This chapter identifies policy priorities for African policy makers to increase the supply of quality skills across the continent, in line with current and future demand, to support productive employment. First, it highlights the importance of national skill strategies driven by data. Second, it suggests ways to expand quality education in more cost-effective ways. Third, the chapter discusses innovative training formats with a wide reach. Fourth, it shows how technical and vocational education and training could be upgraded. Fifth, the chapter outlines the most important steps for the regional integration of African skills development policies, including the circulation of skills.
Africa's Development Dynamics 2024
Skills, Jobs and Productivity
Africa’s Development Dynamics
Chapter 2. Policies for productive and inclusive skills development in Africa
Abstract
In Brief
Skills development policies for African countries face the dual challenge of boosting labour productivity while enabling better employment prospects for all. In view of strained budgets, achieving these requires carefully balancing investments in high-potential sectors with cost-effective, scalable and inclusive skill provision. Five sets of policy instruments stand out:
1. African national governments can devise skill strategies that focus on sectors with exceptional productivity, based on thorough data analysis of skill gaps and future skill demands. Governments can select priority sectors based on national comparative advantages and on megatrends like the demographic, digital and green transitions.
2. African countries can expand affordable quality education. Extending the most cost-effective and scalable interventions to Africa’s primary school students would deliver 1.2 learning-adjusted years of schooling at a cost of just 2.3% of current education spending. Harmonised learning assessments can help identify foundational skill shortages.
3. Training providers and the private sector can extend innovative wide-reaching training formats to informal and female workers. Entrepreneurship and on-the-job training can increase the productivity of informal and female-led small enterprises. Effective skill recognition can help informal workers benefit from their prior work experience and reassure employers.
4. Technical and vocational education and training (TVET) institutions can upgrade their programmes to equip learners with in-demand skills and set them on promising career paths. They can also be more responsive to the local private sector and the digital and green transitions. TVET financing can improve on traditional models, such as payroll levies.
5. Regional economic communities, the African Union and African educational institutions can support regionally integrated policies for the development of skills. Beyond harmonised qualification frameworks, regional Centres of Excellence and specialised training centres can drive technical skills development, especially within regional value chains. Exchange and skill mobility programmes can help retain African talent.
Policies for productive and inclusive skills development in Africa (infographic)
African countries’ skills development policies can better focus on productive employment, while taking into account each country’s comparative advantages, capacities and financial resources. By improving educational outcomes for a fast-growing population, African countries have expanded their supply of foundational skills. Cost-effective interventions, such as structured pedagogy and teaching based on individuals’ learning levels (Angrist et al., 2023[1]), can further increase that supply. Applying such interventions could raise the level of education by 1.2 learning-adjusted years of schooling for 90% of Africa’s primary school students at a cost of USD 3.6 billion per year, equivalent to just 2.3% of current education spending. However, expanding skill provision alone is insufficient because productive employment remains scarce in most African countries (Beber et al., 2020[2]). Skills development policies need to identify national opportunities for increasing productive employment. Such opportunities are often linked to comparative advantages, like natural resources or talent pools in specific sectors.
Increasing social protection, workers’ rights, and the accessibility of education and training can improve the cost-benefit ratio of skills development from the workers’ perspective and can make skills development more inclusive. Workers will actively seek quality skills if the expected benefits outweigh the costs. Across an economy, social protection and workers’ rights have an impact on individual and societal development benefits, while the overall affordability and accessibility of education and training (in part, depending on public transportation and local infrastructure) affect the costs. In 2020, only 17% of the African population was covered by at least one social protection benefit, compared to a global average of 47% (ILO, 2021[3]). Social protection coverage can be extended to informal workers, for instance, by introducing non-contributory schemes to complement contributory ones (OECD, 2024[4]). In addition, if education and training are not widely accessible, rural populations, women, refugees and internally displaced people are at a disadvantage compared to workers who attain higher earnings by acquiring skills, thus increasing inequality (Mastrorillo, Scognamillo and Ignaciuk, 2024[5]; OECD, 2021[6]).
African countries require skills development policies with a balanced focus on high productivity and employment potential. This chapter proposes five policy options that respond to the trends identified in Chapter 1 (Table 2.1). Throughout the chapter, the policy recommendations suggest involving the whole range of private sector firms to ensure skills are developed to align with demand:
1. African national governments can devise skill strategies that identify priority sectors with exceptional productivity potential, based on granular data.
2. African countries can use cost-effective interventions and learning assessments to expand quality education.
3. Training providers and the private sector can widen the reach of on- and off-the-job training that offers immediate productivity gains for informal workers, in particular women.
4. Technical and vocational education and training (TVET) institutions can upgrade their programmes to equip learners with in-demand skills and set them on promising career paths.
5. Regional economic communities, the African Union and African educational institutions can improve the functioning of cross-border labour markets by harmonising skill certification and recognition frameworks, strengthening regional skills development and enabling high-skill mobility.
The policy recommendations in this chapter cover high-priority options at the disposal of stakeholders of skills development in Africa. They include fundamental issues (national strategies, quality education), skill provision implementation (training and TVET), and specific regional frameworks and interventions. The recommendations target various stakeholders (Table 2.1).
Table 2.1. Challenges and policy actions for skills development for productive employment
Source: Authors’ compilation.
African countries can be strategic in meeting emerging needs for technical skills in priority sectors, digital skills and green skills
Significant differences in African countries’ opportunities and challenges for skills development require them to design individual skill strategies. To align with current and future skill demand, national strategies can use granular data analysis to focus skills development on priority sectors and specific digital and green skill gaps (Table 2.2).
Table 2.2. Steps to design nationally specific skill strategies
Source: Authors’ compilation.
