Vocational education and training - VET

This leaflet provides an overview of the BEAR III project’s activities from 2023 to 2027 in four West African beneficiary countries: Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone, emphasizing its expected impacts. The document outlines targeted sectors in each country, focusing on enhancing the quality and relevance of TVET programmes to better appeal to youth, businesses, and society. At the core of the project is the adoption of a sector skills development approach, with efforts concentrated on key economic sectors identified in collaboration with national governments and TVET stakeholders to align with strategic agendas.

Many Sub-saharan African countries are facing huge challenges in creating relevant education and employment opportunities for their young and fast growing population. Demand for jobs outpace growth in job opportunities. While many of the jobs available are in technical and fields, Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) is generally not leveraged effectively for a range of reasons - including lack of legislative and political support from the state, outdated curricula, insufficient public-private partnerships and undesirable perception of TVET among the public. However, even in the face of these challenges, there are a number of successful initiatives operating in TVET.

Recommendations to improve the state of TVET in this part of the world could be to recognize and support formal as well as informal TVET paths in order to improve its image. Also, the private sector could play a huge role by becoming more engaged in TVET through offering more internships, apprenticeships etc.

Last but not least, it seems important to cultivate an entrepreneurial mindset in the African youth, to move from job search to job creation.

This report provides an overview on the state of TVET in West Africa (focusing on Senegal, Nigeria, Ghana and Ivory Coast) and highlights examples of successful models and good practices from the ground.