Building a Responsive and Resilient Vocational Education and Training System in Benin MAY 2022 Education Global Practice Western Africa 1 Disclaimer This report is a product of the staff of The World Bank with external contributions. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this report do not necessarily reflect the views of The World Bank, its Board of Executive Directors, or the governments they represent. The World Bank does not guarantee the accuracy and completeness of the data included in this report and does not assume responsibility for any errors, omissions, or discrepancies in the information, or liability with respect to the use of or failure to use the information, methods, processes, or conclusions set forth. The boundaries, colors, denominations, and other information shown on any map in this work do not imply any judgment on the part of The World Bank concerning the legal status of any territory or the endorsement or acceptance of such boundaries. 2 Table of Contents Acknowledgements .........................................................................................................................4 Abbreviations and Acronyms ...........................................................................................................5 Executive Summary .........................................................................................................................6 Opportunities and Challenges for the Benin TVET System .............................................................8 Status of the Sector and the TVET Reforms Prerequisites ............................................................16 System of Governance and Financing ...........................................................................................28 Ensuring the Quality and Relevance of TVET programs ................................................................42 Policy Recommendations ..............................................................................................................57 References .....................................................................................................................................63 Annex 1. Comparison of Formal Sector Employment in Benin and Korea ....................................65 Annex 2. TVET Governance in Ghana, Kenya, South Africa and India ...........................................66 Annex 3: TVET Financing ................................................................................................................68 3 Acknowledgements This report was prepared by a World Bank team led by Anna Olefir, Senior Education Specialist (HAEE1) and Venkatesh Sundararaman, Lead Economist (HMNED), with contributions from Kevin Alan David Macdonald, Economist (HSAED), George Afeti, Skills Development Adviser (HAWE2), Jayarajan Tana Pakion, TVET Advisor (HAWE2), Yacinthe Gbaye, Senior Economist (HAWE2) and Alexandre Ben-Aziz Kutu Henry, Economist (EAWM1). The work was carried out under the overall supervision of Coralie Gevers, Country Director (AWCF2), Atou Seck, Country Manager (AWMBJ), Meskerem Mulatu, Practice Manager (HAWE2), and Waly Wane, Practice Leader (HAWDR). Valuable guidance was received from the peer reviewers Roberta Malee Bassett, Senior Education Specialist (HAEE2) and Mohamed Ihsan Ajwad, Senior Economist (HMNSP). Special thanks are extended to the Ministry of Secondary, Technical and Vocational Education and Training of Benin, the Technical Education Development Agency and the Sèmè City Development Agency for information and data provided to the team. Cover photograph: Chantal Médégnon who participated in vocational training and holds a certificate in electricity, construction, and industry. Photo credit: Stephane Brabant/World Bank. 4 Abbreviations and Acronyms ADET Technical Education Development Agency (l'Agence de Développement de l'Enseignement Technique) ADSC Sèmè City Development Agency AQP Certificate of Professional Qualification (l’Attestation de Qualification Professionnelle) CFP Vocational training centers (Centres de formation professionnelle) CQM Trades Qualification Certificate (Certificat de Qualification aux Métiers) CQP Professional Qualification Certificate (Certificat de Qualification Professionnelle) CSO Civil society organization COVID-19 Coronavirus Disease 2019 DIPIQ Directorate of Pedagogical Inspection, Innovation and Quality (Direction de l’Inspection Pédagogique, de l’Innovation et de la Qualité) ECI Economic Complexity Index ECOWAS Economic Community of West African States EM Trade School (Ecoles de métiers) EMIS Education Management Information System FODEFCA Fund for Continuing Vocational Education and Training Development and Apprenticeships (Fonds de Développement de la Formation Professionnelle Continue et de l’Apprentissage) GDP Gross Domestic Product GOB Government of Benin HCI Human Capital Index INSAE National Institute of Statistics and Economic Analysis (Institut National de Statistique et de l’Analyse Economique) INStaD National Institute of Statistics and Demography (Institut National de la Statistique et de la Démographie) IMF International Monetary Fund LTA Agricultural Technical High Schools (Lycées Techniques Agricoles) NEET Not in Employment, Education or Training NGO Nongovernmental organization NQF National Qualifications Framework TVET Technical and Vocational Education and Training PAG Government Action Program (Programme d’action du gouvernement) RPL Recognition of prior learning SDG Sustainable Development Goals STA Science and agriculture (Sciences et techniques agricoles) STAG Science and administration and management (Sciences et techniques administrative et de gestion) STEFS Science and family and social education (Sciences et techniques de l’economie familiale et sociale) STHRT Science and hotel and restaurant management, and tourism (Sciences et techniques de l’hôtellerie, restauration et tourisme) STI Science and industry (Sciences et techniques industrielles) STMS Medical and social sciences (Sciences et techniques médico-sociales) UIS UNESCO Institute for Statistics UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization QA Quality assurance 5 Executive Summary Benin has embarked on an ambitious reform of rapid expansion of its technical and vocational education training (TVET) sector with the goal, among others, to increase enrollment tenfold by 2030. The country has a young, rapidly growing population. Approximately 200,000 young people reach working age every year putting significant stress on the labor market, and preparing them for productive jobs is a national, social and political priority. Investments in the Benin’s human development are important to support the government’s economic growth objectives. Benin needs to accumulate productive knowledge and use it to develop more complex goods and services where the country has a competitive or comparative edge to facilitate economic development. In 2019, Benin ranked 104 out of 138 countries in the Economic Complexity Index (ECI). This ranking indicates that Benin could do more in diversifying its production of exports, which would not only reduce its concentration on primary exports, but also lead to more equitable distribution of wealth and stronger economic growth. Diversification of the economy into higher productivity areas would also create more and better jobs. This in turn would put new demands on workers to find ways to attain new or develop existing skill to meet the needs of a changing labor market. Benin has committed to improving human capital outcomes of its citizens through investments in health, social protection, and education. This has been a long-standing commitment, and in recent years, Benin has begun to make progress in governance reforms, the planning process and target setting, as well as in the policy environment. A specific area of focus and one that has received support from the very highest levels of government is the focus on skills development and technical and vocational education and training (TVET). The government has put in place significant reforms to support this subsector with the aim to increase the skills base of the Beninese workforce and the population more generally, to enhance the coordination and functioning of the sector, to strengthen sectoral and institutional governance, and to improve system efficiency and relevance of programs to the needs of the labor market. Perhaps most importantly, the government seeks to strengthen the quality of training programs to ensure that learners leave the education system with the requisite skills needed to transition to the world of work. This policy note was prepared in parallel to the preparation of a lending operation in Benin and to help inform the team of a key set of opportunities and constraints in the Beninese skills development sector. The due diligence note was used to help define the project objectives and identify the boundaries and contours of the operation. The objective of this policy note is to inform the ongoing TVET reforms. The note assesses the effectiveness of the TVET system in Benin and provides policy recommendations for improvements. The integrated regional survey on employment and the informal sector data were used to estimate the returns to vocational education. This policy note also presents a perspective on the plans to rapidly expand the sector, drawing on the experience of other economies including high-growth East Asian countries, and also considers global trends, technological advances, climate change, and structural challenges, including the high level of informal employment and gender inequality. Together, these perspectives emphasize the critical importance of a market-based approach to TVET and the need for government interventions to alleviate the main market failures. By effectively intervening in governance capacity, accountability arrangements, financing, and data provision, Benin’s TVET sector can establish the foundation needed to efficiently support the market for skills and respond to the rapidly changing skill needs of the world economy in the 21st century. The report is organized into five chapters. Chapter 1 presents background information outlining opportunities, challenges and reforms in the Benin TVET System. Chapter 2 provides broader analysis of the TVET system in Benin. The next chapter analyzes the recent developments and reforms to system of governance and financing. 