ETF goes global - Africa Skills Week 2026

The ETF is going increasingly global as the agency applies its expertise and skills guidance at a different scale, from supporting countries to regions, to a whole continent to enable mobility, bolster cooperation and improve economic integration. 

The ETF has worked for decades with its core partner countries surrounding the European Union, including North Africa. But in recent years the ETF has deepened its engagement with sub-Saharan Africa as the continent’s 54 countries increasingly work together to recognise qualifications, bolster technical and vocational education and training (TVET), and heighten inter-African trade as part of longer-term economic development goals.

Indicative of the ETF spreading its wings, the agency took part in the WorldSkills Conference in Shanghai, China in September as a key partner in the “Towards a Global TVET Agenda” initiative, and in presenting preliminary results of the Africa Skills Landscape (ASL) mapping of TVET initiatives across the continent. Just a few weeks later, on 12-16 October, the ETF took part in the African Union’s Africa Skills Week, which was held in Harare, Zimbabwe.

With Africa the second most-populous continent after Asia, with a population of 1.59 billion, and a median age of 19 years old, there is a pressing need to create more economic opportunities and quality jobs, particularly as the population is slated to continue to grow for several decades even as fertility rates decline. 

“With over 12 million young Africans entering the labour market annually, we must pivot from traditional knowledge transmission to agile, industry-responsive education and skills systems,” said Professor Gaspard Banyankimbona, the African Union Commission’s (AUC) Commissioner for Education, Science, Technology and Innovation at Africa Skills Week. 

African Continental Qualifications Framework

A key project in enabling this transition has been the African Union’s African Continental Qualifications Framework (ACQF) and its network of countries, which the ETF implemented through a €5 million initiative on behalf of the European Commission.

The project started in 2023 and will continue until 2027. It is progressively transitioning towards the ACQF Network of African qualifications authorities to support the continued implementation of the framework  to make qualifications across the continent more transparent, comparable and portable. The ETF is continuing to provide technical assistance to enhance sustainability and African ownership of the framework, with the objective “to leave behind functioning tools, expertise and cooperation structures that African partners can continue to develop,” said Thierry Foubert, head of the Projects and Partners Unit at the ETF.

To bolster harmonisation and wider acceptance of qualifications throughout the continent, the ETF has worked extensively on capacity building and the development of tools and methodologies, including data on qualifications and qualifications frameworks, and recognition of prior learning and micro-credentials, working particularly closely with over 20 countries. A continental digital Qualifications and Credentials Platform (QCP) has also been launched, with a public interface to ensure transparency and facilitate access to information on qualifications across countries, as well as to support mobility and the recognition of qualifications. 

“There’s a big need to have accreditation that goes beyond borders, as big infrastructure developments for instance do go across borders. It is also a strong part of the EU’s strategy for Africa in the coming years, to focus on skills development initiatives which support those investments, and why we want the involvement of the private sector and regulators from qualifications agencies,” said Maria Rosenstock, the ETF’s human capital development expert and coordinator for qualifications.

The ACQF is being strategically developed with other African Union initiatives that are encouraging the mobility of people and being key to the role out of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), the Continental TVET Strategy (CTVET Strategy), Continental Education Strategy for Africa (CESA) and PAQAF, the Pan-African Quality Assurance and Accreditation Framework.

Workforce mobility and free trade

Such educational and qualifications-based initiatives have come at an opportune time as the first phase of AfCFTA is rolled out, with the aim of creating a single continental market for goods and services, and to facilitate investment and the movement of people.

 “The operationalisation of the AfCFTA has opened up avenues for inter-African trade, regional value chain integration, and collective industrialisation. However, this will not only succeed based on increased tariff reductions,” said Dr. Emmerson Mnangagwa, the President of Zimbabwe at Africa Skills Week. 

“Through regional cooperation we must as Africa establish regional centres of excellence to train the workforce that will power Africa’s green transition, broaden industrialisation, and similarly, workforce mobility… To this end we must scale up the implementation of the ACQF, and have African solutions to African challenges.” President Mnangagwa also linked skills development to the African Union’s Agenda 2063 and the Action Plan for the Accelerated Industrial Development of Africa.

The ETF has been involved in supporting Centres of Vocational Excellence (CoVEs) with its Network for Excellence (ENE) linking centres internationally, and in the continent through the ENE Africa, which connects CoVEs and VET providers to drive skills development and system-wide reform.

Such initiatives are bolstering Africa but also the EU’s comprehensive strategy with Africa, with skills, TVET and the recognition of qualifications key to the roll out of strategic investments in green energy, digital connectivity, infrastructure, and health, such as the Global Gateway initiative (2021-2027), which has allocated €150 billion of its total €300 billion global budget specifically to Africa.