Financing Vocational Training In Sub Saharan Africa

For developing countries, vocational training is a vital component of the drive to enhance productivity, stimulate economic competitiveness, and lift people out of poverty. However, training provision in many countries is underfinanced and fragmented, and traditional state-funded training programs are proving inadequate to the task. Financing Vocational Training in Sub-Saharan Africa emphasizes the central role that financing strategies should play in enhancing the effectiveness and efficiency of training systems as a whole, through incentives, greater competition, and the integration of private and public provision. This book describes the emerging consensus about best practice in the financing of training, drawing on experience in Latin America and Asia, and testing this consensus against findings from Sub-Saharan Africa. It sets out the case for financing interventions by governments and scrutinizes the role, and effectiveness, of national training agencies, payroll levies, and alternative transfer mechanisms for institutional funding. This discussion draws on lessons from the experience of Kenya, South Africa, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe. The book will be of particular interest to policymakers and practitioners of vocational training in developing countries, to development policy analysts, and to students and scholars of education and training systems worldwide.

The private provision trend in technical and vocational education (TVE) in sub-Saharan Africa occurred as the deterioration of state-run TVE systems in the region created a market niche for private providers. While advocates of deregulation believe the adoption of market principles in TVE will lead to greater efficiency and effectiveness, private providers have emerged in an uncoordinated and unmonitored fashion. A literature review and case studies of two countries Senegal and Mali led to some of the following key findings: (1) in some countries the majority of TVE students are enrolled in private institutions; (2) a large number of private TVE institutions operate illegally; (3) private provision concentrates on the service and commercial trades; and (4) the private sector may operate with lower costs and be more responsive to the labor market, but they do not provide much job-related training or include work-experience programs. Some of the policy issues are as follows: (1) simplifying procedures for establishing private TVE institutions facilitates their growth but is not sufficient to prevent the growth of an illegal sector; (2) the lack of regulation for private TVE institutions raises complex issues regarding the mechanisms required to ensure quality and protect consumers against abuses; and (3) for private TVE to succeed, students and the programs themselves must receive some public funding and develop relationships with industry. (Includes 84 references.) (MO).

Differences in historical, political, cultural, and economic contexts in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) account for wide variations in structures, operating conditions, and outcomes in technical and vocational education (TVE). This diversity is associated with glaring disparities, so in examining policy trends and the reconstruction of training systems particular attention is focused on innovations in an effort to identify promising initiatives likely to contribute to the establishment of consistent TVE systems, closely linked with the world of work and involving labor market stakeholders. Some common emerging trends in TVE include the following: (1) a shift in the policy focus from inputs to outputs; (2) the use of new financing and certification mechanisms; (3) the involvement of social partners in governance; greater autonomy for institutions; (4) the promotion of private providers and company-based training; and (5) an increasing interest in the informal sector and skills development for poverty reduction. Issues addressed include these: (1) an overview of TVE systems in 10 SSA countries; (2) reviewing various models currently in place; (3) documenting relationships between African TVE systems and policies and donor intervention and traditions in TVE; (4) identifying reasons why certain reforms are facing implementation difficulties; analyzing specific innovations; (5) drawing lessons on the implementation of the reform agenda and its impact on TVE systems; and (6) discussing possible directions for future donor support. (Includes 167 references.) (MO).

This publication reviews recent developments within technical and vocational education and training (TVET) in sub-Saharan Africa, as well as future challenges in skills development in the region. Based upon 70 case studies covering 20 countries, it provides a good starting point for the development of country policies and programmes, of relevance to other African regions as well as countries in other regions facing similar challenges. Issues discussed include: the labour market context, reform of public training programmes, regulation of non-government training institutions, enterprise-based training, building skills for the informal economy, balancing cost-effectiveness with growth and equity, and financing.

This book uses household surveys in five countries of Sub-Saharan Africa to describe employment off the farm in the region s growing informal sector and assesses how different forms of education and training, including apprenticeships, influence choices in employment and earnings.

Outlines the need for training for the "knowledge society" in sub-Saharan Africa and makes recommendations for the role the ILO can play in meeting these training needs.

The challenge facing future World Bank investment in vocational education and training is to bring past successes in middle-income countries to the lower income countries. Strategies naturally will have to vary greatly from country to country.

In Sub-Sahara Africa, the sector of informal micro-enterprises (IMEs) is already employing a large share of the labour force in both urban and rural areas. This study reviews the ways in which the owners and workers of IMEs have acquired their vocational and management skills. It reviews the contributions of all the different training providers, including public sector training institutes, private sector training providers, and training centres run by NGOs and other non-profit organizations. The study finds that informal apprenticeship training is by far the most common source of various skills - in some countries it is likely to be responsible for 80-90% of all ongoing training efforts. Informal apprenticeship training presents a number of important advantages. At the same time it has a number of limitations. The study concludes that there is a major challenge to improve the transfer of relevant skills to IME operators, both through pre-employment training and skills upgrading. In view of the scope of the challenge to provide hundreds of thousands IME owners and workers, as well as large numbers of out of school youths with relevant practical and management skills, it suggests to build upon the strengths of the existing practices of informal apprenticeship training and to remedy its weaknesses by involving professional training providers in upgrading its training organization and delivery, quality and efficiency, and final training outcomes. It reviews the results of a number of innovative interventions in different African countries that are working in this direction. Finally, the study suggests that there is an interesting potential in ‘business-embedded training’ provided by private companies as part of their regular business operations.