6 While chapter 4 assesses the quality assurance (QA) system in TVET, chapter 5 summarizes the key reform options and policy recommendations. The reforms envisaged in the rapid expansion of the sector will place the TVET system under significant pressure on multiple fronts. Therefore, it must employ more staff, focus on staff professional development, provide educational resources and laboratories, and expand school infrastructure, including improvements to the use of technology. The main challenge facing the TVET system is ensuring that expansion does not negatively affect the quality of the TVET system or relevance of TVET programs. A systematic approach is necessary for improving and ensuring the quality of TVET. Therefore, TVET reforms should be driven by quality of provision, labor market needs, innovation, and digital technologies with a strong focus on employability and entrepreneurship. Increasing enrollments in TVET will partially depend on raising the attractiveness of TVET, which in turn relies on young people’s perception of TVET as a viable pathway to good jobs and decent livelihoods or as a progression toward higher academic and professional levels. The reforms to expand TVET provision should therefore be underpinned by quality, mechanisms for absorption of graduates into the labor market, and policies that promote the deliberate educational choice of TVET. Reforming the TVET system in Benin requires adequate resources and sustained efforts over time to modernize the TVET architecture and ecosystem as well as the sector itself. Key priorities include: Short-term: • Modernizing the TVET sector governance, improving coordination across the TVET ecosystem, and streamlining organizational structures, developing administrative and regulatory guidelines for institutional autonomy; • Strengthening data systems with skills audits, national skills surveys, and tracking of trainees into employment, as well as supporting the use of data for decision-making; • Ensuring institutional and systemwide faculty development, providing educational resources and laboratories, and expanding school infrastructure including digitization of TVET, with sustainable approaches and cultivation of a green culture in TVET; Medium-term: • Strengthening links between the education and training sector, employers and social partners, as well as enhancing the role of the private sector and strategic partners in the TVET ecosystem and promoting industry relevance through appropriate certification; • Developing and maintaining an inclusive national TVET qualifications framework; ensuring a strong and independent QA system; establishing, maintaining and improving, on a continuous basis, the internal QA system within each TVET institution, with close involvement of academic staff and students; • Mainstreaming gender effectively into the TVET institutional structures, systems, programmes and activities; • Developing sustainable financing models for TVET with a focus on the employability of graduates and diversifying sector financing to improve sustainability. Global trends further illustrate the need for a TVET system that can be responsive and flexible to changing demand for skills in the labor market. It is also clear that not everyone in target populations have an equal access to participate in the TVET sub-sector and that are clear needs to eliminate sociocultural barriers and ensure an efficient allocation of talent in the labor force. This is particularly true for women, who appear to be less actively engaged in the labor market relative to men, despite their openness to employment opportunities in Benin. 7 Section 1. Opportunities and Challenges for the Benin TVET System Benin is facing significant skills gaps across a range of sectors, which is impacting the country’s economic growth, and particularly its ability to build a strong and resilient recovery following the pandemic. This is particularly pernicious given that the rates of underemployment in the country remain quite high, even as there are jobs that remain vacant and unfilled because workers lack the needed skills to perform these jobs. Benin has therefore made the decision to invest in human capital development with a specific focus on improving the skills of its citizens through investments in technical education and vocational training (TVET). 8 Introduction 1. Located on the West African coast, Benin has a rapidly growing, young population, and preparing them for productive jobs is a national, social and political priority. Benin shares borders with four countries and provides key maritime access to its landlocked neighbors.1 The population was estimated to be 12.1 million in 2020, and it is growing at a rapid rate of nearly 3 percent annually (United Nations 2019). The population is young, with a median age of 18.4, with about 42 percent younger than age 15.2 The proportion rises to 63 percent for the under-25. This results in significant stress being placed on the labor market with approximately 200,000 young people reaching working age every year.3 The total fertility rate stands at 4.8 children per woman in 2019, hence, the youth cohorts entering the labor force will continue to grow in the foreseeable future (UN 2019). For many youths, technical and vocational training is key for their professional career, whether they consider starting their business or becoming a salaried worker. 