Lessons for developing countries from experience with technical and vocational education and training

The literacy requirements of both globalization and technological change necessitate enhancement of literacy education and training to keep pace with these phenomena. Sierra Leone‘s An Agenda for Change – Second Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRSPII) 2008-2012 has mainstreamed youth employment and the government has developed a National Action Plan on Youth Employment. Moreover, TVET in Sierra Leone needs a new focus and new direction to strongly respond to the PRSP. In fact a national harmonized policy for TVET is required for a national curriculum. Hitherto, the development and implementation of TVET reform programmes has been severely hampered by budgetary constraints in all 16 countries in the ECOWAS. Based on frontier research on the lessons learned from recent TVET reforms in other developing countries, this paper aims to inform the future comprehensive design and implementation of strategies for TVET in Sierra Leone . The paper makes suggestions for how to address future challenges and opportunities to ensure that the good performance of TVET reforms contribute to the promotion of sustainable growth through private sector development. The paper is structured as follows. Section 2 provides a stock taking of the available quantitative evidence on the impact of TVET. Section 3 presents and discusses different institutional and strategic TVET frameworks. Section 4 discusses the importance of a demand-oriented TVET system. Section 5 discusses the various existing and potential sources for the financing of the TVET system. Section 6 pres ents various examples of successful external cooperation on TVET projects in Africa and Asia. Finally, section 7 concludes and presents policy options.