Assessing current and future skill gaps requires more comprehensive data analysis, including using big data
By strengthening the quality of labour market information systems (LMIS), increasing survey frequency and fostering private sector collaboration, African countries can better assess skill supply and demand. LMIS in Africa are often incomplete and underfunded and fail to adequately address the informal economy (African Centre for Technology Studies, 2023[11]; OECD, 2023[12]). In 2016, only 38 African countries had become members of the African Union’s inventory of LMIS, and only 26 had conducted a labour force survey at any point in time (Sorensen and Mas, 2016[13]). As a result, skill supply and demand are mainly inferred from indirect measures, such as education output data (e.g. number of years in school) (Morsy and Mukasa, 2019[14]; OECD, 2017[15]). To bridge this gap, African countries can enhance the African Union’s LMIS inventory, conduct more frequent and granular labour force surveys, and actively engage the private sector in data collection efforts.
Multi-dimensional assessments can better measure current skill gaps and inform skills anticipation. Assessments of current skill gaps and the anticipation of future skill demand can embrace multi-dimensional data, including wage growth or unfulfilled vacancies, to inform skill strategies and better matching supply with demand in labour markets (OECD, 2017[15]). Cross-sectoral assessments, occupational definitions harmonised with international standards, and active private sector engagement are key for effectively analysing national skill gaps (Table 2.2) (OECD, 2023[7]).
Box 2.1. Deriving skill trends through occupation-skill matching classifications
Using the O*NET occupation-skill classification is a common approach to measuring skills in labour markets. However, the classification originates from a survey in the United States and is not available in languages other than English. Adapting O*NET surveys to African countries could inform strategic skill investments (ILO/OECD, 2023[16]), as illustrated by examples from other world regions:
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In Indonesia, the Occupational Tasks and Skills (Indotask) pilot survey introduced a nationally specific classification system based on modules from O*NET, surveying 51 occupations significant for Indonesia’s economy. Results revealed that foundational skills such as speaking, reading and listening were the most required by employers (World Bank, 2020[17]).
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In Viet Nam, the Survey of Detailed Skills (SDS) measured 30 high-demand occupations. It showed that 43% of them required at least a secondary degree, with basic and financial math skills needed in about one-third of the occupations (Granata, Moroz and Thi Nguyen, 2023[18]).
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In Uruguay, the O*NET Project extends the O*NET framework to 23 selected occupations, using online questionnaires for enterprises and workers (ILO/OECD, 2023[16]).
Using big data can facilitate real-time and detailed skills anticipation in formal job markets. Analysis based on big data includes both quantitative forecasts and qualitative foresight (e.g. text mining) tailored to specific sectors or countries (Bakule et al., 2016[19]). For example, data extracted from online job postings can provide a nuanced understanding of evolving job markets in African countries where one or two job boards are dominant (Box 2.2). Notably, big data offer advantages like frequent updates and low costs, allowing algorithms to infer skill relevance in occupations and create data-based indicators akin to O*NET (OECD, 2023[20]). During external shocks (e.g. COVID-19), big data can facilitate rapid skills assessments for reskilling needs. Challenges include accounting for the underrepresentation of jobs that are not advertised online, biases towards high-skilled roles and difficulties in aggregating occupation-specific skills due to their various definitions (OECD, 2023[20]). This makes participatory preparatory work and the harmonisation of definitions particularly important for African countries.
Collaboration with job platforms – such as the Asian Development Bank co-operating with LinkedIn or the Development Data Partnership joining international organisations like the OECD with data providers – illustrates that big data can help anticipate emerging skills (Data Partnership, 2024[21]; ADB, 2022[22]).
Box 2.2. The potential of job board data to inform skill gap assessments in Africa’s labour markets
Innovative data analysis can enable assessments of skill demand. With data collected from online job boards, countries can assess skill demand within white-collar professions. The data available encompass a wide range of information on occupations, skills, salaries, locations, industries, experience and user profiles. Online job vacancies specify skills in precise terms such as “data science,” “SQL” (structured query language) and “software engineering”. Data can be extracted from international and national job boards and staffing agencies and be supplemented with public employment services and corporate websites. This approach can be especially useful in countries where a single job board is dominant and likely to represent the national job market (Table 2.3).
Table 2.3. Job boards in selected African countries
Source: Authors’ compilation.
Job board data are a valuable source of insights into the demand for skills. Job vacancies are relevant sources of information on skills sought by employers to analyse labour market needs. A 2019 study in Ghana analysed job advertisements from a local daily newspaper. The analysis highlighted the top skills required by the Ghanaian market: computer literacy (27%), communication (12.7%) and teamwork (10.8%) (Asomaning et al., 2021[23]).
Existing data platforms can be used by international organisations to conduct analysis. Lightcast is a platform that gathers data from online vacancies from several sources. It covers over 150 countries, including more than 50 countries in Africa. Data include more than 1 million online job postings in South Africa and more than 800 000 in Nigeria (Lightcast, 2023[24]). International organisations such as the World Bank, the International Labour Organization and the OECD have begun to use data from such providers for labour market analysis (ILO/OECD, 2023[16]; World Bank, 2020[25]).
National skill strategies can respond to specific skill gaps in high-potential sectors, including the digital and green economies
Countries can support different skills, based both on whether they have agrarian or diversifying economies and on regional value chain opportunities. Agriculture contributes 32% of Africa’s gross domestic product (GDP), and approximately 50% of the continent’s employment; yet, only 2% of students specialise in this field (Andinet et al., 2017[26]). Agrarian economies (see Chapter 1) can invest in deepening workers’ technical skills, for instance, in commercial agriculture, agro-processing, agroecology, food processing and urban agriculture (AfDB, 2016[27]). Least developed agrarian countries with small populations (e.g. Sierra Leone) can specialise within regional value chains while targeting larger neighbouring markets (AUC/OECD, 2022[28]). Diversifying economies can target sectors with productivity potential, such as services. Services productivity in Rwanda, for example, is more than ten times higher than agriculture productivity (Newfarmer, Page and Tarp, 2018[29]).
