1
Challenges for Technical and Vocational Skills
Development (TVSD) in Africa

• 28 janvier 2009

Richard Walther, AFD
2
Where I am speaking from

• As an expert for AFD I have written various
  studies on
• Financing vocational training a Europe/African
  comparison (2005)
• Vocational training in the informal sector field
  surveys in seven African countries (Angola,
  Benin, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Morocco, Senegal and
  South Africa) and an synthesis report (2007)
• Towards a renewal of apprenticeship in West
  Africa (2008)
• Post-primary training pathways in Cameroon, Mali
  and Morocco (to be published in 2009)

3
Where I am speaking from

• As an expert for ADEA, I was member of the
  Biennale team
• tutoring five case studies in Congo, Mali and
  Senegal
• analysing the TVSD studies and writing the
  Biennale theme 2 report on  employment of youth
  and the world of work which skills need to be
  developed?
• participating in the final Maputo report to be
  published at the beginning of 2009

4
The summary of the presentation

• The international context of TVSD
• The African context of TVSD
• the predominant position of the informal sector
• the marginal role of formal TVET
• A TVSD adapted to the present social and economic
  challenges
• Towards a new paradigm of TVSD

5
The international conceptual context of TVSD

• TVET versus TVSD
• TVET defined as a mix of general education,
  technologies and science and practical skills and
  knowledge (UNESCO and ILO)
• TVSD knowledge and skills acquired in formal,
  non formal or informal settings
  (NORRAGADEAOECD)
• A complicated relationship between TE and VT

6
The international political context of TVSD

• The decline of TVSD
• between the 1980s and the 2000s
• TVET a priority in the 60s and early 70s or how
  to ease the problem of unemployment
• In the 80s, structural adjustment rate of
  return studies strongly undermined external
  support for post-primary SD
• UPE as an international development target in
  1996 and MDGs in 2000
• TVSD was excluded from both targets

7
The international political context of TVSD

• Why TVSD has been gaining momentum
• since the mid 2000s ?
• The evidence of TVSDs key, transformative role
  in East Asia
• The continuing importance of TVSD in the OECD
  countries
• The expanded African primary education pressure
  on SD
• The development of national TVSD strategies in
  the various African countries to fight poverty
  and youth unemployment

8
The international political context of TVSD

• Why TVSD is back on the international agenda
• 2001 UNESCO/ILO revised Recommendation
  concerning TVET
• 2004 AU Extraordinary Summit on employment and
  poverty alleviation in Africa
• 2004/7 World Bank report on skills development
  in Sub-Saharan Africa and WDR on Development and
  the next generation
• 2007 Meeting of the Bureau of the Conference of
  Ministers of Education of the African Union
  revitalizing TVET
• 2008 ADEA Biennale in Maputo on post-primary
  education and training

9
The African context of TVSD

• The global challenges to be faced
• To define the SD according to the real
  socio-economic context
• To be aware of the forgotten majority excluded
  from the education and training systems
• To consider the minor role of SD in the national
  school systems

10
The African context of TVSD

• The predominant position
• of the informal sector in Africa
• There is a tendency to define skills development
  according to a formal economy and labour market,
  when all the statistics show that informal
  employment and activities are increasing in
  number throughout the African continent.

11
The African context of TVSD

• The predominant position
• of the informal sector
• between 31 (South Africa) and an average of 90
  (West Africa) of the labour market
• between 30 (South Africa) and 50-60 (Benin,
  Cameroon and Senegal) of GDP
• compared to between 47 and 84 informal workers
  in Latin America and 90 in India

12
The African context of TVSD

• So what is the informal sector/economy?
• The statistical approach to the concept  an
  informal enterprise is any production or service
  unit that does not keep full sets of accounts.
• The social and political approach (decent work,
  fiscal status)
• The economic approach the economy of self
  employed people, of micro and small enterprises
  fighting for a decent future

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The African context of TVSDThe informal sector
a big job provider
Country Proportion of informal employment Proportion of employment in companies Proportion of employment in administration
South Africa 31 (all sectors) 69
Angola 66 (urban sector) 24 10
Benin 95 (all sectors) 5 (administration included)
Cameroon 90.4 (all sectors) 4.7 4.9
Ethiopia 90. (all sectors) 6,2 2.6
Morocco 39 (urban sector)
Senegal (Dakar) 77.5 (urban sector) 16.8 5.7
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The African context of TVSDThe informal sector
a big provider of low qualified jobs

