A New Gateway to Skills

A major challenge for investments in Sub-Saharan Africa today is the gap between the skills young people have and the available jobs in the market. Enabel’s experience working with the private sector in Africa show that businesses face this challenge consistently and that they have limited capacity and resources to invest in finding and training new recruits. Furthermore, while many European companies are eager to invest in Africa, they may struggle to find workers with the right skills. This results in limiting opportunities for both businesses and local communities, especially the youth, who often miss out on jobs they are not properly prepared for, ultimately contributing to higher unemployment.

 
This is where the Team Europe Initiative on Opportunity-Driven Skills and Vocational Education and Training (TEI OP-VET) comes in. Started in June 2024, TEI OP-VET is a five-year project under the Global Gateway Strategy of the European Union. It focuses on aligning skills development and vocational education and training (VET) with real job opportunities created by investments. The project is funded by the EU (€ 75 million) and Germany (BMZ) (€ 1 million) and led by Enabel in partnership with GIZ, Expertise France and EDUFI.

Decent jobs as the Starting Point of an Opportunity-Driven Approach

What makes this project unique is its opportunity-driven approach to vocational education and training. Instead of offering generic training programmes, the project identifies actual job opportunities first and then tailors training programmes to meet the specific needs of the labour market. This opportunity-driven model ensures that young people in Africa are trained for jobs that truly exist, rather than for skills that may not be relevant in their local economies.

To achieve this, the project has three main windows:

1. Technical Assistance Facility – Analysing employment opportunities and identifying required skills profiles in target sectors and value chains across Sub-Saharan Africa.
2. Public-Private Partnerships – Encouraging collaboration between companies and VET providers to ensure alignment of training programmes with labour market needs.
3. Competitive Funding – Supporting opportunity-driven VET projects in strategic value chains, fostering partnerships between private sector actors and VET providers.

In practical terms, if a European company plans an investment in the pharmaceutical industry, for instance, in Ghana, the project can help to make the right jobs profiles available through the following steps:

What does this mean for Africa and Europe?

The initiative will benefit more than 40 countries across Sub-Saharan Africa. In line with the EU-Africa Global Gateway Investment Package announced at the 2022 EU-Africa-Summit it will focus on sectors that are critical to the region’s future, like green technologies, sustainable agriculture and healthcare. The Global Gateway Strategy aims at building stronger ties between Europe and Africa, promoting sustainable growth, and supporting the green and digital transitions that are increasingly vital.

Therefore, the TEI OP-VET initiative is about capitalising on opportunities and amplifying their impact. For young people in Africa, especially those living in regions with high unemployment, this means real chances to improve their livelihoods. Thousands of youth will find a decent job and European and African companies will get the skilled workforce they need to drive their productivity and growth. For the critically underfunded VET sector it means having VET programmes that are more relevant and responsive to the job market and ensuring that their graduates are equipped with relevant skills.

Public-Private Partnerships

A core element of TEI OP-VET is its public-private partnership model, where businesses work directly with training providers to design training that meet industry needs. This collaboration benefits companies, which get skilled employees, and young people, who gain practical skills that guarantee a job. Advisory services and funding opportunities within the project encourage companies and institutions in both Europe and Africa to design jointly innovate skill development programmes that lead to real jobs.

Leading the way

Enabel is proud to take the lead in this innovative project under the EU’s Global Gateway strategy and to reinforce Belgium’s role in international cooperation. This is how Bart Horemans, the Team Leader at Enabel describes it:

“The purpose of this programme is to really go for a triple win, for the private sector, the African youth and the education sector. Enabel is in the lead of this innovative programme making sure that everything works smoothly and that all are working together as a real Team Europe. We strongly believe in the added value of cooperation among different countries and (development) actors as we can draw from and build on each other’s experience and expertise. It creates unique opportunities for peer learning among European actors, which still happens far too rarely.”

© Photo credit: VET ToolBox (GIZ)