Raising awareness about the importance of anticipating labour market skills needs

September, 16th - 17th 2021

The Conference will be organized as a three-day virtual event. It will bring together high Africa-level, regional and national labour market actors and experts to discuss key challenges with regard to skills mismatch, the capacity of African Union Member states to effectively anticipate skill needs required to address current and potential labour market imbalances and inform education and training system.

The conference will seek to raise awareness and to identify key avenues for the enhancement of skills anticipation approaches and practices, and broader national labour market information systems. The Conference will be hosted within the framework of the Skills Initiative for Africa (SIFA), an intervention of the African Union Commission (AUC) and the African Union Development Agency (AUDA-NEPAD) which is supported by the German Government and the European Union The conference will specifically highlight drivers of change in the world of work and the implications for skills development and inclusive economic development.

The Continental Conference and the overall capacity building work under the skills anticipation component is therefore a stepping stone toward the much needed systems strengthening efforts aimed at improving evidence based skills policy and strategies development and implementation. With sufficient capacities and systems in place, African Member States can position structured skills anticipation and matching as one of it’s the tools for achieving it’s the aspiration for an “Africa whose development is people-driven, relying on the potential of its people”.

Such an ambition requires the provision of an improved evidence base and calls for production of more reliable data that can facilitate development of trends to determine the kind of skills needed for Africa’s current and future labour markets. In this regard, the Continental TVET Strategy emphasises the importance of addressing the mismatch and  the gaps in the skills supply and labour market demand for skills, by urging member states to establish effective and integrated labour information systems.

The conference will specifically highlight drivers of change in the world of work and the implications for skills development and inclusive economic development. Through this conference, the African Union Commission intends to position skills anticipation as one of the tools for the achievement of its aspiration for an “Africa whose development is people-driven, relying on the potential of its people”.

Feel free to register for the conference on the link below should you be interested to attend.

Register here

Download full invitation below:
English