Oliver Bakewell and Caitlin Sturridge
This report explores the relationship between technical and vocational education and training (TVET) programming and changing patterns of migration in the Horn of Africa (HoA). Investments in TVET programmes in the HoA are designed to improve young people’s skills, strengthen the local labour market and boost their chances of finding employment, thereby reducing their incentives to follow irregular migration paths across the region or beyond. In this context, this research considers the impact of participation in TVET schemes on geographical mobility both in terms of people’s behaviour and attitudes.
The report provides the findings of original research undertaken by the REF in Ethiopia and Uganda on TVET programmes supported by the EU Trust Fund for Africa (EUTF). These countries were selected as they provide a valuable context for researching the complex ways in which TVET, youth employment and migration relate to each other.
The research has two broad objectives:
- To improve our understanding of the linkages between enrolment in TVET for employment and the potential for young people to engage in irregular migration.
- To provide evidence to improve the design and implementation of programmes that aim to address youth unemployment in the HoA, in particular through critical evaluation of the theories of change used for programming in this field.
Fieldwork took place between November 2018 and February 2019. Local research teams were established in both countries and led by senior researchers from Addis Ababa University and the Organisation for Social Science Research in Eastern and Southern Africa (OSSREA) in Ethiopia, as well as Makerere University in Uganda. Fieldwork involved a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods including a survey with over 600 respondents and over 70 semi-structured interviews with a range of informants including TVET students and providers.
The findings of the research are presented within three broad areas of enquiry: the effectiveness of TVET in getting people into work; the relationship between employment and migration; and the relationship between TVET and migration.
The key findings are:
- A mixed picture of TVET effectiveness emerges from both Uganda and Ethiopia. While most TVET students were quite positive about their TVET experience, some expressed dissatisfaction about the quality of teaching and the allowances provided for trainees.
- Over two-thirds of graduates felt that their living conditions had improved since completing TVET courses, with the most positive responses being in Uganda (over 80 per cent).
- Students were concerned not just with acquiring technical skills but also with other ‘soft’ skills that could be gained through the TVET programmes such as business or entrepreneurial skills.
- In spite of concerted efforts to assess job markets and meet employer demands, the gap between the skills provided and the requirements of employers persists. In general, there seemed to be less evidence of systematic engagement with employers in Uganda than in Ethiopia.
- Although there is a clear gender difference in the types of courses in which men and women enrol, there is no consistent gender disparity in TVET outcomes. Female TVET graduates are at least as, and in some cases more, likely to set up their own business than men. It is only in Amhara Region of Ethiopia where there is a marked gender difference in the overall rates of employment for graduates, with only a quarter of men unemployed compared to a third of women.
- Participation in TVET appears to have increased the likelihood that people will develop plans to migrate. However, respondents were much more likely to express a desire to move internally or to a neighbouring country than to travel further afield. In Ethiopia, many respondents were anticipating moving internally to other parts of the country in search of work. In Uganda, any relationship between employment and migration is tempered by the broader refugee context from South Sudan. Since many of the respondents were refugees from South Sudan, many of those planning to move were looking to return there. As in Ethiopia, only small numbers were thinking of moving further afield (less than six per cent), referring to Europe, the United States and South Africa.
- When it came to reasons for migration, nearly all Ethiopian respondents were planning to move in search of better job opportunities. In Uganda, a third gave other reasons including joining family members and returning home, or simply looking for adventure or the good life. This highlights the fact that in this refugee context, there are different factors at play that will shape people’s movements compared to a more stable environment such as that found in the Ethiopian research sites.
- Ideas about migration are not major factors in explaining young people’s interest in TVET. In Uganda, less than two per cent of respondents referred to their interest in moving as a reason to start training. In Ethiopia, 13 per cent of respondents acknowledged ‘making it easier to move’ as one of their reasons for enrolling and less than half of these (just over five per cent) listed this as the most important reason.
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