Empowering Africa's youth: the need for more vocational training and on-the-job learning

Africa’s rapidly growing youth population presents strong potential, but many young people continue to face many obstacles, especially in accessing inclusive, high-quality educational, vocational training, and real-world learning opportunities.

Though educational systems have made strides over the last few years, there are still significant gaps to be addressed. Many young people, especially young women, either never enroll or drop out of school early, limiting the possibilities for future opportunities. This reality is only exacerbated by weak infrastructure, shortages of teachers, and a lack of learning materials, which are all crucial to the functionality of education.

Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) remains underutilized across the African continent. Despite being a crucial catalyst to decent jobs, formal vocational enrollment is low at both lower and upper secondary schools, even declining in some regions over time. Beyond secondary school, only a small percentage of youth complete TVET programmes.

This gap contributes to the ongoing issue of NEET (youth not in employment, education, or training). A large share of Africa’s youth remains disengaged from formal systems, posing a long-term risk to their livelihoods and broader economic development.

Work-Based Learning (WBL), including apprenticeships, internships, and other job experiences, can play an important role in equipping youth with practical, market-relevant skills. Still, access to these opportunities is limited, often informal or unpaid, and youth participation is especially low for young women.

To build a resilient workforce, the ILO recommends that African governments and development partners focus on expanding and bolstering both TVET and WBL. This includes:

• Investing in modernized educational systems aligned with labor market needs
• Bridging gender gaps to ensure equal opportunities for all
• Strengthening data collection and monitoring to inform evidence-based policy and design more effective interactions

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