Urban
Rural
Cameroon
Level of education
Men
Women
Men
Women
Out of school
0,2
3,6
2,3
0,3
0,5
7
3,1
Primary level
2
8,6
1,5
1,3
4,4
7,3
9,8
17,2
Lower secundary level
9,8
3,2
22
4,6
10,7
Higher secundary level
8,5
11,9
12,4
5,6
1,8
TVET first level
12,2
19,5
1,3
0,8
11,8
TVET second level
Tertiary level
13,4
9,3
19,4
11,5
40,4
NSI Cameroon, EESI, 2005, Phase 1

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The African context of TVSD

• The strategic role of SD in stimulating informal
  sector development
• SD has to be redefined according to the real
  needs of the existing world of work
• Education and skills are central to increasing
  productivity and income of the informal sector
  (Afristat survey)
• If they are able to help young people to find
  work or create their own activity
• If they train adults at the same time as young
  people

16
The African context of TVSD

• A too high number of drop outs
• In spite of an increase of 36 in school
  enrolment in Sub-Sahara Africa, only 65 of
  pupils are achieving EFA
• At the same time statistical data show that on
  average 50 of the young people aged 12-13 are
  out of the school system (in 11 countries only
  this is below 30)
• There are no formal means or very few means to
  qualify this forgotten majority

17
The African context of TVSD

• The minor role of formal TVET
• Only an average of 2-5 of young people at the
  secondary level are enrolled in TVET in most
  African countries
• Depending on the countries, between 60 and 80 of
  young people are trained through traditional
  apprenticeship (WB/OECD)
• 60 of young people coming out of the lower
  secondary cycle are still trained through
  traditional apprenticeship (WB/OECD)

18
The African context of TVSD

• The major role of the informal sector in
  providing SD

Formal initial training (about 5) Formal
continuing training (very low)
Informal or non-formal training (95) On-the-job
training Self-training Traditional apprenticeship
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The African context of TVSD

• The negative image of TVET
• In most of the countries TVET is seen as a second
  chance educational pathway
• TVET is globally under-financed, under-equipped
  and out of date
• There is often no link between training centres
  and the professional and economic actors
• Most teachers and trainers are not retrained
  according to the real needs of the world of work

20
The African context of TVSD

• An urgent need to reform TVET
• To fight the social bomb of exclusion young
  Africans represent 36,9 of the active population
  and 59,5 of the unemployed
• To avoid the loss of inclusion time and remedial
  training costs 60 of surveyed young Africans
  with high level diplomas acquired their skills
  through apprenticeship or on-the-job training
• To delay the migration of youth from the rural to
  the urban area 65 of rural activities/jobs are
  occupied by young people

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Towards a challenging TVDS

• Defining TVSD as a mainstream pathway of the
  national education system and policy
• Increasing substantially the part of TVSD within
  the global system (50 of the young population in
  2012 in Cameroon and Mali, multiplication of
  trainees by 4 and by 6 between 2005 and 2015 in
  South Africa and Ethiopia)
• Creating SD pathways leading to a different level
  of qualifications (the case of Morocco)
• Building bridges and ladders between education
  and training (ADEA Biennale)
• Vocationalizing secondary schools (Uganda and
  Senegal)

22
Towards a challenging TVDS

• Giving access to SD to the out-of-school
  population
• Increasing alternative functional literacy paths
  for non educated people (Mali, Burkina Faso,
  Morocco)
• Setting up a post-basic pre-vocational training
  for the out of school youth aged 12-15 (Benin,
  Mali, Senegaland the Maputo consensus)
• Fighting against gender inequalities in the
  access to training and SD
• Taking into account the specific needs of youth
  in post-conflict situations

23
Towards a challenging TVDS

• Adapting the SD to the local environment,
  especially to the rural area
• Adapting TVDS to the local needs defined in
  partnership with the different public and private
  actors (RAC project in Congo, craft centres in
  Mali, local publics works in Ethiopia, NGO family
  rural school in Cameroon)
• Adapting TVSD to the rural opportunities
  development of agriculture and related services
  (World Bank study 2008)
• Linking closely access to the world of work, job
  creation and stimulation of local economy (Ivory
  Coast)

