Africa is the world’s youngest continent. An estimated 60% of Africa’s population is under the age of 25. By 2050, the continent will be home to 452 million people under 25. The number of young and ambitious people set to enter national labour markets across Africa is growing. In light of this trend, employment will continue to rise on the continent’s political agenda.

The ATVET model harnesses the potential of Africa’s youthful demographic by promoting employability through skills development in agriculture. However, this potential can only be realised through strong private sector involvement. Skills development in agriculture has to ensure that existing skills needs are matched. To make sure this is the case, the CAADP ATVET project involves the private sector at various stages throughout the project implementation:

Project Steering Committees & Technical Working Groups:

• These bodies are established to steer the project and to lead implementation at country level. The private sector is represented in these bodies to ensure that they have ownership from the onset and they are part of decision-making.

Value Chain Selection:

• The CAADP ATVET project applies a strategic and targeted approach to skills development. Before curricula and other training measures are developed, value chains with a high potential for job creation are identified.

Value Chain Training Needs Analyses:

• Once value chains have been selected, training needs analyses are carries out. This helps to identify the specific occupations along the value chains that are demanded by the labour market. Specific skills needs are acknowledged that subsequently inform the development of training tools and curricula.

Occupational Standards & Curricula Development:

• The private sector elaborates on occupational standards to ensure that curricula respond to their requirements. This ensures that successful ATVET graduates are equipped with the practical skills needed to fulfill a given occupation.

Training Delivery and Apprenticeships:

• Formal agreements, including public-private partnerships (PPPs) are drafted to stipulate the private sector’s role in practical (on-the-job) training and apprenticeships.
• Continuous Evaluation of Private Sector Inclusion in ATVET:

Elements such as skills match to labour market needs, relevance of practical training and rate of graduate employability are regularly evaluated to ensure the curricula always responds to the needs of the private sector.