Kenya has introduced the National Skills Development Policy 2020, establishing a Sector Skills Advisory Council responsible for co-ordinating sector skills committees comprised of subject experts across ten sectors in alignment with the Vision 2030 strategy (Republic of Kenya, 2020[30]).
South Africa developed a Sector Skills Plan specifically on skills within the wholesale and retail sectors, aiming to transition towards a technology-based retail sector (South Africa’s Higher Education and Training Department, 2023[31]).
Integrating the development of digital and green skills into national strategies can strengthen the supply of sought-after skills. Gaps in intermediate and advanced digital skills, as well as in sector-specific green skills, are growing across African countries (Chapter 1). Policy frameworks such as the World Bank Methodological Guidebook (World Bank, 2021[32]) and the Digital Manifesto1 (Pathways for Prosperity Commission, 2019[33]) offer insights into crafting national cross-sectoral strategies for digital skills. Integrating green skills in environmental and labour policies can facilitate the transition from “brown” to “green” economies (CEDEFOP/OECD, 2015[34]). Countries can broaden the scope of their artificial intelligence (AI) strategies by adding development plans for digital skills (Box 2.3).
Nigeria has created a National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy that focuses on eight pillars including developing digital skills and indigenous content development and adoption (Nigeria’s Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy, 2019[35]).
Box 2.3. National artificial intelligence strategies and inclusive skills development in Africa
The African Union’s forthcoming African AI Strategy can guide African countries’ national strategies (AU, 2023[36]). So far, Egypt and Mauritius have developed strategies, while Kenya is advancing towards one. While Egypt focuses its strategy on reskilling, upskilling and lifelong learning, Mauritius encourages skills attraction and skills acquisition, particularly for AI-related research and development and innovation) (ANDP, 2019[37]; Republic of Mauritius, 2018[38]). Ethiopia, Ghana, Rwanda, South Africa and Uganda are formulating policies specifically on AI skills development (Diplo, 2022[39]).
Women and marginalised groups are vastly underrepresented among workers with advanced AI skills, and their jobs are more likely to be replaced by AI-induced automation (Musoni, 2024[40]; Adams, 2022[41]). Building on existing policy frameworks, such as Rwanda’s AI policy and South Africa’s 2019 White Paper on Science, Technology, and Innovation, African governments can prioritise gender-sensitive and inclusive AI reskilling strategies (Musoni, 2024[40]).
Efficient education spending, cost-effective interventions and learning assessments can help expand quality education
Expanding quality education is necessary to increase the supply of foundational skills in all African countries. Proven, cost-effective interventions can be further scaled, while harmonised learning assessments can serve to detect foundational skill gaps and monitor progress (Table 2.4).
Table 2.4. Steps to expand quality education through learning assessments and cost-effective interventions
Source: Authors’ compilation.
More funds for education, efficient spending and cost-effective interventions can increase learning outcomes
African countries can increase education spending and improve the efficiency of spending. On average, in 2021, African governments spent 3.7% of GDP on education, accounting for 14.5% of total public expenditure, slightly below the international benchmarks set by UNESCO of at least 4% of GDP and 15% of total public expenditure (UNESCO, 2015[46]). Of the 42 African countries with available data in 2020-23, 12 countries met both minimum targets while 16 did not meet either of them (GEM/UNESCO/World Bank, 2024[47]). The continent’s annual average education financing gap between 2023 and 2030 is estimated at USD 77 billion (GEM/UNESCO, 2024[48]). Africa’s spending inefficiencies also remain high: between 2000 and 2017, they were equivalent to over USD 40 billion annually (IMF, 2021[49]) (Table 2.4).
Cost-effective interventions can improve learning outcomes while keeping spending low. In view of tight public budgets, education interventions in African countries need to carefully balance effectiveness and cost. For instance, it is costly to eliminate school tuition for all, though doing so can improve access to education. Offering free tuition for underserved communities and gradually expanding it can be a more efficient use of scarce resources (Gruijters, Abango and Casely-Hayford, 2023[50]). Recent systematic research of over 13 000 studies highlights cost-effective, immediate and scalable options for governments from low- and middle-income countries that can complement broader reforms, such as curriculum revisions, in improving educational outcomes (Table 2.5). For instance, structured pedagogy and targeted teaching by learning level2 are the most cost-effective and scalable (Angrist et al., 2023[1]). Applying these two types of interventions to reach 90% of the 220 million primary school pupils in African countries would cost USD 3.6 billion annually. This would represent only 2.3% of the USD 159 billion the continent spent on education in 2021 while generating a return of 1.2 learning-adjusted years of schooling.3
In Uganda, removing tuition fees in public and private secondary schools increased girls’ school attendance by at least 0.28 additional years. Following the removal, educational outcomes improved more for private schools than for public ones (Lauterbach, 2024[52]).
In Nigeria, the Edo Basic Education Sector Transformation (EdoBEST) programme aims to improve the teaching and learning processes in basic education in Edo State. Three years after the intervention began, EdoBEST students in grade 6 could read about 100 words per minute compared to over 40 words per minute by students in other states (EdoBEST, 2021[53]).
In Zambia, the Teaching at the Right Level (TaRL) programme was scaled to over 160 000 students between 2016 and 2019. In the span of one school year, it managed to increase the number of students in grades 3-5 who could read at least a simple paragraph by 60%, and the number of those who could do subtraction by 89% (UNICEF, 2022[54]).
Table 2.5. Policy options to improve learning outcomes in African countries, by cost-effectiveness
Source: GEEAP (2023[55]), Cost-Effective Approaches to Improve Global Learning, https://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/099420106132331608/pdf/IDU0977f73d7022b1047770980c0c5a14598eef8.pdf.
