As the African Skills Portal for Youth Employment and Entrepreneurship (ASPYEE) continues to gather good practices across the continent that address the growing problem of youth unemployment and underemployment, the role of partnerships in demand responsive or driven vocational education is emerging as a key strategy. This is all the more urgent in light of the growing challenge facing many young Africans, whereby, despite training, they are unable to find employment because their skills are not relevant for the market.

Documenting these good practices on ASPYEE is one of the ways in which the African Union (AU) and African Union Development Agency (AUDA-NEPAD) facilitate peer learning, knowledge exchange, and capacity-building. Sharing these lessons widely and creating a space to engage with them is another. And so, in addition to ASYPEE, which is implemented through the Skills Initiative for Africa (SIFA), AU and AUDA-NEPAD are running a series of webinars aimed at sharing knowledge and reflecting on continental good practice.

To kick off the series, the first webinar, held on 31 May 2022, looked at the experiences of different countries to synthesise lessons and present opportunities for the improvement of partnerships for demand-driven skills development. The webinar also provided an opportunity to launch the exciting new tool, A Handbook for TVET Mangers for Building Demand-Based Partnerships, which was developed through a bottom-up approach to knowledge creation by drawing on lessons from the field.

Opening the webinar, Unami Mpofu, Skills and Employment For Youth team lead at AUDA-NEPAD, emphasised that these webinars not only fulfil the organisation’s mandate of providing technical advisory services to its member states through the sharing of knowledge products, but also contribute to the ongoing improvement of the skills development ecosystem by tapping into the participants’ expert knowledge. Indeed, with over 100 participants coming from all over Africa, including Côte d'Ivoire, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Tunisia, and Uganda, to mention a few, there was a mine of expert knowledge to tap into.

A panel of representatives were then invited to get discussions underway by sharing four good practices from the ASPYEE repository to illustrate the role of effective and sustainable partnerships for improving demand-driven skills development. Just why this is so important – particularly for youth employment – was summed up to a tee by first panellist, director of planning, monitoring, evaluation, and communication at the Selam TVET College in Ethiopia, Ashenafi Shiberu. “While there are a large number of youth graduating from vocational training institutions each year, many do not get employed immediately. And yet, employers complain that it is difficult to find labour (or enough labour) with the requisite skills,” he pointed out, highlighting the massive gap between job seekers and potential employers. Using the example of Selam College’s new intervention, the Job and Business Service (JBS), he showed how connecting major stakeholders can address this lack of labour market linkage and intermediation to maximise the employability of youth.

Partnerships are equally important at the training stage, as demonstrated by Dennis Muchiri, training operations manager at the CAP-Youth Empowerment Institute (CAP-YEI) Kenya, who took participants through the institute’s demand-led approach, which spans three aspects: pre-, during, and post-training, with a wide range of partners, including government agencies and the private sector.  However, Muchiri cautioned, partnerships are not without challenges, such as uncooperative government agencies, high compensation demands or unavailability from the private sector, and bureaucracy. Some of the solutions CAP-YEI has put in place to overcome these challenges include signing Memoranda of Understanding to formalise partnerships, which eliminates conflicts and guides the engagement process, and ensuring win-win situations whereby all parties involved feel they are getting something out of the partnership.

But what happens when the labour market is not creating any – let alone youth – employment opportunities? How can TVETs provide the right kind of skills for jobs that don’t exist? Programme manager at the National Business Initiative (NBI)’s Installation, Repair and Maintenance Programme (IRM) in South Africa, Anthony Gewer, explained that in this context, “You have to work on the demand side to create conditions that will enable growth in employment opportunities and ensure that the workplace is effectively prepared to absorb young people.” IRM does this by building an entrepreneurial ecosystem in which partnerships are facilitated between TVET colleges and local enterprises through, for example, township hubs, which act as an important intermediary, bringing together the informal and formal sectors and linking opportunities.

The dynamics of steering multi-stakeholder partnerships to ensure that youth are trained for employment opportunities was further explored by the final panellist, Awa Ndiaye Sagna, director of the Centre for Port and Logistics Training (CFMPL) in Senegal. Importantly, as she highlighted, this goes beyond just providing training to address the mismatch of skills supply and demand – these partnerships have the power to really contribute towards the quality and relevance of the training curriculum. 

Underscoring the critical need for forums such as these webinars, active and engaging discussion on the chat throughout the event as well as a lively Q&A session which followed the panel was a clear sign that a wide range of stakeholders within the skills development ecosystem desire platforms through which they can connect with and learn from each other. But as Zipho Tshapela, technical advisor at SIFA, emphasised, “the conversation should continue beyond today.” The ASPYEE Forum – as an online collegial space that allows for knowledge-sharing of nationally tried-and-tested approaches and discussions around challenges and solutions throughout the continent – provides the perfect opportunity to take these conversations forward. Along with the Forum, ASPYEE hosts a treasure trove of invaluable resources in its Knowledge Repository – one of which is the Handbook for TVET managers. Wrapping up the webinar, senior associate from the Global Development Incubator (GDI), Gichobi Stanley Mwangi, took the podium to launch the handbook, which serves as a useful tool for practitioners on the ground in terms of how they build and sustain partnerships for demand-driven skills development. “To fully tap into the benefits of partnership, TVETs cannot continue to rely on organic, ad hoc engagements, which are rarely strategic,” he explained, as he took participants through the handbook and demonstrated how it can be adapted to shift TVETs to a more strategic positioning that is in tune with national contexts and local realities.

Closing the event, Nicholas Ouma, senior youth advisor at the African Union Commission (AUC) Department of Education, Science, Technology and Innovations, reiterated that the value of good practice is to draw from knowledge and experience of other practitioners. Reflecting on some of the discussions during the event, he shared his belief that through engagements such as these, we will be able to enhance our intermediation opportunities wherever we interface. “Most importantly, how do we incentivise, inspire, motivate, and mobilise the private sector for its active engagement in skills training and employment?” he asked, pointing out that these are questions we can continue reflecting on through the ASPYEE portal. “We are hopeful that the glow from the spotlight we shine on promising practices will radiate far and wide and encourage significant positive change towards demand-driven skills development and employment and entrepreneurship opportunities, as well as develop a learning culture,” he concluded.

Carrying the torch for continuous collaboration, sharing, and engagement, the next webinar in the series will take place in July in partnership with the Global Apprenticeship Network (GAN), and look at “Driving gender transformative approaches for Africa: Strategies to empower women and girls in the world of work through TVET”. Visit aspyee.org for more details.