Youth Employment in Sub-Saharan Africa Toolkit

Technical and vocational education and training (TVET) focuses on providing individuals with practical skills and knowledge for specific occupations or trades. In addition to technical skills, TVET includes personal skills needed for the workplace.

✅Impact

There is a medium positive effect on skills, as well a smaller effect on employment and earnings. There is also a positive effect on material wellbeing. There are effects on business outcomes and psychosocial outcomes, but these are not significant.

📈How is TVET meant to work

TVET allows young people to acquire task-specific and personal skills which increase their employability, make connections with employers, and receive certificates demonstrating their competencies.

🖋Design choices

• Support to TVET may be either systems development (e.g. curricula development and accreditation, building or upgrading facilities and training of trainers), or direct support to the provision of training though stipends, and payment to trainers.
• Engagement with the private sector helps ensure relevance.
• Other design choices include the duration and intensity of the programme, and what other activities to combine with technical training.

❗Implementation and design issues

Implementation issues include:

• beneficiaries are unaware of the training opportunities available to them,
• training occurs at an unsuitable time or place for the target participants,
• trainers or trainees may not have the necessary skills or equipment for the task,
• budget constraints in the implementation process influencing the duration of the programme,
• failure to engage the private sector risks making the programme ineffective.

🦾Strength of evidence

The evidence of effect in this technical report is based on 21 impact evaluations. Evidence on implementation is supplemented with evidence from 8 process evaluations. Overall there is low confidence in findings in this technical report.

🔎Implications for research

There is a need for additional rigorous impact evaluations testing different design choices for interventions supporting technical and vocational and education training.

📜Evidence based findings for policy and practice

Strengthening systems will help address design challenges such as instructor qualifications, curriculum relevance, and facility adequacy.

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