Comparable national, regional and international learning assessments can serve to monitor education outcomes and policy impacts
Improving countries’ participation in learning assessments and comparability across assessments can help policy makers set priorities and monitor the policy impacts. Increasing the availability of and communication on learning outcomes can improve prioritisation and monitoring. Currently, two-thirds of African countries do not assess internationally comparable measures of learning in primary education, and a majority lack measures of learning at the secondary level.
Established international, regional and national learning assessments can complement each other by measuring proficiency in different subjects at different grades (Table 2.6). International and regional assessments often come with high standards of rigour and offer credible results (Box 2.4); however, they tend to allow less involvement from local stakeholders, are relatively more costly than national assessments and may not sufficiently consider national curriculum and learning objectives. Recalibration exercises (i.e. running parallel tests enabling the conversion of scores from different national tests or conducting statistical recalibration of existing data), such as the Rosetta Stone project, can make assessments comparable (UNESCO/PASEC/LLECE/IEA, 2022[56]; Altinok, Angrist and Patrinos, 2018[57]; Patrinos and Angrist, 2018[58]).
Table 2.6. Overview of standardised learning assessments in African countries
Note: PISA = Programme for International Student Assessment; TIMSS = Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study; PIRLS = Progress in International Reading Literacy Study; PASEC = Program for the Analysis of Educational Systems; SACMEQ = Southern and Eastern Africa Consortium for Monitoring Educational Quality. The national and subnational section offers illustrative examples rather than a comprehensive overview.
Source: Gustafsson (2019[59]), Costs and Benefits of Different Approaches to Measuring the Learning Proficiency of Students (SDG Indicator 4.1.1), https://uis.unesco.org/sites/default/files/documents/ip53-costs-benefits-approaches-measuring-proficiency-2019-en.pdf and Ramírez (2018[60]), Quick Guide No. 2: Making the Case for a Learning Assessment, https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000265404.
Box 2.4. The OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment
The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) tests the skills and knowledge in reading, mathematics and science of 15-year-old students (i.e. corresponding to the end of compulsory education in most OECD countries). PISA’s aim is to measure the extent to which students can use what they learned in and out of school to participate in society. It collects information on student attitudes and motivations and assesses soft skills such as collaborative problem-solving, communication, critical and creative thinking, and learning in a digital world. PISA uniquely focuses on:
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Public policy issues: PISA aims to answer questions such as, “Are our schools adequately preparing young people for the challenges of adult life?”, “Are some kinds of teaching and schools more effective than others?” and “Can schools contribute to improving the futures of students from immigrant or disadvantaged backgrounds?”.
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Foundational and soft skills: Rather than examining mastery of specific school curricula, PISA looks at students’ ability to apply knowledge and skills in key subject areas and to analyse, reason, and communicate effectively when examining, interpreting and solving problems.
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Lifelong learning: To be effective lifelong learners, young people need not only knowledge and skills but also an awareness of why and how they learn. In addition to measuring student performance, PISA asks students about their motivations to learn.
PISA allows policy makers to set and measure progress towards national objectives and to steer effective action. Over 100 countries and economies have participated in PISA to track their progress in meeting key learning goals. Researchers and policy makers use the results to chart national progress against international standards and identify strengths and weaknesses in education systems. A module for low- and middle-income countries (called PISA for Development in its piloting phase) aims to expand PISA’s global reach. So far, eight African countries have participated or are participating in PISA: Algeria (2015), Egypt (2025), Kenya (2025), Morocco (2018 to 2025), Rwanda (2025), Senegal (PISA for Development, 2015), Tunisia (2003 to 2015) and Zambia (PISA for Development, 2014, 2025).
Source: OECD Directorate for Education and Skills, PISA Unit.
Training and skill recognition can benefit informal and female workers in African countries
Skill training and recognition can improve the productivity and employability of Africa’s informal and female workers, on the condition they be effective. Entrepreneurial, managerial and soft skills training are widespread, but training formats vary in effectiveness and need to be chosen with care to increase productivity. Likewise, skill recognition is an essential tool to improve the employability of informal workers, but it needs to be well-designed and practice-oriented to be effective (Table 2.7).
Table 2.7. Steps to improve the labour productivity of informal and female workers through innovative on- and off-the-job training and skill recognition
Source: Authors’ compilation.
Entrepreneurial and soft skills training and apprenticeships can benefit firms and workers, including women
Entrepreneurial training for self-employed workers and students can help increase firms’ inclusiveness and scale. Entrepreneurship is widely spread in Africa, with a national average of 65% of the working population being self-employed on the continent in 2022.4 Entrepreneurial training can complement traditional learning of business practices (i.e. accounting, cash flow management, customer relations, human resources, marketing, etc.) by instilling an entrepreneurial mindset. Introducing entrepreneurship education starting at primary level can improve its inclusiveness and scale (AAP, 2022[64]).
In rural Rwanda, the involvement of village savings and loan associations in entrepreneurial training provided by CARE International allowed for an increase in profit and financial literacy (Rubyutsa et al., 2023[65]).
Fundis (“artisan” in Swahili) is a Kenyan e-platform that connects accredited informal artisans and builders to employment (Fundis, 2024[66]). In 2023, it launched the IngiaBiz initiative in partnership with the Kenya Association of Certified Training Providers for Industry to upskill and certify artisans and promote youth employment over a three-year period (Fintech, 2024[67]).
Digify Africa offers digital and business skill training to young Africans, drawing on an alumni network and private sector partners; it has enabled the careers of more than 500 graduates (IFC/LEK, 2019[68]).
On-the-job training can increase firms’ benefits, but the majority of Africa’s firms do not provide it. On-the-job training refers to learning or directed training undertaken in the workplace, both structured (apprenticeships, internships) and unstructured (experiential learning by doing). In Ghana and Tanzania, on-the-job management training using the Kaizen approach, which enhances firm-level productivity by gradually applying tools such as production management and quality control, had substantial benefits. The two countries increased the value added of small businesses in a garment production cluster by 50% and raised the resilience of small firms in the metal industry by 20% (ILO, 2018[69]). For African enterprises in manufacturing and services that provide training to employees, sales per worker are around 20% higher compared to those that do not. Yet, less than 30% of firms registered in Africa provide formal training to employees, compared to almost 50% in Latin America (AfDB, 2020[70]).
