Private Sector Partnership in TVET System Strategy Implementation and Evaluation in Sub-Saharan Africa
VTE English Edition - VTE English Edition NO.1, 2014


By Emmanuel C. Osinem, Jacob A. Okadi

One key challenge of TVET systems in Africa is to improve the capacity of the private sector to actively participate in the implementation of an overall TVET system strategy for human capital development. TVET should be seen as instrument to develop knowledge-based economy spearheaded by the transition to more open market-oriented economies and the correlated need to integrate and successfully compete in the world market. In most African countries, the private sector accounts for about 90% of the TVET training programmes which largely follows the traditional apprenticeship system. The risk of partial transfer of knowledge, variation in the quality of the training provided, perpetuation of existing low-productivity technology and a tendency for a slow innovation necessitate the need for the review of such systems. In this paper, the need for TVET partnership with the labor market/private sector in designing appropriate training programmes for the TVET system implementation strategy is highlighted. The role of major stakeholders in the successful implementation of the TVET system strategy; as well as the criteria for an effective evaluation strategy for TVET which will ensure that programmes and skills development are relevant to labor market requirements are discussed. The paper concludes by stressing the need to track the employment destination of trainee graduates so that their experience-based input could be factored into the review of curricula and training packages.(Annex