Regional workshop on youth employability and transitions into labour markets

Tripartite constituents and development partners dialogue on how best to respond to youth employability and skills demand in Sub–Saharan Africa.

Press release | 17 May 2016
Dar es Salaam (ILO NEWS) The ILO Youth Employment Programme - Skills and Employability Branch is organizing a three-day regional workshop on the theme “Enhancing Youth Employability and Easing Labour Market Transitions” from 17-19 May 2016 in Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania.

The objective of the workshop is to engage stakeholders in an interactive forum for exchange and peer learning with guidance from technical experts on effective, replicable and scalable supply side initiatives that address employability, skills demand, anticipation of skills needs and the bridges between supply and demand.

The workshop - to be officiated by Ms Mary Kawar, Director ILO Country Office, Dar es Salaam - will bring together about 30 stakeholders representing governments, employers’ and workers’ organizations and UN organisations from the following nine countries - Côte d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Sudan, Tanzania and Zambia.

Among key areas to be addressed include:
  • Youth Employment in Sub-Saharan Africa
  • Approaches and Methodologies for Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) and
  • Role of skills anticipation and matching mainly in institutional frameworks.

Background Information

A recent data analysis from the School-to-work transition surveys (SWTS) conducted under the umbrella of the ILO’s Work4Youth (W4Y) project and implemented in ten sub-Saharan Africa countries concluded that while Africa’s youth population is better educated than ever, still the continent struggles to put the growing cohort of educated labour market entrants into productive employment.

Additionally, it is noted that skills match labour demand remains a major factor in shaping economic and labour market outcomes in the transforming economies of sub-Saharan Africa.

In today’s world, where there are no guarantees of lifetime employment, young people must be equipped with the skills such as critical thinking and teamwork that are equally as important as technical skills gained in the education and training systems in order to manoeuvre through different jobs over the life-cycle. Further, the “work experience gap” continues to act as a barrier to getting work for many young people, as does the difficulty in attaining recognized accreditation of prior learning.

As a follow-up, the ILO continues to offer support to governments and social partners in designing and implementing integrated employment policy responses. It also enhances capacity of national and local level institutions to undertake evidence-based analysis that feeds dialogue and policy making processes in order to assist member states in building a knowledge base on youth employment.