Apprenticeships significantly help people get jobs. In Ghana, a large majority of technical and vocational skills are acquired through apprenticeships: the number of apprentices is ten times higher than students in formal TVET (MasterCard Foundation, 2018[71]). Seventy-five per cent of informal apprentices find a job less than six months after finishing their apprenticeships, most of them becoming self-employed or employed by the business that hosted their apprenticeships (ILO, 2022[72]). Apprentices who receive certificates are more likely to transition to formal jobs, even if the certificates are not formally recognised. For instance, in Malawi, 31% of apprentices with a certificate obtained a formal job compared to only 5% of those without (IFC/LEK, 2019[68]).
Including socio-emotional skills development and peer networks in training programmes oriented towards women can bolster female workers’ skills and entrepreneurial success. In many parts of Africa, women suffer from persisting discriminatory social norms that hinder their access to quality education. Women are usually either absent from work or confined to traditionally feminine jobs (ILO, 2022[72]; OECD, 2021[6]). One study examined gender differences in ten socio-emotional skills that are associated with success in a competitive workplace (like positive self-concept or expressiveness). Based on respondent data from 17 African countries, the study found that the skill gap between women and men was equivalent to the skills gained in 5.6 years of education, with the male advantage increasing with higher education levels (Ajayi et al., 2022[73]). Training programmes focusing on socio-emotional skills can thus yield higher earnings for female workers and ensure a greater likelihood of success in their entrepreneurial endeavours (Baliamoune-Lutz, Brixiova and Ncube, 2014[74]). In addition to formal training, networks and kinship relationships contribute distinctly to women’s entrepreneurial success. This is especially true for women who try to transition to more profitable sectors, which are often male-dominated (e.g. the digital economy, infrastructure, transport) (OECD, 2021[6]).
Mauritius implements targeted skills training for marginalised groups, in particular women and youth. This has contributed to a steady increase in women’s labour force participation since 2005 (World Bank, 2018[75]).
Recognition of prior learning can profit workers and employers, and digital platforms and education technology startups are increasing their reach
Recognition of prior learning (RPL) can create win-win scenarios for informal workers and employers, but the available support often remains unknown to both. Expert interviews conducted for this report stressed that, by officially recognising all prior learning, including that acquired outside of formal5 education systems, RPL enhances the employability of informal workers. Certificates obtained through RPL are akin to those awarded by training centres. RPL can expand informal workers’ access to formal training opportunities and jobs while offering a path out of informality (OECD, 2024[4]). RPL serves employers’ interests in that it makes the supply of sought-after skills from marginalised workers more visible. However, challenges in implementing RPL schemes include a lack of adequate awareness of RPL and insufficient tracking and monitoring of impacts (ILO, 2022[76]). Increasing the availability of RPL tools, especially in remote communities, could reassure employers (ACQF, 2023[77]; Aggarwal, 2015[78]).
Tunisia allows candidates with at least three years of experience as a craftsperson to obtain a certificate to prove professional competence in a given sector. This “certificate of professional aptitudes” (certificat d’attestation de qualification professionnelle) facilitates their integration into the formal labour market (Tunisia’s Ministry of Employment and Professional Training, 2024[79]).
Professional certificates issued for courses on digital platforms are growing in importance. Professional certificates from digital platforms have become more relevant following the COVID-19 pandemic. They can be obtained through platforms such as Coursera or LinkedIn Learning. Nigeria has the third highest enrolment rate globally on the Coursera platform (which counts 124 million learners), only behind the United States and India. Learners in 13 of the 18 African countries covered in a study by Coursera showed their best performance in business skills, followed by entrepreneurial skills, while technology and data science skills allowed for improvement (Coursera, 2023[80]).
Education technology startups, such as Women in Data Africa and Femafricmaths,6 offer training courses and skill certification, often through partnerships with the private sector.
TVET institutions can better respond to Africa’s emerging skill needs
Table 2.8. Steps to help technical and vocational education and training institutions embrace innovative approaches to emerging skill needs
Source: Authors’ compilation.
TVET can increase the skills needed in African countries, but its success is mixed
TVET programmes can provide skills needed in African countries’ priority sectors for the exploding number of students. TVET programmes offer practical and technical skills for entry into occupations, dividing learners’ time between the classroom and work-based training. To improve graduates’ employability, TVET programmes can align with the demand for skills in national priority sectors. By 2040, the number of secondary TVET students is expected to more than quadruple in agrarian economies like Burundi, Mali and Uganda and to increase ten-fold in Niger (ILO/World Bank/UNESCO, 2023[85]).
The East Africa Skills for Transformation and Regional Integration Project (EASTRIP), led by the World Bank, brings a regional approach to developing specialised TVET skills. Since 2018, it has created a cluster of 16 TVET Centres of Excellence in three countries. The centres offer skill supply for major regional infrastructure projects. Each centre focuses on a specific sector: road transport (Ethiopia), textiles (Kenya) and renewable energies (Tanzania).
Evaluations show that the implementation of TVET in Africa has had mixed results. Analysis of 22 evaluations of TVET programmes from the DEReC and GIZ databases7 (GIZ, 2024[86]; OECD, 2024[87]) and expert interviews carried out for this report suggest four success factors: i) political will to promote vocational training as a means to economic advancement; ii) partnership and information sharing between employers and providers; iii) competency-based training to improve quality management of TVET institutions; and iv) alignment with donors’ international co-operation strategies and recipients’ national development plans. The most common hurdles for TVET include: i) lack of follow-up with graduates and weak relations between training centres and the private sector (e.g. missing direct job placement services); ii) lack of results-based management systems, including missing planning of evaluations; iii) slow governance due to centralised decision-making, staff turnover at ministries and lengthy accreditation processes by TVET authorities; and iv) limited applicability of learned skills on training completion. Cost-effectiveness remains understudied, despite continental efforts, including the African Union Strategy for TVET and its Plan of Action for the African Decade for Technical, Professional and Entrepreneurial Training and Youth Employment (2019-2028).
