TVET in Sub-Saharan Africa: the state of research

Following the publication of the survey on the state of research in vocational education and training in Sub-Saharan Africa in 2019, it quickly became clear that the publication made an important and valuable contribution to discussion in the research community. With the translation into English, the publication is now to be made accessible for a broader target group.

Before publishing the survey in 2019, for almost two years GOVET accompanied an international and interdisciplinary team of authors on behalf of BMBF while they performed a systematic literature review for the German and English versions of the survey. On the one hand, this focused on the institutionalisation of research in TVET in Sub-Saharan Africa, its actors, networks and funding, and on the other it analysed the topics and contents relating to TVET in Sub-Saharan Africa that academics had addressed. Following a broad and systematic search, approximately 300 out of over 2,000 academic publications were classified as relevant for the topic and examined more closely. As well as an extensive bibliography, this resulted in a detailed report.

English version provides new findings

The survey has now been translated into English and prepared for an international target group. In this process, two new chapters were created (Chapter 14 and Chapter 15). This expansion primarily incorporates the results of the structured community reviews (SCRs) and provides deeper insights into the research landscape based on expert interviews. This allowed findings to be documented that have not yet been taken up in the specialist literature. The SCRs also served to validate findings from the literature with experts and discuss them in online workshops. A chapter that looks at future research focuses was also revised (Chapter 16) and the methodological approach of the SCRs explained (Appendix 2 and Appendix 3).

Networking on TVET research in Sub-Saharan Africa

In the course of creating the survey, which was published in 2019, a structured community review and a registered research community laid an initial foundation for a network on the topic of TVET research in Sub-Saharan Africa. In the bibliography, the references are therefore additionally provided with a link, allowing access to more than 500 documents from the free reference management system ZOTERO at a click when reading the document online. Anyone who is a member of the English-language forum on the topic of “TVET-SSA” (Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) Research in Sub-Saharan Africa) has access. The survey therefore makes a key contribution to promoting research in and with Africa.

The entire publication is available in German, and now also in English, via the VET Repository together with a growing number of freely available publications (open access). In this way, the BIBB’s VET Repository has been continuously contributing to the free exchange of specialist publications since 1988 – something that is a constant challenge for the African research community in particular.

Go to the ZOTERO literature management program

The report is aimed at researchers and practitioners from technical and vocational education and training and related disciplines who are performing research in or about Sub-Saharan Africa as well as at interested members of the general public. It aims to provide impetus for further research and the formation of international networks in the area of TVET.