Skill Development for a 21st Century Africa

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www.centumlearning.com

www.centumlearning.com

Skill Development for a 21st Century Africa

African Development Conference at Harvard

Sanjeev DuggalCentum Learning

Why do Developing Economies need Skill Development?

As per a report by McKinsey Global Institute, by 2020 the global economy could face -

• Shortage of 38-40 mn high-skilled workers i.e with tertiaryeducation in Advanced economies ;

• Shortage of 45 mn medium-skilled workers (i.e withsecondary education & vocational training) in Developingeconomies;

• Oversupply of 90-95 mn low-skill workers than employerswill need …… Younger developing economies can have 58mn surplus unskilled/low-skilled workers

Developing economies will have too few medium-skilled workers for growth of labour-intensive

sectors and too many workers who lack the vocational training to escape low-productivity, low-income work

Skill Development Impacts -

Employers cite shortage of Skilled employees as a constraint, but are unwilling to pay a premium for one

Skill Development space is still evolving with different agencies handling same agenda, absence of standards, lack of training capacity etc

For Governments, there are huge gaps between good intent & policy announcements on one end and on- ground implementation on the other

A large % of target segment cannot afford to pay for Skilling.

For Implementing agencies, paradox exists between evangelizing the process of skilling and achieving operational efficiency

Skill Development - Challenges

Low intrinsic ‘aspiration quotient’ leading to low demand for Vocational Skilling programmes

Skill Development - Africa

Sources: Africa at work: Job creation & inclusive growth – A report by McKinsey Global Institute – August 2012

Why is Skill Development critical for Africa?

With almost 200 mn people aged between 15 and 24, Africa has the youngest population in the world

17 mn African youth enter the job market every year. Africa’s labour force will be largest in the world by 2035

Only 51% of 15-24 year olds participate in wage-earning jobs. Underemployment, Vulnerable Employment and Working Poverty are widespread

The lack of a growing skilled-labour force in turn reduces national competitiveness

and opportunities to attract investment

As the history of conflicts in Africa amply demonstrates, unemployed youth are more likely to be recruited into armed movements, criminal gangs & illicit activities

Youth Unemployment & its cascading effects is a major concern for most African Governments

Legacy Issues - Education systems inherited at independence have for a long time marginalized technical and vocational education

Formal TVET delivery systems are largely school-based and driven by a rigid ‘supply-side’ curriculum. Focus on expectations of employers is missing

Skills mismatch - Curriculum comprising mainly of theory lessons, examinations etc, rather than the acquisition of the practical skills required for work.

The informal skills training sectors are poorly equipped, only marginally linked to the formal sector and lack channels for upward mobility and professional development

Majority of workers in micro and small enterprises learn their trade ‘On the Job’ in the informal sector rather than in the formal TVET sector.

Many African governments are dependent on external sources of funding for skill development programmes, while the Enterprise Training market is still evolving

Skill Development in Africa – Challenges

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Need Of The Hour -Government + Enterprise Confluence

Mission Driven Approach Corporate Value Driven Approach

Alignment with Enterprises’ Growth Strategy

Government’s Skill Development goal should be connecting with ‘Creating shared value’ aspirations of Corporate/ private sector not

just CSR

Strategic Levers

Focus on Sectors where most jobs will be created –Agriculture, Retail, Manufacturing, Construction.

Africa’s

Agricultural revenues could

reach $1 trillion $ by 2030, creating 8

million new jobs

Multi-partnership mechanism to assure

training quality

Capacity building of

trainers.

Usage of National Infrastructure

Robust skills evaluation mechanism

A blended learning approach using

Instructor-led training with methodologies that make training more effective.

Content should be

relevant &

interactive-learning based, incorporating

popular culture

Essential for scaling-up with Mobilepenetration more than 80%.

Hybrid Model is the answer today.

Telecom provides the disruptive opportunity to reach out millions of young people destroying the digital divide.

• Listening & Understanding

• Negotiating responsibly

• Empathizing• Establishing &

Using Networks• Being Assertive• Persuading

effectively

User Centric Training

Approach

Ecosystem Capability Building

Imparting Employability

Skills

Sectoral Focus

Key Focus Areas

Leverage Technology

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Roadmap Ahead

Diversified Economies

• Africa’s Growth engines –Egypt, Morocco, South Africa etc

• Significant Manufacturing & Service industries

• Have higher unit labour costs (i.e. low labour productivity) & must move towards competing in higher-value industries

• Have to create Skilled manpower for advanced industries

Oil Exporters

• Algeria, Angola, Nigeria etc

• Highest GDP per capita but least diversified economies –Manufacturing & Services are relatively small (1/3rd

of GDP)

• Need to finance the broader development of their economies including Skill development for Manufacturing & Service industries

Transition Economies

• Ghana , Kenya, Senegal etc

• Lower GDP per capita than 1st 2 groups but growing rapidly

• Export manufactured goods like processed foods, chemicals, apparel, to other African countries. Need to improve their labourproductivity to compete globally