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Towards a challenging TVDS

• Adapting the SD to the professional and sectoral
  needs
• Redefining more and more the skills needs in
  cooperation with trade organisations (the case of
  the renewal of apprenticeship in West Africa)
• Producing Opportunity studies to identify
  strategic professions and sectors for the future
  (Morocco, Tunisia)
• Giving to the trades the responsibility to
  develop scarce and strategic skills at sectoral
  level (South Africa SETAs)
• An AFD study to be launched which skills and
  professions do public authorities and private
  partners consider to be strategic in terms of
  employment and development

25
Towards a challenging TVDS

• Managing and piloting the system through a
  renewed public/private partnership
• An increasing consensus public authorities have
  to evolve from an exclusive role of piloting the
  TVET system to a role of coordinating, regulating
  and reinforcing the partnerships at local and
  national level (Benin, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Mali,
  Ivory Coast, South Africa)
• An outcome of the decentralisation new forms of
  partnerships are emerging between local
  authorities, local representatives of the
  ministries concerned, social and economic actors
  and NGOs (most of the countries)
• A reality in progress new forms of partnerships
  with increasing responsibility to conceive, pilot
  and implement TVSD

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Towards a challenging TVDS

• Increasing the investment in TVSD in a
  sustainable manner
• Most of the countries are only investing a small
  part of the public expenditure in TVSD on
  average between 2 and 5
• In fact, the costs of SD for the majority of
  African youth going into the labour market are
  shared between the family and the craftsmen or
  micro-entrepreneurs
• There is a need for public authorities to
• invest substantially in efficient SD pathways
  (apprenticeship, alternated training)
• promote sustainable, co-financed instruments and
  mechanisms

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Towards a challengingTVDS

• Creating qualification frameworks
• Validating and recognising informally acquired
  knowledge and skills
• Giving the right to informal trainees to access
  training paths and contents to which they had
  been denied access previously
• Enabling populations excluded from the formal
  systems to access the same levels and types of
  qualifications as those accessible by means of
  formal education
• Creating bridges and ladders between training and
  qualifications which were were isolated or in
  opposition to each other so far

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Towards an new paradigm of TVSD

1. From a centralized and State controled system to
   a decentralized, regulated, coordinated and
   partnership-based system
2. From a  diploma oriented system to a system
   having as its target the professional inclusion
   of youth
3. From a formal TVET system to a TVSD system
   integrating the diversity of the formal, non
   formal and informal pathways

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Towards an new paradigm of TVSD

• From a school-based training to SD pathways based
  on apprenticeship and alternance
• From a knowledge-based national certification
  framework to a framework recognising and
  validating all types of skills and work
  experiences
• From a system based on exclusion to a system
  based on equity of access and outcomes

30
Towards an new paradigm of TVSD
Partner-driven Public-private partnership National
qualifications framework

• Integrated skills development system
• TVET/Diversity of initial and continuing training
  paths
• /Equality of access and outcomes

• In response to development needs
• local
• sector-wide
• rural
• global

• In response to need for equity
• Low educated people
• Girls/woman
• Rural population
• Post-conflict population

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Conclusions the role of NGOs

• They qualify out-of-school or poorly educated
  people
• For example, Family rural schools in Cameroon
  and Ivory Coast
• The social and professional role of well known
  Moroccan NGOs
• The National association of street children in
  Cameroon

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Conclusions the role of NGOs

• They conceive and implement new education
  training routes
• For example, the social and community project of
  the Dom
• Bosco Salesian Mission in Luanda
• 25 education and training centres have been build
  in the very poor district of Sambizanga
• The youngsters are educated in primary schools
• After having achieved primary education they have
  the possibility to undertake two-year-training
  courses
• The NGO takes care of helping trainees find work
  or continue their education/training

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Conclusions the role of NGOs

• They assist young people and adults in creating
  their own activity
• A number of NGOs are involved in South Africa
  (Kindernothilfe, Train, Empower, Nuture and
  Develop), encouraging young people to develop
  entrepreneurial activities
• Agrisud has trained adults and young people
  around Luanda to become horticulturist
• Handicap International is helping handicaped
  people to be trained as craftsmen

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Conclusions the role of NGOs

• NGOs have a vital role in providing equity of
  access to skills development for least educated
  young people and adults
• The NGOs strong points (WB)
• they develop trainee-based and market-based
  qualification pathways
• they are combining different services for helping
  young people to enter the world of work
  (training, micro-credit, tutorship)
• The NGOs weak points (WB)
• the weaknesses of the financial means
• the absence of a long term investment guarantee