African TVET institutions can upgrade their reputation and curricula and strengthen collaboration with the private sector
TVET institutions would benefit from an improved reputation, more relevant curricula, including on digital skills. TVET’s mixed effectiveness has resulted in reputational damage, leading students to perceive TVET-based careers as a second choice relative to academic pathways (IDRC, 2019[88]). To keep content relevant, TVET institutions can more strongly emphasise digital and green skills and promote gender-inclusive access.
Through its Global Gateway strategy, the European Union will invest EUR 150 billion by 2027 to improve African digital infrastructure and digital skills. In Kenya, for example, the programme will support the digitalisation of TVET centres (European Union, 2022[89]).
Since 2011, UNESCO-Korea’s Better Education for Africa’s Rise (BEAR) project has supported TVET upgrades in 14 countries. In Uganda, it provided digital equipment to TVET institutions to increase efficiency in agro-food processing and post-harvest management (UNESCO, 2023[90]).
The WorldSkills Africa initiative offering live demonstrations of selected skills, and the Skills in Action Photo Competition hold promise to change the perceptions of TVET (UNESCO, 2022[91]).
Stronger linkages with the private sector can enhance the professionalisation of TVET trainers and help align skill supply with demand. Only 30% of TVET trainers in Africa have recent experience in companies related to the sector they teach (IIEP-UNESCO, 2023[92]). African countries could learn from peers such as the Philippines, where the national TVET authority requires industry immersion for trainer certifications (TESDA, 2021[93]). Involving the private sector in the development of curricula is central to better aligning skill supply with demand.
TVET can be more responsive to learning ecosystems and low female participation
Contextualising TVET programmes within wider learning ecosystems is key to responsive national TVET systems. Improving TVET effectiveness can require an ecosystem approach, which considers how TVET overlaps with universities, workplaces, informal vocational training, and generally the worlds of work, learning and living (Lotz-Sisitka and McGrath, 2023[94]). National TVET systems can improve their responsiveness to contemporary challenges (digitalisation, automation, climate change) and persisting ones (quality lifelong education, informality, internally displaced people) (UNESCO, 2022[95]).
Senegal’s Société de développement et des fibres textiles (SODEFIDEX) works with family farms and cotton co-operatives. In the 2000s, the company began offering its own literacy courses for seasonal workers. It gradually developed more advanced TVET programmes to meet rural job needs linked to changes in agriculture. Courses are given in Pulaar, Mandingo and Wolof, the languages commonly spoken by Senegal’s farming populations (IIEP-UNESCO, 2021[96]).
Female enrolment and completion rates are low in TVET programmes. Young girls and women are often prevented from enrolling in and completing TVET programmes. This results from social norms that confine their role to the domestic realm, from long distances to TVET institutions and from the high cost of learning materials. Between 2017 and 2019, female participation in formal TVET at secondary level as a share of total enrolment was lowest in Tanzania (12%) and Seychelles (18%) and highest in São Tomé and Príncipe (56%) and Lesotho (67%) (Figure 2.1). Unfortunately, enrolment does not necessarily translate into completion. For instance, Uganda’s TVET end-of-year assessment in 2019 indicates that women comprised only 19% of the examinees (Mawanda, 2020[97]).
The Gender makes Business Sense e-learning course, implemented by GIZ and AUDA-NEPAD, equips participants with managerial skills, financial know-how and an understanding of social norms and gender dynamics in business development (AUDA-NEPAD, 2024[98]).
Figure 2.1. Percentage of female students enrolled in secondary technical and vocational education and training in selected African countries, 2017-19
Source: World Bank/UNESCO Institute for Statistics (2020[99]), Secondary Education, Vocational Pupils (% female) (database), https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SE.SEC.ENRL.VO.FE.ZS.
Box 2.5. Germany’s activities in technical and vocational education and training across Africa
The German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ) supports African partner countries in expanding access to skills and shaping the transition to decent employment in future-oriented sectors. It does so in line with Germany’s priorities and on behalf of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). In 2022, 76 GIZ-implemented TVET programmes were active in Africa.
At the national level, GIZ implements an approach to promoting employment that encourages training women in green and digital skills. Its Employment Promotion for Women for the Green Transformation in Africa (WE4D) programme focuses on developing gender-sensitive training with public and private partners in green sectors (e.g. eco-tourism, sustainable agriculture, renewable energy and green construction). The WE4D programme, funded by BMZ, the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation and the European Union (GIZ, 2024[100]), operates across nine African countries. Another such GIZ initiative is the Digital Skills for Jobs and Income in South Africa project. This project, partly funded by the G20 initiative #eSkills4Girls, aims to narrow the gender divide in the digital economy by offering girls training courses for aspiring drone pilots, creative content producers and application developers (GIZ, 2024[101]).
GIZ also supports African Union member states in implementing demand-oriented, inclusive TVET through the Skills Initiative for Africa (SIFA) (Box 2.7). Under SIFA, the continental portal ASPYEE (African Skills Portal for Youth Employment and Entrepreneurship), practitioners and policy makers share, collaborate on and engage in key areas (AUDA-NEPAD, 2024[102]).
Source: GIZ.
