Africa Skills Landscape initiative takes next steps in Harare

Africa Skills Week 2026, held in Harare, Zimbabwe, from 12 to 16 October, gave renewed momentum to the Africa Skills Landscape initiative, the first mapping exercise of internationally supported skills development programmes across the continent.

Jointly led by the African Union Commission (AUC), the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), WorldSkills International, and UNESCO, the initiative aims to deliver a common framework for understanding international support to Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) systems and to generate evidence for more coherent action in skills development.

The exercise advanced at a workshop held in Paris on 15 and 16 June 2026, with 24 institutions represented, including United Nations agencies, international organizations, bilateral development agencies, non-governmental organizations, foundations, and development finance institutions. Their shared commitment resulted in 176 submissions from 37 implementing organizations, covering activities in 54 countries and providing a basis for preliminary results.

These preliminary findings were first unveiled in September at WorldSkills Conference 2026 in Shanghai, China, in a discussion with the AUC, the governments of Zimbabwe and Malawi, UNIDO, the German development agency GIZ, and WorldSkills Champions Trust representatives, who reflected on the trends, approaches, and gaps emerging from the mapping.

Attended by African leaders, policymakers, industry representatives, education and training institutions, development partners, and young people, Africa Skills Week offered partners a further opportunity to work directly with the evidence gathered so far. To this end, a panel discussion as well as a Strategic Partner Session took place as part of the week’s events.

The session “Africa Skills Landscape: Turning Evidence into Action for Africa’s TVET Transformation” was moderated by UNIDO and featured perspectives from the AUC, the Government of Zimbabwe, and the Regional Economic Community represented by the Intergovernmental Authority on Development. Abraham Mundengo, WorldSkills Champions Trust representative for Africa, represented young people in the discussion.

Across the session, the discussion focused on the trends revealed by the mapping in TVET cooperation, and on how all actors can turn these insights into stronger coordination, more complementary investments, and practical collaboration that advances TVET across Africa.

This conversation was followed by a Strategic Partner Session to discuss the next steps for the Africa Skills Landscape. Structured in two parts, it featured a public debate with the initiative partners and other stakeholders attending Africa Skills Week, and a partner workshop for organizations that had taken part in the Paris workshop and contributed to the initiative.

The session first looked into ways to increase awareness of the initiative, broaden participation, improve coverage and consistency, as well as ensuring continued updating of the database. Participants also shared feedback on the results and their potential use.

This was followed by the partner workshop, with participants having the chance to propose additional analytical outputs that could be developed from the initiative’s results and published, as well as concrete next steps, including governance and practical forms of collaboration beyond the mapping exercise. Particular attention was given to the potential of the AUC TVET Cluster as a continental coordination mechanism.

The Africa Skills Landscape initiative is aligned with WorldSkills Vision 2035, adopted by the General Assembly at WorldSkills Shanghai 2026, which identifies regional development as a key strategic focus.

“For WorldSkills, the partnership with UNIDO and other partners is a contribution to improving TVET standards by offering the WorldSkills Occupational Standards (WSOS) as a global benchmark for skills excellence, helping to unlock productivity and competitiveness and to support socio-economic growth,” said Unami Dube, Standards Specialist at WorldSkills International, who attended the event in Harare.

Through the African Union (AU) NEPAD Capacity Development Strategic Framework (CDSF), WorldSkills will work with African Members to train trainers to move from elementary use of the WSOS to interpreting excellence in their training curricula.

“Trainers and learners will benefit from training aligned with industry best practice, and Members will gain from other WorldSkills assets and from belonging to a global skills community,” said Dube.

Titled “Skills for Resilient and Competitive African Industries: From Training to Value Creation”, the third edition of Africa Skills Week emphasized the role of skills development in securing Africa’s future.

Prof. Gaspard Banyankimbona, African Union Commissioner for Education, Science, Technology, and Innovation, said, “Skills development is the very infrastructure for industrialization, trade, innovation, and Africa’s economic sovereignty. We must move together, decisively, from training to value creation, transforming our continental commitments into tangible results, stronger industries, empowered youth, and improved livelihoods.”

The Harare Call to Action on Skills, an outcome of the week, advocates a joint continental effort to align education and training with Africa’s industrial and labour-market needs, strengthen partnerships between governments, industry, and training institutions, expand apprenticeships and work-based learning, and equip Africans with digital, artificial intelligence, green, and entrepreneurial skills.

Read more about the WorldSkills movement in Africa.