Advancing Vocational Excellence in Africa: ETF–Enabel Camp in Dar es Salaam

This week, Dar es Salaam is hosting the Camp on Centres of Vocational Excellence in Africa, a three-day hands-on exchange bringing together practitioners, policymakers and training providers to rethink how skills systems can better serve a rapidly changing continent. Organised by the European Training Foundation and Enabel, the Belgian development agency, the camp builds on a partnership already tested at the Casablanca conference in 2024, moving the conversation from dialogue into action.

From 25 to 27 March 2026, around 100 participants from 16 countries, including Angola, DRC, Guinea, Malawi, Morocco, Mozambique and Uganda, are working through a packed programme of site visits, technical workshops and policy discussions. 

Christine Rwankote (Enabel Tanzania) stressed that the work is far from over once a Centre of Vocational Excellence (CoVEs) is established: "CoVEs are not an end point, it is a journey of sustained collaboration, innovation and commitment." Georgios Zisimos (ETF) framed the broader significance of the model, noting that

 "CoVEs are good models of skills ecosystems which make partnerships with the private sector more effective," and that the camp itself "offers the opportunity to learn more about this model and how to adapt it to a given national or local context."

The Dar es Salaam Institute of Technology and the National Institute of Transport have opened their doors, grounding the debate in real practice, while sessions on work-based learning, digital skills and private sector engagement in vocational education and training push toward a shared understanding of what vocational excellence actually looks like on the ground.

Running through everything is a concrete ambition: turning CoVEs into genuine hubs for innovation, inclusion and labour market integration, and ultimately into building blocks for a more skilled, resilient and prosperous Africa. The ETF's Cookbook on Vocational Excellence offers the conceptual backbone, framing governance, funding, partnerships and pedagogy as the key ingredients of high-performing systems, while tools like ISATCOVE (International Self-Assessment Tool for Centres of Vocational Excellence) help translate those principles into measurable progress.

The timing matters. With the African Continental TVET Strategy (2025–2034) now entering its implementation phase, Centres of Excellence are emerging as key drivers of reform, spaces for scaling what works, building peer learning and anchoring innovation across regions, while helping ensure that European investments leave a lasting mark.

ETF and Enabel will keep working alongside African partners to build evidence, strengthen capacity and grow what's already showing results.

More news to come from Tanzania and the ETF-Enabel partnership in Africa. Stay tuned!