THE AFRICAN UNION’S AFRICA SKILLS WEEK EVENT-ACCRA, GHANA, 14-18 OCTOBER 2024
The overall view from the GLOBAL QUALITY ASSURANCE ASSOCIATION (GQAA) is that The AFRICA SKILLS WEEK event slated for the 14th-18th October 2024, in Accra, Ghana, was one of the most interactive, informative, diversified and productive events of 2024. It was practical-oriented with real life experiences & possible solutions which delegates could borrow for implementation once they went back to their workstations.
When we went to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia for the 2nd African Union Commission (AUC) event on the Inter-Regional Dialogue on Education and Development for Latin America, The Carribean and Africa, the AFRICA SKILLS WEEK event planning was at it’s infancy. Thank you African Union Commission for the event, Ghana for hosting the event & all other partners which included UNESCO IESALC, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, International Labour Organization, @Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC), Ghana TVET Service, Commission for TVET Ghana, EU Careers by EPSO, Bridging Innovation & Learning in TVET (BILT), The World Bank & AUDA NEPAD, among others.
The event went on as planned with many KEY TAKE HOMES:
i) Our national governments’ political will was called for
ii) The need for governments to have the right priorities (TVET) and fund them for economic progress, transformation & success
iii) The maiden event to be adopted as an annual event
iv) Strengthened partnerships of government, industry, education sector & communities
v) The youth were highly encouraged to explore the Agriculture value chain & actively participate in it
vi) Harmonization of credit systems, standards & the alignment of qualifications frameworks to make staff & student mobility easier
vii) Intensifying the Intra-Africa mobility programmes, staff & students exchange programmes, joint programmes, etc
viii) Intensify work-based learning
ix) Transform TVET & use the latest pieces of equipment, knowledge & skills to produce graduates who are fit for purpose
x) To actively Involve the youths & other marginalized groups in the discussions which yield decisions that affect them
xi) The development of different operational and implementation frameworks at continental level for adoption by institutions
xii) Life-long learning, among other things.
However, at some points, I noted with concern, the frequent mentioning of employability skills without mentioning entrepreneurship and business generation skills at the same time. How can we continue to emphasize employability skills when we know that the available jobs are not even enough for the graduates while for some there is more than 1000% saturation? Are we now going to contradict ourselves by cultivating and engraving the spirit of JOB SEEKING which we are trying to kill and not EMPLOYMENT CREATION which we should try very hard to propagate?
We need to think of entrepreneurship and business generation skills. If we are not careful, we are eroding the gains of MINDSET CHANGE where the main focus is to have more employment creators than job seekers because the jobs are not simply there. We need more capable graduates to augment Africa’s national governments’ efforts because they cannot create enough jobs for everyone alone. Our focus too should also be more on INTRA-AFRICA MOBILITY in order for us to benefit from the human capital which governments invest so much in training in the African continent. Our losses are too many to count. INTER-CONTINENTAL MOBILITY can be a game changer in knowledge & technology transfer.