• Lot of unmet demand fuelling growth of Sectors such as Telecom, Banking, formal Retail, that need Skilling solutions

Pre-Transition Economies

• Low GDP per capita but some of them are growing very rapidly –DRC, Ethiopia & Mali

• Lack of strong, stable public institutions, good macroeconomic indicators and sustainable agricultural development

• Vocational skilling can be a key enabler in reducing unemployment & poverty in these regions

India is poised to become the world’s youngest country by 2020,

with 64% of population to be in the 15-59 years age

bracket by 2026

Around 12 million people are expected to join the workforce

every year, over the next decade

In contrast, it has training capacity of around 4.3 mn

Around 93% of the Indian workforce is employed in the

unorganized sector, which lacks any kind of formal skill

development system

The % of formally skilled workforce in India is 2%

A large labour force and an industry grappling with a dearth of suitable manpower is a paradox that defines India’s demographic profile

1. Reaping India’s promised demographic dividend – Report by E&Y , July 2013

India’s Story

India’s Skills Architecture – How Has It Evolved Over Years

Realizing the huge opportunity that India’s demography offers, Govt of India has rolled-out an ambitious plan ofskilling 500 mn youth by 2022, to meet the nation’s skilling requirements and usher it into an era of high growth

ITIs

• Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) were the mainstay for vocational training for 5 decades

• There are more than 10,000 ITIs with 15 lakh capacity

Apprenticeship Act, 1961

• To ensure that trainees get optimum access to On-the-job training.

• Amendment in place now, to increase number of trainees & employer’s participation

National Skills Policy

• Formulated in 2009, this was the 1st step towards Skill Development involving all stakeholders

National Skills Qualification Framework

• To standardize academic delivery

• Developing the framework at each level with involvement of industry

India now has a separate Ministry for Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, that is conceived to integrate

the efforts & streamline the functioning of different stakeholders working for Skill Development and set common standards

Current Skills Stakeholder Ecosystem

National Skills Qualification Framework

Ministry of SkillDevelopment

& Entrepreneurship

NSDC, NSDA, Sector Skill

Councils

Schools, Colleges, Private

Training Providers, ITIs

Marginalized societies,

Unemployed youth

20 GovtMinistriesViz Rural

Development, Labour,

Education etc

Low Income Group, Schools & College Students

Financial Institutions,

Apprenticeship Act

Captive Training by Employers,

Assessment Agencies

Key Bodies Enablers Implementing Bodies

Beneficiaries

Major Role-Holders

• Align with Government’s vision & implement training programmes

• Connect with industry for Demand analysis , Curriculum development, Placements

• Implement the entire value chain from candidate mobilization to placement & settlement

Skilling Partners like Centum Learning

• Plan & scale-up to skill a large populace and bring them into the workforce

• Provide finance for skilling of underprivileged candidates

Government

• Drive demand of skilled employees• Provide inputs for course curriculum & assessment

standards, aligned to the industry• On-The-Job training

IndustryGovernment

Industry

Skilling Partners

Mismatch between youth aspirations & jobs available –This hampers the entire value chain from mobilization to placements

Candidate Mobilization is an arduous task, considering that ‘Youth@Risk’ segment is being targeted where there is little motivation to get skilled

Candidate Retention during training is a challenge due to socio-economic constraints as well as low motivation to complete the course.

Content has to be relevant & interesting for the target profile & should be customized in terms of language, methodology etc

Low willingness to migrate from rural areas to cities where most jobs are. Attrition after joining is high.

Lack of Training Infrastructureespecially for technical courses. Optimal usage of existing national infrastructure is still not happening.


As employers are not ready to pay a premium for Skills, candidates have low motivation to get skilled.

Strong preference for a ‘White-collared’ job results in Vocational education being treated as poorer cousin of Formal education.

Standards for Assessment & Certification are still being put in place.

Methodology of assessing & certifying skills attained on the job (i.e. Recognition of Prior Learning) still being formalized. This is specially important for Unorganised sector

Scalability – With the market still disaggregated with 20 different ministries handling 73 schemes with disparate guidelines, scaling up is an issue

In the Skills ecosystem, industry participation is still limited, which leads to gap in employers’ expectations & and results achieved in a vocational skilling course


NSDC has 187 Private Training Partners & has skilled 3.7 mn youth since its inception

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Sectors such as BPO, Retail, Sales, Beauty, Hospitality, Security have benefitted especially for their Frontline, Customer-facing roles-holders

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31 Sector Skills Councils in place, that play a vital role in bridging the gap between industry requirements and skilling curriculum

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NOS (National Occupation Standards) have been developed for job-roles across sectors for curriculum standardization & focus on outcomes

4 Already 900 Government schools across 10 states have enrolled for programmes under National Skills Qualification framework.

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Skill Development Framework in place with defined roles & responsibilities for all stakeholders

Skill Development - Achievements

Thank you

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