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Education sectors worldwide have been pressed to re-evaluate admission and credit transfer policies to enhance higher education (HE) qualifications access and career mobility. This study presents the case of a technical institute's re-development of its vocational programme to facilitate academic credit transfer and establish accessible, efficient pathways to further and HE. It considers political and operational dimensions of this in an institution within the Middle East and North Africa region--where, as in many countries, technical vocational education and training (TVET) has been historically and culturally stigmatized. This analysis reveals that the TVET-HE divide can be bridged, and lifelong learning avenues promoted, through institutional policy and procedural reforms that transcend variant education and training delivery models to account for acquired competence. Opportunities for credential advancement and career mobility can be strategically broadened when mechanisms for the recognition and transference of learning acquired in vocational programmes are in place.

The collapse of public services in Yemen due to a protracted crisis raging since 2015 has compelled some local citizen-based coalitions to initiate community-based service delivery. This preliminary study identifies Community-Based Initiatives (CBIs) as non-state actors supplying basic services ordinarily provided by governmental institutions. It offers an overview of Yemen's humanitarian crisis while focusing on public services provision pre- and mid-conflict and highlights the role of CBIs as a response to its breakdown within a severely fragile context. As this work considers CBI a societal constituent and not simply a temporary phenomenon, it discusses the general trends of Civil Society. This article fills the gap in the literature and compares the Western perspective and application of CBIs in Yemen aiming at developing a more specific and contextual conception. The analysis lays the foundation for much needed future studies on the role of informal organizations in service provision in developing countries of the Global South. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]