George Afeti, PhD
Ministry of Education, Ghana
Email: gafeti@yahoo.co.uk
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Africa is a continent of opportunities and challenges
African countries come in different sizes and shapes
Great diversity of cultures, governance structures and
socio-economic status
Every year, between 7-10 million new job seekers
arrive in the labor market
Out of a total 200 million young people, 95 million are
illiterate or unskilled and either unemployed or in very
low-paid jobs
73% have no access to regular supply of electricity
500 million cell phone users
Good people with great aspirations
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Afeti
WFCP Halifax, Canada
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Enrollments in
primary education
increasing
82 million in
124 million
1999
in 2007
Source: UNESCO 2010
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WFCP Halifax, Canada
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Female Presidents
Most Women in Parliament,
globally
(Zambia, Liberia)
(Rwanda)
Women
Empowerment
Rising Number of African
Women in Power
(e.g. Nigeria Finance Minister, Incoming ICC
Prosecutor)
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WFCP Halifax, Canada
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African Female Nobel Peace
Prize Winners
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GDP Growth Rate (%) in 2011
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
Source: World Bank 2012
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WFCP Halifax, Canada
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2010
2002
US$28b
US$10.1b
FDI
Increasing
Source: IMF 2012
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WFCP Halifax, Canada
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Large reserves of crude oil in Nigeria, Angola,
Congo-Brazzaville, Equatorial Guinea, etc.
 Ivory Coast and Ghana are the world’s leading
producers of cocoa beans
 Some of the richest gold mines are in Africa:
South Africa, Ghana, Tanzania, Mali, etc.
 The source of all energy – the sun – has its home
in Africa:
 Each km2 of the Saharan desert receives solar
energy equivalent to 1.5 million barrels of oil
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Afeti
WFCP Halifax, Canada
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Limited national wealth creation due to critical skills
gaps and shortages in various sectors of the economy
Globalization and unfavorable global trade protocols
impact on domestic skills and labor force
development as well as employment
Poor governance, corruption, punitive tax laws and
fiscal regimes suppress skills innovation, enterprise
creation and expansion
Absence of advanced skills to promote value addition
to primary commodities and job creation
Failure of education and training systems to deliver
advanced employable skills
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Afeti
WFCP Halifax, Canada
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WFCP Halifax, Canada
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Agriculture and agro-processing
Engineering, science and technology
ICT
Health and sanitation
Environment and natural resources
Business management and entrepreneurship
Teacher education and training
Green skills for green jobs and greening jobs
Peace and global citizenship education
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WFCP Halifax, Canada
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The success of UPE fuelling rising social
demand for further education and training
The notion of skills for employability, poverty
reduction and increased productivity
The political agenda: assumption that skills
can tackle rising youth unemployment
The security agenda: youth without skills and
jobs, a “time bomb”
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WFCP Halifax, Canada
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LOW LEVEL SKILLS
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Acquisition of basic skills and
competencies
Income-generating activities
for economic survival
Some quality improvement in
goods and services
Creation of low-performing
small businesses and
enterprises
Marginal stimulation of local
economy
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Afeti
WFCP Halifax, Canada
ADVANCED SKILLS
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Acquisition of high level skills
Innovation and quality driven
Responsive to needs of
technologically advanced
enterprises
Globally competitive
workforce
Improves investment climate
Supports socio economic
development
Wealth creation and poverty
reduction
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High level skills
training matters
African
economies are
driven by natural
resources and
export of raw
materials.
Main reason:
Shortage of
advanced skills.
Country
Share of engineering
exports in total of
exports (2001 – 2006)
Botswana
Ghana
Kenya
Mauritius
South Africa
1.13
0.5
1.32
2.62
8.81
Source: World Bank 2007
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WFCP Halifax, Canada
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Higher
Education
Bachelors
Technical
College
Primary
Education
Advanced
Skills
Training
Secondary
Education
Labor
Market
Informal
Sector
Training
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WFCP Halifax, Canada
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WFCP Halifax, Canada
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Education partnerships should be more than
“internationalization” or recruitment of students
Faculty development, key component of partnerships
Development of “dual” teacher competencies:
pedagogical and technological
Knowledge sharing and collaborative training
programs, e.g. EfE being spearheaded in Africa by
ACCC
Adaptation of best practices and policies in advanced
skills provision: policy learning
Development of a domestic workforce with global
competencies
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WFCP Halifax, Canada
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Constructive partnerships:
 Produce more outward looking institutions
 Promote innovation in e.g. research, curriculum
design, teaching methods, administrative
systems and practices
 Allow examination of each other’s institutional
culture and way of doing things
 May bring much needed resources to the table
 May generate new ideas simply by bringing
people together
 May involve a mentor-mentee relationship
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WFCP Halifax, Canada
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Despite impressive GDP growth, socioeconomic
development and poverty reduction in Africa will
require advanced skills
Large informal training sector (80 – 90%) unable
to connect to technological advances
Need to stimulate investment outside the
natural resources sector (43% of FDI in oil & gas)
Advanced skills necessary to diversify and boost
the economies of resource rich African countries
Only a skilled and diversified indigenous
workforce can sustain Africa’s development and
socio-economic progress
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WFCP Halifax, Canada
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“Show me a skilled individual, a skilled company or a
skilled country and I will show you an individual, a
company or a country that has a chance to be
successful. Show me an unskilled individual,
company or country and I will show you a failure in
the 21st century. In the economy ahead, there is only
one source of sustainable competitive advantage –
skills. Everything else is available to everyone on a
more or less equal access basis” – Lester Thurow,
American Economist, 1994
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WFCP Halifax, Canada
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