IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/injoed/v102y2023ics0738059323001499.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Why skills anticipation in African VET systems needs to be decolonized: The wide-spread use and limited value of occupational standards and competency-based qualifications

Author

Listed:
  • Allais, Stephanie

Abstract

The shift from manpower-planning to labour market analysis and skills anticipation has been analyzed since the 80 s in this journal and elsewhere, with the aim of improving.insights into how education can contribute to economic growth and development. This paper considers recent trends in policies for skills anticipation and curriculum reform in Africa, with a focus on technical and vocational education and training (TVET) systems.The data consists of 2 continent-wide surveys of a range of TVET stakeholders, document analysis of skills and TVET policy as well as industrial policy where available.online, and 21 in-depth interviews with key roleplayers and experts in 13 countries. Our research found considerable activity developing pre-determined rules and tools that don’t work in their own right, and are inappropriate for African labour markets because they are not used in formal work, and have little engagement with informal work. A set of ‘rules and tools’, such as occupational standards, qualifications frameworks, and part qualifications/ modularization, is promoted by international organizations. These pre-developed and uniform solutions continues to dominate policy agendas. We found considerable focus on developing and (to some extent) using these rules and tools for forward planning, system improvement, and curriculum design. Most noticeable was a strong emphasis on competency-based qualifications, which are described as a tool for skills anticipation as well as curriculum reform, drawing on employer input into skills requirements. There is considerable focus on employer-identified skills needs as the tool for both understanding current and emerging economic demand for skills as well as medium to longer term skills needs. The dependence on employer-specified competencies means there is little engagement with the reality of informal work in the African context—other than strong rhetorical emphasis on entrepreneurship as an add on in curriculum design. Amongst other problems, the ‘rules and tools’ which are being implemented in many countries start from an idealized vision, and are more preoccupied with their own internal logic than the systems with which they are dealing. The rules and tools present a level playing field for individuals and for countries, constrained only by a lack of skills, and a world view in which everyone could come out on top.

