African stakeholders advocate vocational skills shift to enhance youth potential

Stakeholders in the African education space have advocated that policymakers and implementers should embrace vocational skill acquisition to enhance the potential of youngsters in the continent.

Delegates at the first-ever Africa Skills Week (ASW) conference hosted by the government of Ghana recently encouraged education policymakers to champion technical and vocational education (TVET) to enable the continent realise its immense potential, and address the anticipated doubling of its youth workforce to 1.6 billion people by 2050.

Sarjoh Aziz-Kamara, the Sierra Leonean deputy minister of Technical and Higher Education, in a keynote address, told the audience that Africa has the youngest population in the world, and that over 60 percent of the continent’s current population is younger than 25 years of age.

“We have to brace for the imagined challenges, as well as the opportunities for growth and social transformation, that the imminent doubling of the continent’s young working-age population will bring,” Aziz-Kamara said.

Sharing his experience in Sierra Leone, and other countries in Africa, he disclosed that tertiary education has previously focused too heavily on producing graduates for white-collar occupations instead of on the vital, skills-based training that TVET education provides.

“This mindset has to change, explaining how his country had created its Ministry of Technical and Higher Education precisely to address this issue, as well as TVET colleges and centres of excellence.

These interventions are set to address the skills needed for seven economic priority areas identified by a labour market survey, with the aim of creating 500 000 jobs for young Sierra Leoneans,” he said.

Fred Kyei Asamoah, the head of Ghana’s CTVET, in echo to Aziz-Kamara’s words around the necessity for planning for the continent’s skills future, asked, “The Fourth Industrial Revolution is almost ending, and what is Africa doing if our working population is doubling in the next 26 years?”

He applauded the maiden edition of the ASW, the first of such an event on the continent, describing it as an important step in addressing this question.

“This week is not for Ghana; this week is for Africa,” he said, applauding the AU’s initiative in driving ASW.

Asimawu Tahiru, a Ghanaian youth leader with the Global Partnership for Education, the only partnership worldwide dedicated to funding education in lower-income countries echoed her youthful voice in support of ASW.

“TVET functional literacy has made huge impacts in my life. I am an example of its worth,” Tahiru told the audience. She said this is why she is determined to promote TVET widely, especially for young women.

“I believe there should be an investment in TVET sectors,” Tahiru said, calling for greater TVET funding.

Nana Akufo-Addo, the President of the Republic of Ghana, declared the event official opened in Accra, with a keynote address.

The theme for the five-day conference is “Skills and jobs for the 21st century: quality skills development for sustainable employability in Africa”.

ASW was hosted by the government of Ghana in partnership with the African Union (AU); supported by Germany through the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ); International Labour Organization (ILO); UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization; World Bank; Ghana’s Commission for TVET (CTVET); and Ghana’s Ministry of Education and Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration.

The five days event was aimed at strengthening TVET systems across Africa by fostering collaboration between key stakeholders, and to promote private sector engagement in the development of sustainable and industry-relevant skills.

Others include to highlight green skills, sustainability and innovation in the training of the future workforce, showcase best practices and success stories from TVET institutions across the continent, and facilitate policy dialogues on shaping the future of Africa’s workforce, preparing it to meet the challenges of a rapidly evolving global economy.

Africa Skills Week (ASW) aims to catalyse action towards improving systems, processes and policies to drive the transformation of skills development across the continent, so that Africans can be future-fit to adapt to the demands of the 21st-century workplace.

The AU aims to institutionalise ASW as part of a broader effort to implement its Agenda 2063 blueprint and build resilient, transformative education and skills ecosystems across Africa.