Skills development initiative brings positive changes in Uganda
Building blocks first
Improving the quality of basic education is an essential building block for skills development, skills upgrading, and, ultimately, for productive employment. But most youth in Uganda are not completing their basic education. Uganda has universal enrollment in primary (elementary) education but one of the lowest primary cycle survival rates. This is linked to high dropout rates, particularly between Primary 5 and Primary 7, which has led to low transition rates overall between primary and secondary education.
This undermines the benefits of skills training later in life. Foundational skills such as functional literacy and numeracy, and some may include digital literacy in our world now, collectively serve as a critical base for further skills’ development.
The World Bank’s Uganda Skills Development Project is expanding opportunities for the development of skills that are market-driven and enterprise-driven, including for the informal sector.
So far more than 82,000 youth (47% of whom are female) have benefitted from industry- and enterprise-based training for the formal and informal sectors. The impact study for this intervention shows the good transition of over 60% of graduates to employment and promises the potential to scale-up similar training programs, particularly those that target vulnerable youth, women, and micro- and small enterprises for upskilling and retooling workers in key economic sectors.
The project has also supported the development of new standards in the training curricula of trades and occupations aligned with these priority sectors, such as agro-processing, manufacturing, construction, transport and logistics, ICT, and hospitality. These occupational standards ensure that the skills provided are aligned with what the labor market demands.
To really bring about sustainable change, though, we need to invest in skills development at scale, for impact. Employers across formal and informal sectors in Uganda say the lack of practical, digital, and entrepreneurial skills, as well as a lack of soft skills—such as managerial, communication, and socio-emotional—are limiting improvements in productivity. Uganda also needs to position its workforce for the emergence of green economies and digital economies, which are opening up new opportunities for the development of skills to them. And, most importantly, improving Uganda’s human capital, particularly for women like Evelyn, who completed her primary though not her secondary (high) school education, is crucial to achieving a more inclusive growth that accelerates poverty reduction.