E-conference: Promoting a digital transition of TVET systems in Africa

From Monday 25 October to Saturday 6 November 2021, IIEP-UNESCO Dakar organized an e-conference to promote knowledge sharing on the challenges, opportunities and perspectives of digital transition in national TVET systems in Africa. The e-conference took place over two weeks, and was hosted in the Forum for TVET in Africa launched in May 2021 on the Pefop website.
The conference’s goal was to share the experiences of TVET actors across Africa, to collect ideas, reflections and practical proposals for a better implementation of digital technology in national skills development systems.
The issues and challenges of TVET digitalization in Africa
TVET reforms in Africa in the coming years will lead to a profound transformation in the way TVET systems function. Digitising TVET processes across the board will make it possible to take better advantage of the possibilities offered by information technology and respond to the changing demands of the labour markets.
Digital technology is an essential element of this process of change: digitizing educational tools, training courses, capacity building of trainers, targeted skills and tools for professional integration are already directly engaging stakeholders.
Moderator: the discussions have been moderated by Mr. Ibrahima DIAGNE, expert in digital transformation. Mr. Diagne has twenty years of digital experience. He participated in the digital transformation of certain sectors of Senegalese economy and other African countries. He is familiar with the management of change and has experience in higher education as a lecturer but also as a member of the board of directors and educational council of two Senegalese universities. Mr. Diagne graduated in Management from HEC Paris, HEC Montreal and UQAM.
Participants: managers of TVET in Africa (central administration, training funds, heads of establishments), representatives of the private sector (employers’ organisation, digital & ICT companies), TVET experts of international cooperation, managers of digital educational platforms, researchers.
Agenda: the e-conference was held over two weeks and was structured around two themes. During each week, two sub-themes were proposed to guide the debates.
Throughout the duration of the e-conference, participants had the opportunity to post documents as attachments to animate the debate or illustrate comments. You can find all the shared outputs below.
During the first week of the e-conference, discussions focused on the issues at the strategic level for stakeholders and how to build a new paradigm for a more versatile and competitive training offer. The aim was to open a space for dialogue and exchange allowing participants to better understand the agendas, priorities and interests of all TVET actors.
The two sub-themes discussed during the first week were:
- Conceptualizing the impact of digital on TVET: the effect of the changes induced by digital;
- Digital coalitions: networking key players for a win-win vision around the digitization of TVET.
The second week then gave way to debates around operational challenges. Indeed, TVET reforms aiming at a digital transition will have to take into account a very wide range of operational issues, relating to the place of digital skills in learning environments, the necessary adaptation of curricula and trainers to digital or even the development of new digital tools for a better match between training and employment.
The two sub-themes discussed during the second week were the following:
- Consolidate the place of digital skills in learning environments;
- Develop digital tools for a better match between training and employment.
- Les enjeux stratégiques de la transformation digitale des dispositifs d'EFTP en Afrique
- Stratégie de développement du numérique dans la formation professionnelle et technique (Sénégal)
- Présentation de la plateforme de gestion des programmes de formation professionnelle ejang (Sénégal)
- Méthodologie et conception de dispositif d'apprentissage multimédia dans une école de formation professionnelle agricole et rurale
- Digitalization of national TVET and skills systems: Harnessing technology to support Lifelong Learning
- Présentation de l’application Inserjeune
- Fiche synthétique de bonnes pratiques pour réussir la transition numérique