National funding for TVET can be more accountable, while funding from development partners can be better co-ordinated
Africa’s low public spending on TVET is sometimes supplemented by levies from the private sector, with mixed results. On average, Africa devotes 5% of public education spending to TVET (AFD/ADEA, 2014[103]), with the amounts varying greatly across countries. In the Southern African Development Community (SADC), countries dedicate between 0.6% and 13.6% of education spending to TVET (AUDA-NEPAD, 2022[104]; SADC, 2013[105]). In Equatorial Guinea, less than 25% of TVET centres are publicly run. Some countries compensate for insufficient public financing by raising training funds from the private sector, charging a levy rate of between 0.5% (Gabon and Zambia) and 4.0% (Benin and Tanzania) of payroll. However, the levy-based model has limitations, such as the diversion of funds to national general budgets for purposes other than training, thus reducing both fund capacity and firms’ willingness to participate. Of funds analysed in 29 African countries, 5% of training levies collected in Burkina Faso go to national TVET funds, 17% in Zambia and 60% in Niger; only Senegal’s 3FPT Fund achieves 100% (UNESCO, 2022[106]).
Performance-based schemes can contribute to TVET funding. In 2024, South Africa announced the establishment of an innovative USD 197 million loan fund for middle-income students at TVET colleges and universities. Students who obtain a 70% grade or above and finish within a prescribed time will receive a 50% reduction in loans they have requested (SABC News, 2024[107]).
TVET financing from development partners can be better co-ordinated and targeted towards countries with the greatest need. Donor funding is likely to remain a significant source of financing for TVET in African countries. For example, in Burkina Faso, 46% of TVET funds come from development partners, 4% from the state and only a small portion from the training levy (ILO, 2020[108]). Donor-run grants (e.g. the SIFA Financing Facility and the European Development Fund) can promote innovation and competition but risk leaving out countries with lower capacities (Boxes 2.5, 2.6 and 2.7).
Box 2.6. Bridging educational and skill gaps in Portuguese-speaking African countries
Addressing educational disparities and teacher shortages is crucial for Portuguese-speaking African (PALOP) countries – Angola, Cabo Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, and São Tomé and Príncipe. The heterogeneity in educational attainment and workforce skill distribution across PALOP countries is significant. In Mozambique, the lower secondary education completion rate among students over 25 years of age is 15%, compared to 28.9% in Angola, 29.5% in Cabo Verde and 38.9% in São Tomé and Príncipe. These figures stand against an average of 30.4% across 29 African countries (UNESCO, 2023[90]). This creates a challenge to educational outcomes, as does the shortage of qualified teachers. The shortage prevents youth from accessing quality education and is the focus of several initiatives. These include the recent training initiatives led by Camões – Instituto da Cooperação e da Língua, I.P. (Camões, I.P), to develop capacities of education professionals which have been implemented in Angola (Saber+), Guinea Bissau (PRECASE1) and São Tomé and Príncipe (PAISE-STP2).
PALOP countries are seeking to improve technical and vocational education and training to meet job market needs. With unemployment rates among the 15- to 24-year-olds ranging from 4% (Guinea-Bissau) to 28% (Cabo Verde) in 2024 (ILOSTAT, 2024[109]), TVET represents a pathway to transition into the labour market for many youth. Mozambique saw a 6% increase in enrolment in TVET programmes between 2008 and 2018, against a continent-wide declining trend (AfDB, 2022[110]). The Improvement of Skills Development in Mozambique project in partnership with the World Bank, aims at improving the quality of education in secondary and TVET institutions geared towards labour market needs (World Bank, 2024[111]).
International partners and national governments can maximise synergies to narrow skill gaps and boost employment in priority sectors. To this end, Cabo Verde and Portugal signed a memorandum of understanding in 2023 with investment objectives in six strategic areas: metallurgy, digital, civil construction, the social sector, tourism and the energy transition. By improving access to, and the quality of, professional training at the Centres of Professional Excellence, the agreement seeks not only to equip the Cabo Verdean youth with transferable skills but also to attract talent from other PALOP countries. Similarly, the multi-stakeholder PALOPs-Timor-Leste PROCULTURA Programme, with a budget of EUR 19 million, sought to develop artistic and management skills while boosting revenue-generating activities and jobs across creative industries (Futuros Criativos, 2024[112]). Lastly, +EMPREGO Mozambique aims to promote i) better qualifications for available jobs, ii) public-private partnerships and iii) improved access to employment and self-employment in Cabo Delgado Province. This project, co-financed by the European Union and Camões, I.P., targets the professional insertion of 1 200 Mozambicans, aged 15 to 25, and graduates from professional education, 25% of whom are women (+Emprego, 2024[113]).
The regional integration of African skills development depends on harmonised frameworks, international safeguards and partnerships
The regional integration of skills development hinges on better harmonisation of international frameworks and enhanced skill mobility partnerships. To reduce skill gaps at the continental scale, integrating the supply of and demand for skilled labour across national borders is paramount. Harmonising policies across countries can help close skill gaps, allowing African countries to reap the benefits of the interplay of skill mobility, free trade and the free movement of people across borders (Table 2.9).
Table 2.9. Steps for regional and continental integration of skills policies
Note: AUDA-NEPAD = African Union Development Agency - New Economic Partnership for Africa’s Development; SADC = Southern African Development Community; SMP = skill mobility partnership; COMESA = Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa.
Source: Authors’ compilation.
Free trade and the free movement of people across borders can be better integrated into protocol agreements and expanded in scope. While mainly designed to promote free trade, the Protocol on Trade in Services, under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), is a critical precursor of free movement agreements in Africa (AUC/IOM, 2018[116]). Yet, it only targets the mobility of businesspeople and professionals in the context of service delivery. The Protocol to the Treaty Establishing the African Economic Community Relating to Free Movement of Persons, Right of Residence and Right of Establishment has a broader scope, covering informal cross-border traders, seasonal workers and student migrants. However, it lacks an explicit link to free trade, which has made its implementation a low priority in many member states of the African Union (Hirsch, 2021[117]; Bisong, 2021[118]). Coherent international integration protocols could start from regional economic communities. The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), for example, has significantly advanced free trade and the free movement of people between member states (Urso and Hakami, 2018[119]).
