Today many young people coming out of secondary education: only 25% attend higher education, where access is very low and inequitable. Of which too large a share of students are in humanities and arts relative to sciences/engineering (50% vs. 17%); great variation in quality and abysmal quality of External Degree Programs (40% of total enrollment) another 30% enroll in TVET with low quality and relevance to market needs the remaining 45% will have limited opportunity to acquire further job-specific skills (except on the job market).
On the other hand employers see skills shortage as a major constraint; and question the quality and relevance of general education, TVET and higher education. Therefore, the national education strategy needs to take into account that skill building is a continuous process starting from early childhood: “Skills beget skills” along the life-cycle. Focusing only on the end of the education cycle may be too late and not address the core issues.
