Africa is a continent of contradictions, sitting between a growing young population, an army of unemployed youths and skill deficits to sustainably power its economy. Stakeholders reckon that the solution lies in connecting those dots, though with purpose and strategy, GLORIA NWAFOR reports.
Africa is home to the world’s fastest-growing youth population. It currently represents approximately 22.6 per cent of the global youth population, or 426 million young people.

This demographic shift presents both significant opportunities and pressing challenges, particularly in the areas of education, skills development and employment.

While many African economies are expanding, youths across the continent face limited access to inclusive, high-quality education and training systems.

In particular, expanded investments in Technical and vocational education and training (TVET) and work-based learning (WBL) are critical to equipping young people with practical skills needed to thrive in an evolving labour market and improve their overall quality of life.
According to data from the International Labour Organisation (ILO), while TVET attainment rates vary dramatically, it is above 15 per cent in countries like Nigeria, Djibouti, Seychelles, Tanzania, Egypt, Zimbabwe, Comoros, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, and Lesotho and below one per cent in 13 countries, highlighting severe participation barriers.

The disparities, according to the statistics, reflect differences in policy priorities, investment levels, and educational infrastructure.
The data warned of a persistent youth (15-24) Not in Employment, Education, or Training (NEET) challenge in sub-Saharan Africa.

It stated that despite numerous efforts over the past decade, the proportion of youth disengaged from formal systems has shown minimal reduction.

In 2025, it was quoted that an estimated 70.9 million youth in the continent were classified as NEET, representing 23.2 per cent of the total youth population.

This, according to the data, means that more than one in five young individuals is currently without a job, not enrolled in school, and not participating in any skills training — a status that poses long-term risks to their livelihoods, community development, and national growth.
The term, it said, signals the need for more targeted interventions, including expanding access to TVET and WBL.

Experts said expanding access to vocational education is vital for fostering youth employability and driving inclusive economic growth across the continent.

They argued that the figures highlighted the urgent need to expand access to and improve the quality of vocational education across the continent – particularly through inclusive policies that promote gender equity and respond to labour market demand.

Experts also argued that expanding work-based learning opportunities for youth, including apprenticeships and internships, plays a vital role in equipping young people with practical skills needed in the labour market.

While they argued that WBL remains an important complement to formal education systems, particularly in countries where access to higher education is limited, they maintained that strengthening the links between schools, training institutions, and employers is key to expanding and improving these work-based learning opportunities.

Data from 35 African countries show that only 35 out of every 1000 youth (aged 15-29) participate in apprenticeship or internship programmes, with participation varying widely from more than 50 per 1000 youth in countries such as Benin, Nigeria, Gambia and Ghana, among others.

It warned that a persistent shortage of apprenticeship, internship, or other structured work-based learning opportunities – particularly paid apprenticeships and internships – further compounds the challenge.

According to it, without access to formal training, many young people are left underprepared for decent employment, often relegated to precarious work or informal sectors.

Already, in Nigeria, the Industrial Training Fund (ITF) and Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association (NECA) are collaborating on a TVET programme, aiming to bridge the skills gap and enhance youth employability.

The programme typically addresses technical skills gaps in areas like mechanical/automation maintenance, quality assurance, and logistics and distribution.

NECA Director-General, Adewale-Smatt Oyerinde, said the programme is designed for young Nigerian graduates, particularly those with technical or science qualifications, with an impact that aims to reduce unemployment by providing employable skills, contributing to economic growth and national development.

On stimulating entrepreneurship apprenticeship for national growth, Founder, Centre for Values in Leadership (CVL), Prof. Pat Utomi, said Nigeria must stimulate entrepreneurship for a global enterprise.

Citing instances where India has grown its nation through entrepreneurship, he urged that Nigeria should take a cue by pursuing its latent comparative advantage along the value chains to compete in the global market.

“How do we look at our factor endowment and take the specific endowment that we want to become global leaders in those value chains and use limited industrial policy to stimulate the sector and facilitate young people to become producers in that sector,” he said.

The economist said one of the initiatives to drive entrepreneurship, which he said he has been labouring on, was to create industrial parks around the country with incubators, where diaspora investors and Nigerian entrepreneurs could thrive through the use of blockchains to rev up entrepreneurship.

If this is achieved, Utomi said it would create massive production updates and make Nigeria competitive in the global market space.
He described entrepreneurship as one of the six sets of interdependent variables that drive sustainable growth and prosperity.
Utomi emphasised how entrepreneurship apprenticeship could prepare Nigeria for the imperative transition from consumption to production.

“Nigeria needs an entrepreneurship impetus to take skill-driven entrepreneurship to build the nation’s economy. Nigeria may be an institution, but we have not built an institution of entrepreneurs. Nigeria must stimulate entrepreneurship for a global enterprise. The naira is the way it is because Nigeria does not produce. Nigeria must tap into India’s entrepreneurship for economic development,” he added.

Sharing his experience, President and Chief Executive Officer of Coscharis Group, Dr Cosmas Maduka, revealed how he passed through the apprenticeship cadre into becoming a successful businessman.

According to him, apprenticeship taught him unprecedented discipline, stressing that no apprentice judiciously engages in five years of training from his master and does not end up being successful.

“Human capital is key to us. Characters must be built. Our focus should be on how we can bring people together to train them through apprenticeship and nurture them with the necessary skill set. We must support young entrepreneurs to help nations and businesses be transformed,” he said.

To build a resilient and adaptable workforce, the ILO said it was essential to expand participation in TVET and WBL.It noted that lifelong learning and structured skill development must be prioritised to navigate the pressures of economic shocks and rapid technological changes.

It said governments and development partners must invest in inclusive education systems, modernised TVET infrastructure aligned with labour market needs, and robust WBL programmes that offer meaningful, real-world experience.

Equally important, it further said that there are improved data systems to track progress and inform policy decisions.

According to it, strategic investments in statistical systems are essential to produce more comprehensive and comparable data, critical for monitoring progress and designing effective, evidence-based policies.