AUDA-NEPAD’s five regional Centres of Excellence can help anticipate sectoral skills needed across Africa. The centres seek to reflect the diversity and capacity-building needs of the continent; they cover five strategic sectors: supply chain and logistics (Central Africa); climate resilience (Egypt); human capital and institutions development (Kenya); rural resources and food systems (Senegal); and science and technology and innovation (South Africa) (AUDA-NEPAD, 2023[120]). These sectoral specialisations and strategic locations make the centres well-suited for regional skills anticipation, strengthening labour market information, updating national occupational standards and designing training programmes. Anticipating national skills is gaining traction, for instance, via dedicated Skills Anticipation Action Plans in Ghana (launched in 2022), Zambia (2023-27) and Zimbabwe (2022-25). Regional skills anticipation could more directly take into account economies’ comparative advantages along regional value chains.
Partnerships can help address challenges for skills development in regional value chains (OECD/AUC/EU/AUDA-NEPAD, 2023[121]). Multistakeholder partnerships, led by organisations such as the AUDA-NEPAD and UNITAID, have established platforms for co-ordinating skills development in value chains (Box 2.7). By increasing the development of skills, such partnerships can also attract more greenfield foreign direct investments and foster regional integration (AUC/OECD, 2022[28]). Regional training centres can help alleviate skill shortages and promote skill mobility for the development of regional value chains (see also the EASTRIP programme above).
Box 2.7. The Skills Initiative for Africa
The African Union Commission, AUDA-NEPAD, the European Union and the German government (through the KfW Development Bank) created the Skills Initiative for Africa (SIFA) to promote innovative skills development. Between 2017 and 2023, SIFA financed projects that contributed to employment-oriented skills development for young people in eight African countries, in collaboration with private firms. The SIFA Financing Facility provided grants of up to EUR 3 million to domestic public or private accredited training providers, TVET institutions, international chambers of commerce, international industry associations, and foundations of international companies with local training activities. SIFA aims to create a continental platform for knowledge exchange and private sector engagement in skills development.
African countries are making efforts to harmonise qualification frameworks to facilitate the mobility of skilled labour and graduates. Existing regional qualifications frameworks, spearheaded by regional economic communities and non-governmental organisations, remove restrictions on intra-African mobility of skilled labour by creating comparable qualification frameworks. While only SADC (in 2016) and the East African Community (in 2015 and 2023) have adopted such frameworks to date, ECOWAS and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development are moving in that direction. Joint minimal standards have emerged as flexible, bottom-up initiatives to promote the mutual recognition of qualifications in agriculture and construction between neighbouring countries such as Ghana, Nigeria and Togo (ILO, 2023[122]). To facilitate the regional mobility of graduates, the African Union’s Continental Education Strategy for Africa 2016-2025 stresses the need for continental qualifications frameworks that connect regional and national frameworks.
The African Continental Qualifications Framework (ACQF) – implemented by the African Union, in partnership with the European Union and GIZ – is a ten-level blueprint that connects qualifications frameworks and systems (ACQF, 2023[77]). It aims to enhance comparability and transparency of qualifications, to facilitate the recognition of diplomas and certificates and to promote the mobility of workers and students. The second implementation (ACQF-II) is a promising opportunity for a regionally unified approach to micro-credentials (Castel-Branco, 2023[123]).
University exchange programmes, within and beyond Africa, are crucial to retain highly educated students and attract new ones. Inspired by the European ERASMUS+ programme, intra-African exchange programmes can retain African talent on the continent and attract aspiring skilled workers. African countries can expand and deepen existing initiatives to link university and training, backed by effective educational counselling. Many leading international tertiary institutions are also establishing local campuses, forming collaborative partnerships with African institutions, including exchange programmes, and offering accredited online degrees.
The EU-Africa: Global Gateway Investment Package – Education and Training programme – integrates students from 35 African countries into the European ERASMUS+ programme (European Union, 2022[89]).
International safeguards can regulate the outflow of skilled workers from strategic sectors such as healthcare. For instance, the health workforce support and safeguards list published by the World Health Organization for 2023 identifies countries with low health workforce density and low coverage of essential health services (WHO, 2023[124]). The United Kingdom has adopted this list in its 2023 code of practice that regulates international recruitment for health and social care organisations; it excludes 39 African countries from active recruitment (UK GOV, 2023[125]).
Skill mobility partnerships can enhance skills development and circulation. Such programmes offer dual-track training in both origin and destination countries, with the cost of training partially borne by destination countries or employers. While these programmes do not prevent participants from seeking permanent relocation, they emphasise temporary assignments and return initiatives. They also include training components tailored to the skills needed in both the origin and destination countries, not only for labour migrants but also for local populations (AU, 2020[126]).
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Notes
← 1. The Digital Manifesto was piloted in Ethiopia, Mongolia and South Africa.
← 2. Teaching at the Right Level (TaRL) programmes have been piloted in 12 African countries (Botswana, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia), reaching over 4 million students in 2022. Evaluations of TaRL programmes found an increase in test scores by between 0.1 and 0.3 standard deviations per student (Carter, 2024[127]).
← 3. Authors’ calculations based on GEM/UNESCO/World Bank (2024[47]) and Angrist et al. (2023[1]).
← 4. Authors’ calculation based on ILOSTAT (2024[109]).
← 5. Outside of formal learning, there exist non-formal and informal learning. While non-formal learning usually takes place in community-based settings, in the workplace and through the activities of civil society organisations, informal or experiential learning refers to unstructured learning developed in daily work-related, family or leisure activities (UIL-UNESCO, 2012[129]).
← 7. An overview of the evaluations considered for this analysis can be obtained on request.