In Africa, one in two people is under 25 years old and the population is the fastest growing in the world. Employability is therefore a major issue for the future of the continent. It is based on these observations that the PEFOP story began in 2015, under the impetus of the French Development Agency (AFD). 

To understand how IIEP-UNESCO Dakar came into being, we need to go back to April 2000, when Senegal’s capital was hosting the UNESCO World Education Forum. At the dawn of the new millennium, this event brought together hundreds of national policymakers and delegations from 181 member countries. The aim was to define a new framework for action to achieve “Education for all” by 2015. The international community gathered in Dakar felt that the lack of resources should not stand in the way of schooling and access to quality education.

Furthermore, informal employment is widespread in sub-Saharan African labour markets and traditional indicators like the unemployment rate fall short of providing a comprehensive picture of labour underutilization.

Renowned for supporting African countries to strengthen their capacity to plan and manage their education systems, IIEP UNESCO Dakar held a short education planning and management course for 50 education officials from Nigeria.

Using a capacity development approach through the creation of partnerships, training, and the production of methodological tools and knowledge, IIEP-UNESCO Dakar bases its interventions on technical expertise.

The objective of this course is to build the capacity of public and private sector officials involved in the steering and management of national TVET systems, at the strategic or operational level, primarily in Africa, in the steering, management and implementation of vocational training policies. This is an on-the-job training course, which targets five to seven countries in the African region each year, with 7 to 10 candidates per country.

While technical and vocational skill development is prominent in the United Nations’ Education 2030 Agenda, Africa’s technical and vocational education and training (TVET) systems are not yet up to the challenge.

Since the official launch of Pefop in November 2015, many activities have been developed for the benefit of vocational training stakeholders in Africa.