Suggested Citation

  • Allais, Stephanie, 2023. "Why skills anticipation in African VET systems needs to be decolonized: The wide-spread use and limited value of occupational standards and competency-based qualifications," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 102(C).
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:injoed:v:102:y:2023:i:c:s0738059323001499
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ijedudev.2023.102873
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0738059323001499
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.ijedudev.2023.102873?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Stijn Broecke, 2012. "Working Paper 158 - Tackling Graduate Unemployment through Employment Subsidies an Assessment of the SIVP Programme in Tunisia," Working Paper Series 430, African Development Bank.
    2. Louise Fox & Alun Thomas, 2016. "Africa's Got Work To Do: A Diagnostic of Youth Employment Challenges in Sub-Saharan Africa," Journal of African Economies, Centre for the Study of African Economies, vol. 25(suppl_1), pages 16-36.
    3. Arvil V. Adams & Sara Johansson de Silva & Setareh Razmara, 2013. "Improving Skills Development in the Informal Sector : Strategies for Sub-Saharan Africa," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 15802.
    4. Meschi, Elena & Vivarelli, Marco, 2009. "Trade and Income Inequality in Developing Countries," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 37(2), pages 287-302, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Meschi, Elena & Taymaz, Erol & Vivarelli, Marco, 2011. "Trade, technology and skills: Evidence from Turkish microdata," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(S1), pages 60-70.
    2. Thanos Fragkandreas, 2022. "Three Decades of Research on Innovation and Inequality: Causal Scenarios, Explanatory Factors, and Suggestions," Working Papers 60, Birkbeck Centre for Innovation Management Research, revised Feb 2022.
    3. Kazuhiro Kumo & Alexandra Koval & Irina Korgun & Olga Trofimenko, 2018. "Foreign Trade and Regional Inequality:The Case of the Russian Federation," Economy of region, Centre for Economic Security, Institute of Economics of Ural Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences, vol. 1(3), pages 884-895.
    4. Vivarelli, Marco, 2012. "Innovation, Employment and Skills in Advanced and Developing Countries: A Survey of the Literature," IZA Discussion Papers 6291, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    5. Usman Qamar Sheikh & Muhammad Zafar Iqbal & Hafiz Khalil Ahmad, 2016. "The Impact of Foreign Aid, Energy Production and Human Capital on Income Inequality: A Case Study of Pakistan," Bulletin of Business and Economics (BBE), Research Foundation for Humanity (RFH), vol. 5(1), pages 1-9, March.
    6. Arouri, Hassan & Ben-Youssef, Adel & Quatraro, Francesco & Vivarelli, Marco, 2018. "The Determinants of Young Firms Growth in Tunisia," IZA Discussion Papers 11400, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    7. Jun Zhao & Xiucheng Dong & Kangyin Dong, 2021. "Can agglomeration of producer services reduce urban–rural income inequality? The case of China," Australian Economic Papers, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 60(4), pages 736-762, December.
    8. Pi, Jiancai & Zhang, Pengqing, 2018. "Skill-biased technological change and wage inequality in developing countries," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 347-362.
    9. Tamminen, Saara, 2014. "Varying markups and income inequality in an open economy," Conference papers 332437, Purdue University, Center for Global Trade Analysis, Global Trade Analysis Project.
    10. Cabral, René & García-Díaz, Rocío & Mollick, André Varella, 2016. "Does globalization affect top income inequality?," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 38(5), pages 916-940.
    11. Bruno Cesar Araujo & Francesco Bogliacino & Marco Vivarelli, 2009. "The Role of "Skill enhancing Trade" in Brazil: Some Evidence from Microdata," Jena Economics Research Papers 2009-041, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena.
    12. Julie A. Silva, 2013. "Rural Income Inequality in Mozambique: National Dynamics and Local Experiences?," The Review of Regional Studies, Southern Regional Science Association, vol. 43(1), pages 23-50, Summer.
    13. Hrushikesh Mallick & Mantu Kumar Mahalik & Hemachandra Padhan, 2020. "Does globalization exacerbate income inequality in two largest emerging economies? The role of FDI and remittances inflows," International Review of Economics, Springer;Happiness Economics and Interpersonal Relations (HEIRS), vol. 67(4), pages 443-480, December.
    14. Mahyudin Ahmad, 2017. "Economic Freedom and Income Inequality: Does Political Regime Matter?," Economies, MDPI, vol. 5(2), pages 1-28, June.
    15. Ahmad, Mahyudin, 2016. "Middle income trap and income inequality: Empirical evidence on the distributional effect of economic liberalization and political regime," MPRA Paper 76437, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    16. Ahmed Mohamed Ezzat, 2018. "Trade Openness: An Effective tool for Poverty Alleviation or an Instrument for Increasing Poverty Severity?," Working Papers 1248, Economic Research Forum, revised 07 Nov 2018.
    17. Ibrahim, Mansor H. & Salim, Kinan & Abojeib, Moutaz & Yeap, Lau Wee, 2019. "Structural changes, competition and bank stability in Malaysia’s dual banking system," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 43(1), pages 111-129.
    18. Philipp Heimberger, 2019. "Beeinflusst die ökonomische Globalisierung die Einkommensungleichheit? Eine Meta-Analyse," Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft - WuG, Kammer für Arbeiter und Angestellte für Wien, Abteilung Wirtschaftswissenschaft und Statistik, vol. 45(4), pages 497-529.
    19. Mohtadi, Soran & Castells-Quintana, David, 2021. "The distributional dimension of the resource curse: Commodity price shocks and income inequality," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 63-78.
    20. Mazhar Mughal, 2010. "Explaining income inequalities in the developing countries- the role of human capital," Post-Print hal-01881841, HAL.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:injoed:v:102:y:2023:i:c:s0738059323001499. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/international-journal-of-educational-development .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.