GIZ Partners with ATUPA to Develop Digital Content on Youth Employability Skills Training for Africa under SIFA

The Association of Technical Universities and Polytechnics in Africa (ATUPA) has partnered with the Deutshe Gesellschaftf ür International e Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) to develop the Youth Employability Skills Training for Africa TVET. This course will be available on the AUDA-NEPAD’s African Skills Portal for Youth Employment and Entrepreneurship (ASPYEE) and the ATINGI portal. This project was initiated to respond to concerns raised by employers in forums such as Africa Talks Jobs (ATJ) that graduates of education and training institutions today are not work-ready. Employers asserted that they had to spend time and resources retraining job entrants before they could deploy them gainfully. Between the end of 2019 and the beginning of 2020 , CAPA , in collaboration with GIZ, under the Skills Initiative for Africa (SIFA), conducted a baseline survey on Employability Skills Training in technical universities, polytechnics, and technical colleges in her membership. The survey was to identify needs and gaps as well as potentials for digital tools in this field. Among other things, the survey demonstrated a n eagerness to embrace digital tools for Employability Skills Training. It indicates that trainers would highly benefit from additional digital tools and materials across all employability skills.

All respondents expressed interest in sharing content on employability skills for digitisation. To support manpower mobility in the continent, it was noted, there is a need to develop a standard curriculum to prepare the college graduates with work-ready skills. SIFA is an initiative of the African Union Commission (AUC), supported by the German Government, to strengthen the occupational prospects of young people in Africa. SIFA finances skills development projects in several African countries. As a basic criterion, the projects in question should contribute to employment-oriented skills development for young people. This project has delivered a curriculum that can be adapted to the language and other local conditions by any technical and vocational education and training (TVET) institution in Africa to teach a course on Employability Skills in any programme. In addition, the digitised material will be available as an open education resource in the repository of the AUDA-NEPAD's ASPYEE portal. The material shall greatly enhance capacity in the TVETs in graduating work-ready skilled individuals who can either join the workforce or become successful entrepreneurs and contribute meaningfully to development in Africa.