill development they can contribute towards market and business growth for sustainable economic development [11].

TVET Sector

The research revealed that for sustainable economic development the education and vocational training are major pillars. Technical training plays a key role to meet the new challenges of developing economy and achieving the development goals essential for prosperity of nation. TVET sector contributes a lot by producing quality skilled workforce to meet the demands of industry by working effectively and efficiently. In era of globalization, development is also helpful in achieving goals regarding advancement of technology [12].

The research report revealed two main reasons of the technical and vocational skills towards its contribution in economic growth. Profitability and growth are two main purposes of any organization and for enhancement of both technical and vocational training are becoming core requirement of any company. Growth of enterprise is basically the development of economy. So, the first reason is the demand of skilled workforce due to competition in markets, technology advancement and change in working structure. The second reason for skill development is growth and prosperity of the individual herself. Technical training means direct entry in the job market or upgrading the career and bring increase in earning which help one’s to improve their standard of living by overcoming the challenges faced by them in daily life [13].

Family Support

Result of this research revealed that one of the demotivated factors towards technical education is lack of family support. All because is of the lack of knowledge and interest regarding technical education. Family support have shown significant impact towards economic growth. Empowering women leads towards economic growth by giving women the self-employment opportunities. All this is possible through technical and vocational training as TVET means direct and upgraded entry in to the job market [7].

Women Empowerment, TVET Sector and Economic Growth

To empower women with the skills to participate fully in the development process technical training and basic education are most important techniques. Technical education is fast track entry route towards availing opportunities and economic growth. If they women are educated, they can be aware of the opportunities around them, take care of their health and can change the standards of themselves and of family. The paper stated that in developing countries empowering women means minimizing socio economic challenges and bring major change in growth of economy [14].

Women are energetic and potentially human resourced and with skills they become more efficient in productivity and become driving force for social growth and economic development of country. This paper revealed that TVET sector is best opportunity to empower women which helps them to overcome the socioeconomic challenges, improving their standards of living and contribute towards sustainable socio-economic growth [15].

Operational Definitions

Table 1: Definitions.

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Conceptual Model

Figure 1 is presenting the conceptual Model adopted [16] and amended. It shows that family support has positive association with TEVT. TEVT has positive association with women empowerment and women empowerment has positive association with socioeconomic growth. Table 2 is presenting the hypotheses. There are three hypotheses which have been tested in the research study.

Figure 1: Conceptual Framework.

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Table 2: Research Hypothesis.

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Research Methodology

This paper performs a quantitative study. The population of this study is females’ students of a technical training institutes. Convenience sampling method is used for data collection and has been gathered from sample selected from the area specified for the research.

The research is comprised of Technical education in Garment sector and is conducted covering the area of Lahore, Punjab Pakistan. It takes almost two months to complete the study. Total number of respondents are 130. Data is collected from female students of technical institutes of Garment Sector through survey by using closed ended questionnaire based on 7-point likert scale included 20 items with a 7 points likert-scale of strongly disagree to strongly agree.

130 sets of questionnaires were distributed out of which 116 received and 15 were incomplete. Total response received was 102 and are analyzed using ADANCO [17]. The research includes four latent variables Women Empowerment (WE), Socio Economic Growth (SEG), Family Support (FS) and TVET Sector (TEV). To check the internal consistency of model, the Cronbach’s alpha is used, where Cronbach’s alpha ranged from 0.9274 to 0.7515 above the acceptable value of 0.7 which shows that instrument used in this research is highly reliable and suitable for analysis (Table 3).

Table 3: Reliability and Validity.

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The variables that are thought to be related are actually related are checked through Convergent validity test. Average value Extracted (AVE) are used to determine the convergent validity. The AVE extracted are 0.5368, 0.6992, 0.7781 and 0.5155 which are greater than 0.5 and shows that all variables have strong correlation. However, composite reliability values are 0.9195, 0.9458, 0.8527 and 0.8372 which shows variable items are homogeneous. Reliability of the indicators have been tested using ADANCO and presented in Table 4. All values are above threshold value of 4 [18].

Table 4: Indicator Reliability.

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Analysis and Results

Coefficient of determination explains the impact of one variable on other. Table 5 shows the Coefficient of Determination (R2) that independent variable is 67%, 53% and 74% explained by each dependent variable. Figure 2 is representing the result of Partial Least Square modeling.

Table 5: Coefficient of Determination - R2.

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Figure 2: Results of Conceptual Model.

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Table 6 is presenting the results of hypotheses testing by considering the values of path coefficients, T-tests and determining the significance levels. On the basis of data gathered from the research, the test used to determine the accepted and rejected hypotheses. Family support (H1) has a positive impact on TVET sector towards skill development. (0.731, p< 0.1). TEVT (H2) has a positive association with women empowerment. (0.863, p< 0.1) and Women Empowerment (H3) has a positive impact on Socio economic growth. (0.820, p< 0.1) [19,20].

Table 6: Hypotheses Testing.

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*Significance at 10% (1.645) p<0.10

**Significance at 5% (1.96) - p<0.05

***Significance at 1% (2.576) p<0.01

Discussion and Conclusion

Women in Pakistan can becomes empower and can go further if their family support is with them. This study aimed to analyze the subject. To examine this, this research conducted a study in Lahore, Pakistan. We found that the family support positively effects TVET sector towards skill development. Therefore, family support plays a contributory role towards getting skills and education by playing major role towards women empowerment and socio-economic growth if family support is with them. The findings also revealed that TVET sector has positive association on women empowerment. TVET sector contributes a lot towards growth of the economy. Different projects are initiated to give skills to women and make them able enough to overcome the challenges they face in their life and can handle different situations in daily matters.

This research is beneficial for the TVET sector that how it can empower women by availing opportunities. This research is also beneficial for the Government organization in funding and supporting the education for sustainable economic growth. Furthermore, it is beneficial for the industries that how can maintain a set up to employ these women in workplace to further enhance their capabilities and gaining long term benefits.

There are some limitations in our study which actually create future direction for further research. Firstly, this study is limited to Lahore region of Pakistan and can be extended to other major areas of Pakistan. Secondly, the sample size is 130 respondents only and which can be extended and model can be extensively in future. Thirdly, this model can be tested by mediating effect of socioeconomic challenges. Lastly, as people insights and attitude change overtime, their opinion also changes with gaining of experience and it would provide greater insight in the study. Basically, this study is based on cross-sectional data and it would be motivating to conduct a longitudinal study to examine the effect.

Acknowledgment

We would like to express our special gratitude to Pakistan Readymade Garments Manufactures and Exporters Association (PRGMEA) especially Vice Chairman Mr. Sohail Afzal Sheikh and Mr. Jawed Chaudhary for their continuous support and valuable suggestions throughout the research. We would also like to thank PRGTTI management who also helped us during data collection and we are able to complete it with given time frame.

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