TVET and STEM training 'key'
Africa Skills Week
Investing in STEM skills alongside technical and vocational education and training (TVET) is key to ensuring that Africa leapfrogs inequality to equip the global workforce of the future, the inaugural Africa Skills Week (ASW) heard in Accra, Ghana, on Wednesday.Speaking at the ASW, Ghanaian education minister Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum underscored the importance of African countries responding to the rapid changes in the labour market that the Fourth Industrial Revolution is bringing. This is particularly important, he noted, since in decades to come the bulk of the world’s workers will come from Africa, the only continent whose youth population is growing.
Referencing a World Economic Forum report predicting that 23% of global jobs will be disrupted by 2027, with 69 million new roles anticipated to be created and 83 million jobs displaced, Adutwum said it’s imperative to ensure that this net loss of jobs does not come from Africa.
“It’s not too late – we need to do something about the situation ... In Ghana, we have begun the process of revamping [education and training], and the intersection between TVET and STEM [science, technology, engineering and mathematics] is what is driving the transformation of this sector in Ghana.”
Prof. Mohammed Belhocine, the African Union’s Commissioner for Education, Science, Technology and Innovation, echoed the need for African countries to invest in STEM teaching, digital and entrepreneurial skills, and modern infrastructure to realise the transformative potential of educational and vocational skills training.
“We cannot make our generations fit for the 21st century with infrastructure from the 19th century,” he observed.
Funding gap
However, there is a critical funding gap that needs to be filled by the private sector and development partners. UNESCO estimates that African countries need an additional U$77 billion a year to reach their Sustainable Development Goal 4 (education) targets by 2030.
“We need to join hands to advocate for additional financing to ensure our education system is uplifted to the level we want to reach in the next few years,” Belhocine said.
“Of the 550 million children of school-going age in Africa, 100 million are not attending any educational facility. These youths with so much energy and potential are going to be the workforce for our continent and the world, so investing in the youth of Africa is investing in the workforce of tomorrow globally – not only for Africa,” he said.
Panellists from various AU Member States shared transformative skills development policies that their governments are spearheading. These best practices include creating TVET centres of excellence, offering free tuition at technical schools, converting polytechnics into technical universities, attracting skilled professionals (and not just academics) to teach technical subjects, and conducting labour market surveys to gauge private sector needs. Importantly, they agreed, that the stigma attached to TVET education needs to be banished.
The ASW is taking place until Friday, themed “Skills and jobs for the 21st century: quality skills development for sustainable employability in Africa”.