The Skills Balancing Act in Sub-Saharan Africa by Omar Arias David K. Evans & Indhira Santos

Author:Omar Arias, David K. Evans & Indhira Santos
Language: eng
Format: epub

Chapter 3

Building Skills for the School-to-Work Transition in Sub-Saharan Africa

Indhira Santos, Daniel Alonso Sosale, and Shobhana Sosale

Despite the potential for technical and vocational education and training (TVET) to improve the school-to-work transition and promote aggregate productivity and inclusion, TVET systems in most of Sub-Saharan Africa remain fragmented and disconnected from labor market demands. As a result, TVET is too often seen to be failing students, employers, and taxpayers. Investments in TVET also carry a likely trade-off between investing in skills for the economic needs of today and investing in those for the needs of tomorrow; TVET systems tend to track students too early into very narrow fields of specialization, with a penalty in the labor market vis-à-vis general education that grows over time.

Hence, as TVET expands, the focus should be on (a) strengthening the evidence base for all decision making, (b) prioritizing selected growth sectors while supporting TVET in the informal sector, and (c) strengthening the links between TVET and market demands by focusing on foundational and core business skills; partnering with the private sector, including for the provision of apprenticeships; avoiding premature tracking; and aligning financing and institutional arrangements more closely with performance or reforms to improve incentives. Higher-quality TVET following these principles could meet its promise of facilitating the school-to-work transition and improving youths’ life chances.

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