Technical/Vocational

Today, Africa is on the cusp of a structural economic transformation. With its large pool of human and natural resources, it has been one of the fastest growing regions of the world despite the recent global economic slowdown.

This paper proposes three ways in which China and the World Bank could collaborate in the area of skills development in Africa, building on the experience of both and recent efforts at collaboration.

The key messages in this brief are as follows: 1) African countries face a crisis in terms of human resources for health (HRH). This deeply affects their ability to deliver health results on the ground, achieve Universal Health Coverage, and foster economic growth; 2) Most countries in Africa are experiencing a shortage in health workers and in the skills required to achieve MDGs 4 and 5, which aim to reduce deaths among children and mothers.

This book looks at the experience of skills development in five African countries, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, and Tanzania, that together account for one-third of the nearly 900 million people living in Sub-Saharan Africa. The study examines: (a) the employment characteristics of the informal sector, (b) its size and impact on poverty, (c) the profile of education and training in the informal and formal sectors and the links with employment and earnings, and (d) the skills development strategies of those working in the informal sector.

The key messages for this brief are as follows: 1) Africa has a window of opportunity to enlarge the economic benefits from its booming oil, gas, and minerals industries; 2) The lack of specialized expertise is a major bottleneck obstructing the potential for more well-paid jobs and home-grown supplier companies; 3) Significant skills shortages exist both in terms of numbers and quality, particularly within the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM fields); 4) Establishing public private partnerships and regional centers of excellence is key to building these specializatio

This report brings together evidence on the availability of skills from STEP (Skills Towards employment and Productivity) surveys: household level surveys that measure generic skills of the working age population and track the evolution of skills over cohorts for Armenia, Georgia, Macedonia and Ukraine; and firm level surveys that identify demand for skills, for Armenia, Georgia and Ukraine.

This report brings together evidence on the availability of skills from STEP (Skills Towards employment and Productivity) surveys: household level surveys that measure generic skills of the working age population and track the evolution of skills over cohorts for Armenia, Georgia, Macedonia and Ukraine; and firm level surveys that identify demand for skills, for Armenia, Georgia and Ukraine.

This report brings together evidence on the availability of skills from STEP (Skills Towards employment and Productivity) surveys: household level surveys that measure generic skills of the working age population and track the evolution of skills over cohorts for Armenia, Georgia, Macedonia and Ukraine; and firm level surveys that identify demand for skills, for Armenia, Georgia and Ukraine.

This report brings together evidence on the availability of skills from STEP (Skills Towards employment and Productivity) surveys: household level surveys that measure generic skills of the working age population and track the evolution of skills over cohorts for Armenia, Georgia, Macedonia and Ukraine; and firm level surveys that identify demand for skills, for Armenia, Georgia and Ukraine.

This report summarizes the key themes and findings from three in-depth case studies of EET programs in Ghana, Kenya, and Mozambique. Each case study produced rich information on the programs? context, the landscape of programs in each country, and the qualitative insights from local EET stakeholders. This report synthesizes information from across the case studies to analyze the extent to which these countries? programs are meeting the needs of local entrepreneurs.