TECHNICAL INSTITUTE IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES WITH FOCUS ON IRAN, UTILIZING COMPUTER SIMULATIO

There is an acute shortage of manpower in the areas of engineering, medicine, technical, skilled, and semi-skilled labor in Iran.;There is also a marked lack of comprehensive manpower planning, in particular of educational planning. And, the most neglected area is vocational-technical education.;Iran has been very slow to accept the concept of vocational-technical education and training as a necessary part of the educational and the economic structures.;Steps to improve vocational-technical education, which sought to stress vocational education at the secondary level, were instituted a decade ago, but have not yet been effective.;The purpose of this study is to develop a systematic human resource and educational planning procedure that takes into account the cultural context of Iran as a developing country, and, at the same time, is responsive to the country's social, economic and human resource requirements and constraints. The planning approach is used to generate a model for a technical institute at the post-secondary level in Iran.;This study combines the historical-comparative approach with the descriptive approach. The basic method used is analysis of primary data sources and official documents related to the demographic and educational patterns in Iranian education. The comparative research focuses upon studies of educational techniques and patterns, and experiences from other developing countries.;The background of the history and culture of Iran is presented. A review and analysis of the old and new educational systems identify the patterns of prior and current practices that form the basic framework of the educational system within which the human resource planner must build.;The broad approach of human resource planning and educational planning is viewed in the light of findings from other developing countries. The basic elements and procedures used in comprehensive and developmental planning are discussed.;In line with the systematic planning procedure, a plan for the establishment of a two-year technical institute is developed from four areas of curriculum: construction, agricultural-machinery, nursing, and electronic technology.;The model technical institute starts with a total of 200 students in the four areas of study. It is designed to expand to ten technical areas and 2,000 students in ten years.;The parameters of the planned institute are simulated for the purpose of analyzing various institutional alternatives for the most efficient utilization of limited resources. Induced work and load matrices for the original and ultimate configuration of the technical institute are developed.;Using computer programming and hypothetical input data, the system is simulated and the output listings are obtained.;Recommendations are made regarding the planning for the operation and the future development of the post-secondary technical institute.