Investments in TVET programmes in the Horn of Africa 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, the research considered the impact of participation in TVET schemes on geographical mobility, both in terms of people’s behaviour and attitudes.
Uganda and Ethiopia were used as case study sites and local researchers conducted field work between November 2018 and February 2019, surveying over 600 respondents and carrying out over 70 semi-structured interviews with informants including TVET students and providers. The following key findings emerged:
- 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.
- 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.
- A gap between the skills provided in TVET programmes 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.
- 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.
- 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.