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Session Submission Summary

Tackling the skills gap: exploring Whole Youth Development as strategic contribution to sustainable youth futures in Kenya

Thu, April 18, 1:30 to 3:00pm, Hyatt Regency, Floor: Street (Level 0), Regency A

Group Submission Type: Formal Panel Session

Proposal

Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) has been part of global education since the beginning. Indeed, education was first practical, then theoretical. In Sub-Sahara Africa, it has been established that despite the many institutions offering TVET, Africa is not producing the sufficient skills for the labor market today and into the future (Maree, 2018). Two dimensions have been identified in this under-supply. First is the inadequacy of skilled graduates (quantitative), and second is the fact that most of the TVET graduates lack the skills demanded by today’s labor market (qualitative).

In Kenya, around one million youth enter the labor market annually, including 200,000 who never attended primary school, 300,000 who dropped out of primary school, 250,000 who completed primary education but never transited to secondary school, 180,000 secondary school drop outs, 250,000 who finished secondary school and never joined any tertiary institution, 45,000 who dropped out of tertiary institutions and 155,000 who completed tertiary education and training (Kaane, 2014). The levels of unskilled youth seeking work in Kenya (estimated at 89%) has attained worrying levels, presenting a big drawback to Kenya’s dream of becoming a middle-income economy by 2030.

To address the deficit, the government of Kenya has targeted to raise the enrolment to TVET institutions from the current 275,000 to more than one million in 2019. However, the evidence available clarifies that these efforts must be accompanied by interventions to also make the training more relevant to today’s industry, and ensure that the quality provided enables supply of the demanded skills. There is evidence to indicate that when technical skills are combined with life skills, soft skills and other transferrable competences, youth have increased chances to succeed at work and in life (Lippman et al 2015; Kiruga, Wandago & Miano 2018). In essence, TVET requires to adopt whole youth development, producing all-rounded graduates to sustain their future at work and through life.

To contribute to the holistic training of youth in Kenya, youth research partnerships were established in 2017, bringing together various institutions to pursue the agenda of the skills that youth require in order to create, access and retain jobs, lead fulfilled lives and contribute to the common good of society. The first study covers youth not in employment, education or training (NEET), conducted by Dalberg International. This study interrogates youth adversity, and how various adversities are produced in youth, and how they affect access to training opportunities, and ultimately the work and life outcomes of young persons. A second study seeks to unearth the mechanics of skills production in Kenya’s TVET institutions. The study assessed the policies, curricula, as well as institutional capacities and cultures and the extent to which these are aligned to the holistic training of youth. This study is being conducted by the African Population and Health Research Centre (APHRC).

A third study targets youth who are working, both skilled and unskilled and in both formal and informal employment. The study seeks to establish the skills and capabilities that youth bring to the labor market, while highlighting the difference between the expectations of work and life spaces on the one hand, and what the education and training institutions are producing, on the other. This study is being conducted by Aga Khan University. The three studies are based on nationally-representative samples of enumeration areas, TVET institutions and employers. These studies are utilizing mostly questionnaires to collect data on contexts and perceptions. Additionally, the studies are utilizing a simple tool to measure the actual skills possessed by youth at home, youth in TVET institutions and working youth. This assessment tool has prioritized few competences, including functional literacy and numeracy, financial and digital literacy, values and other selected life skills.

The fourth study is a deep-dive into one little rural location, to understand how youth are experiencing adversity, and how community assets could provide useful tools for disrupting the adversity chains to build community and youth resilience. This study is being conducted by a team from the Earth Institute at Columbia University. This study is combining a community asset mapping exercise through conversations in 14 rural villages, and a survey of youth adversity and resilience building.

This panel proposes to provide results from two large-scale studies of youth skills development (by Dalberg and APHRC), and the in-depth study on youth resilience building (by Columbia). The combined results of these three studies offer extremely insightful inputs as to how technical and vocational training contributes to sustainability in Africa. Questions to be addressed in this panel include the skills that deserve priority in securing a promising future for youth, the cost of skills development and how investment changes may ameliorate youth adversity and accelerate skills building, and how skills development could be re-organized to provide holistic training for sustainable skills supply for Kenya’s economic and social development.

The 90-minute panel will have five sub-sessions. The panel chair (John Mugo) will provide a context for the participants to understand these studies, including a short input into how the conceptualization of whole-youth development is evolving in Kenya, and lastly introduce the 3 panelists (10 minutes). Results from the three studies will then be presented, each lasting around 15-18 minutes (total 50 minutes). The chair will then moderate a session on questions and contributions from the participants, lasting around 30 minutes.

Sub Unit

Chair

Individual Presentations