WorldSkills Africa capacity building programme 2025

Purpose

WorldSkills Africa (WSAfrica) was officially launched at the African Union’s Heads of State Summit in February 2024. As the regional platform to harness the power of skills for Africa’s development, capacity building of trainers, teachers, and instructors from Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) is one of the crucial elements for WSAfrica to enable stronger alignment between TVET and industry demands.

While skills competition is a very effective tool for benchmarking, showcasing, and inspiring young people, educators, private sector, and policy makers to improve the standards and attractiveness of skills, WSAfrica has prioritized capacity building for trainers, teachers, and instructors as a critical pathway for sustainable development of the TVET system.

How

Through the joint funding from the German Development Cooperation (GIZ) and the African Union Development Agency - NEPAD, WSAfrica Members could benefit from having trainers, teachers, and instructors who are more confident and better equipped with practical knowledge through skills training based on an adaptable competition framework. This framework will be designed within the African context, relevant to the actual learning outcomes of the students, while drawing from global best practices and WorldSkills Occupational Standards. Having the TVET trainers, teachers, and instructors from the Member countries co-developing the competition framework with the selected Chief Experts, collaborating on training techniques through mentorship sessions, and going through the competition experience themselves, the programme aims to create a realistic, tangible, and practical development process towards occupational mastery and having more meaningful participation in WorldSkills Competitions.

As a valuable addition, this programme will also offer the Official Delegates and Technical Delegates of WSAfrica Members the training opportunity to have a deeper understanding about the implications of the training outcomes and brainstorm ways to close the gaps for improving their TVET systems, as well as their future competition experience. The programme in 2025 will focus on two skills – Plumbing and Hairdressing – to build an adaptable framework as a starting point. The framework developed through this process can then be used by WSAfrica Members to replicate the process in other skills areas within their individual country’s contexts and to meet their local needs.

What the programme offers

Creating and applying an adaptable competition framework

• Action 1: Banding two skills - Plumbing and Hairdressing - by ISCED levels 2, 3, 4, and 5. Banding applies to the performance once it is assessed and marked for showing results within each participant's peer group, however basic or advanced that may be. Three bands of performance are expected at this stage.
• Action 2: reviewing the extent to which Test Projects may require modification to provide an equally challenging experience to the lowest performers (ISCED 2).
• Action 3: checking the implications of the adaptable framework on the preparation, implementation, and
  reporting processes in terms of the WorldSkills Competition Information System (CIS).
• Action 4: applying the adaptable framework to these skills for competition design with the selected Chief Experts and potentially other specialists such as employers. 
• Action 5: co-developing the structure and processes of the competition experience with the Chief Experts and participants who serve as Experts on the national level.
  • Participants work with Chief Experts on analysis of their TVET programmes and setting progressive achievement targets.
  • Joint review and finalization of the competition framework (Test Project and Marking Scheme) for all skills.
  • Testing the framework with assessment development and marking practices.
  • Reviewing the results and finalizing the framework and documents.

In-person workshops, online mentorship, and final showcase

• Action 6: an in-person workshop in May for Chief Experts to work with the participating Experts, getting a more realistic sense of the training quality, infrastructure, and challenges, refining the competition framework and progressive achievement targets if necessary. The workshop will be in Lusaka, Zambia.
• Action 7: conduct bi-weekly skill specific session (by Chief Experts) from June to August on training techniques, developing training resources, and competition preparation.
• Action 8: an in-person final showcase, which is a competition experience for the participating Experts to work on the Test Project for building their skills and having hands-on assessment practices through assessing their peers. The participating Experts will have a more personal experience of understanding the competition framework in action and walking through the journey themselves. The event will take place in Lusaka, Zambia.
• Action 9: alongside in-person final showcase, Official Delegates and Technical Delegates training will be conducted to understand the gaps and learning from the training process, brainstorm with their peers on possible solutions, synergies, and to use WorldSkills Africa and capacity building programmes like this to improve their TVET systems and future competition preparation. The event will take place in Lusaka, Zambia.
• Action 10: the training and knowledge resources (e.g. practical tips and recommendations per skill, technical videos per skill, competitor training guide, and analysis of the programme) will be collated and shared with WSAfrica Members who join the programme and partners such as GIZ for utilization after the programme.

Timeline