Stepping up youth employability for jobs and better life chances

Vera Ng’oma

These are the kinds of success stories young Africans aspire to achieve, African governments aim to facilitate through their policies, and educational institutions strive to prepare students for them. However, the challenges are substantial: poor educational outcomes, a shortage of relevant skills, and low job creation.

Each year, at least 10 million youth enter Africa's labour market, but only 3.1 million new formal wage jobs are created. According to the International Labour Organisation, employability - defined as “portable competencies and qualifications that enhance an individual's capacity to secure and retain decent work, and to progress within the enterprise” - is attainable. But what steps are needed to more purposefully pursue youth employability? How can this agenda gain the focus and urgency required to achieve much-needed results?

Revitalising the vision for employability

Skills and jobs are crucial for Africa's economies, especially as its youth population is projected to be the world's largest by 2050. However, progress on SDG 8.6 - promoting youth employability, education, and training - remains slow.

Employability is a key issue for the education sector but must be addressed as a cross-cutting matter. The urgency lies in creating a coordinated approach that aligns school-work systems, promotes collaboration between training institutions and employers, and integrates educational and economic considerations to boost the job market and create necessary skills.

A clear vision of employability is essential. This vision should define what is at stake, identify what needs to be accelerated to tap into and build potential, leverage existing assets, and coordinate the various parts, roles, and actors. This will help embed an understanding of the world of work in education and training.

Building skills with the workforce in mind

Unfortunately, education and industry have often failed to collaborate as needed, leading to a mismatch between the labour market and the skills it requires. A more integrated approach is essential for developing labour market-responsive curricula and fostering entrepreneurial learning to reduce barriers to youth employment and entrepreneurship.

Institutional leadership is crucial. The British Council’s Innovation for African Universities (IAU) programme demonstrates how academia can enhance youth employability through Africa-UK partnerships that support innovation and commercialisation. This initiative helps students build job skills and entrepreneurial capabilities tied to real market opportunities.

In technical and vocational education and training (TVET), apprenticeships and work-integrated learning initiatives that combine real work with training could become a reliable model for developing industry-specific skills and providing valuable exposure for learners. If successful examples can be scaled up, both businesses and society will benefit.

Focusing on growth and productive sectors of the economy is a sustainable way to enhance employability. Ensuring that skills are demand-driven and deployable into existing and new jobs will support national productivity, economic growth, and the futures of young people.

Empowering through digital

Across Africa, jobs are much sought after but self-employment is increasingly becoming a pragmatic option for earning a livelihood. It has been exciting to note how technologically enabled initiatives are igniting young people’s potential and capacities.

SoCreative, the British Council’s free, self-paced online learning platform is equipping thousands of creative entrepreneurs and leaders with business skills, knowledge and understanding.

In Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa, our Skills for Inclusive Digital Participation (SIDP) programme is helping bridge the digital divide. About 18,000 people with disabilities, disadvantaged youth and women have improved their digital skills, started businesses and are accessing new markets. This impact story shows how an inclusive approach is making a difference.

However, entrepreneurship in sub-Saharan Africa would need deeper investment to become a real source of jobs as it still faces challenges, including financing, regulatory barriers and lack of a supportive ecosystem.

Influencing progressive industries

Improving youth employability requires actions that go beyond individual efforts, focusing on harnessing the dynamism of networks, the diversity of employers, and the energy of industries.

A groundbreaking initiative in African fashion, the TechStitched Fashion Residency - a collaboration between the British Council and Hub of Africa Fashion Week in Ethiopia - promotes growth, innovation, creative exchange, and skill development across the continent's fashion industry.

Recognising that the quality of business environments affects the health of enterprises, we support businesses through our EU-funded Investment Climate Facility (ICR). This initiative provides technical assistance and tools to help businesses operate more efficiently and create more decent work opportunities, especially for youth.

Adopting a pipeline approach

The focus on youth employability often centres on tertiary education, but the entire formal education cycle needs to evolve, starting from earlier stages. Strong learning foundations determine the quality of learners transitioning into later stages.

The British Council’s approach encompasses basic, secondary, and tertiary education, aiming to build robust, inclusive education systems through partnerships. These systems enable youth to develop cognitive and life skills as they progress through the educational journey and enter the workforce. Our non-formal education interventions, such as Youth Connect, facilitate agency, leadership, and peer learning.

By addressing the entire education lifecycle, our work leverages policy, practice, and partnerships that are locally led and informed by global best practices. We connect students, educators, policymakers, academics, creatives, and entrepreneurs, all focused on increasing opportunities for youth. This approach strengthens systems and identifies and tests incentives to develop effective solutions.

Moving the needle on gender equity

The youth unemployment rate for females is 9-13% higher than for males in most African countries. Young women face various workplace inequities, including unequal pay and fewer promotions.

Our efforts to not only make more young women employable but also to ensure they remain in the workforce are yielding positive results. The findings from a gender audit, supported by our ICR facility programme, are successfully mobilising companies in Malawi to adopt stronger anti-sexual harassment policies in the workplace.

Our Ignite Culture programme, operating in 14 African countries, provides grants and business support to creative and cultural enterprises, many of which are led by women. In Uganda, Bold-in-Africa, supported by an Ignite Culture grant, exemplifies how our work is increasing the visibility of women creatives.

We continue to create an enabling environment by partnering to influence legislation, policy, and practice. Through dialogue, research, and evidence-based decisions, we aim to improve the lives of women and girls.

Time to raise the stakes

High unemployment is not just an economic risk; it is also a social risk, as insufficient economic opportunities can threaten community stability.

The youth employability agenda must go beyond individual programmes, embracing a bold, continent-wide ambition, collective leadership, and imaginative approaches that involve the agency of young people facing these challenges.

A commitment to reliable data, measurement, and evidence is essential. The Africa Youth Employment Clock, a dynamic tool that projects current employment growth in real-time, could be invaluable in this regard.

The clock is ticking. We must accelerate our efforts to improve life prospects for Africa’s youth through systemic solutions that create opportunities, skills, and jobs, and stimulate the socio-economic growth essential for the continent’s prosperity. It is a call to action to step it up.