2. Poverty is widespread despite periods of economic growth. The real gross domestic product (GDP) of Benin has increased at an average rate of 5.6 percent annually between 2016 to 2019, resulting in a per capita gross national income (2019) of US$1,250 as of July 1, 2020, moving Benin into lower-middle-income country status. However, this economic growth has not been broad-based and poverty headcount rates remain unacceptably high with over a third of the population living below the national poverty line.4 The economic growth slowly translates into improved human capital outcomes for the Beninese population. The country has made some progress on the human development front and on improving human capital outcomes. The 2020 World Bank’s Human Capital Index (HCI) for Benin is estimated to be 0.40 and ranks Benin at 127 out of 157. This means that a child born in Benin today will be 40.0 percent as productive when he or she grows up compared to what could have been achieved with a full complement of education and health inputs. This outcome is largely driven by weaknesses in the education sector and is slightly lower than the average for lower-middle-income countries. On a positive note, between 2010 and 2020, the HCI value for Benin increased from 0.37 to 0.40. Currently, a child who starts school at age 4 can expect to complete 9.2 years of school by age 18. However, when factoring in what children actually learn, expected years of schooling represent only 5.7 years, corresponding to a learning gap of 3.5 years. Significant disparities in achievement levels persist between students from the wealthiest 20.0 percent and those from the rest of the population. The pandemic threatens economic and social development through disruptions, losses in lives, jobs, incomes, and learning, and creates new fiscal pressures. 3. Benin grew strongly prior to the COVID-19 pandemic with growth estimated to be 5.7 percent, 6.7 percent and 6.9 percent for 2017, 2018 and 2019, respectively. There was strong growth in the transport and logistics sector, particularly activities at the port as well as a strong performance by the agriculture sector, especially the cotton sector, with significant increases in production quantities. This strong performance in the years before the pandemic has helped Benin weather the impacts of the pandemic. Benin entered the pandemic period with strong macroeconomic fundamentals, necessary fiscal space, and access to financing, all of which limited the spread of negative impacts of the pandemic (IMF 2021). With some aspects of the economy recovering, most notably the transport and logistics sector, a robust recovery is underway. However, there have been setbacks that continue to influence Benin’s economic recovery such as weather-related events in the 1 Benin shares borders with Togo on the western border, Burkina Faso to the northwest, Niger to the north, and Nigeria on the east. 2 Benin ranks 21 out of 228 in terms of percentage of the population under age 15. World Bank estimates based on United Nations Population Division's World Population Prospects (United Nations n.d.). 3 See employment data of the National Institute of Statistics and Economic Analysis (Institut National de Statistique et de l’Analyse Economique; INSAE), August 2017. 4 The poverty headcount rate was 38.5 percent in 2019, representing about 4.5 million people living in absolute poverty. 9 agriculture sector in 2021 and the ongoing economic stress of border closures with Nigeria5 in 2019. Prior to the pandemic, Benin’s focus was largely aligned with efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). The policy priorities to support this objective included the creation of budgetary space to support development programs and priorities, ensure debt sustainability objectives, support the diversification and transformation of the economy (box 1), reduce risks related to growth objectives, and enable government reforms that underpin these transformations. As Benin seeks to recover from these economic impacts, it will need to make improvements to its business environment, by increasing agricultural and industrial productivities and rapidly improving access to and quality of education and teacher training. While the government has already initiated reforms in the health and education sector, more investments in human capital are needed for Benin to achieve its broader goals of sustainable development. Box 1. Benin’s Ranking on the Economic Complexity Index In 2019 Benin ranked 104 out of 138 countries in the Economic Complexity Index (ECI). The ECI is calculated based on the diversity of exports a country produces compared with the ubiquity of these exports, i.e., the number of the same exports produced by other countries. When a country exhibits more diverse productive know-how, it produces a more diverse range of sophisticated products. The complexity of exports of a country is highly predictive of its rapid economic growth in the future. Source: The Observatory of Economic Complexity (https://atlas.cid.harvard.edu/glossary). 4. The COVID-19 pandemic has had significant impact on the Beninese economy. In 2020, the country’s real GDP growth slowed to 3.8 percent. The pandemic also exposed the underperformance of key economic sectors such as transport and logistics, trade, agriculture, and hospitality. Even though the country sustained economic growth prior to the pandemic, the poverty rate remained unacceptably high, with nearly a third of the population living below the national poverty line. Moreover, while Benin has performed better than many other countries in managing the pandemic in the early months, in September 2021, the country witnessed its worst period of the pandemic, with nearly 4,760 weekly cases registered. A large-scale vaccination campaign contributed to lifting the share of vaccinated population from less than 2 percent in early November 2021 to 15 percent in early February 2022. Despite these efforts, the country remains vulnerable to the new variants and future outbreaks. As of 2022, investment and private consumption levels have fallen and inflation has sharply increased. While tax revenues have remained resilient (+6.1 percent year over year), they are significantly below initial projections. There has also been a need for a greater increase in social spending (40.3 percent year over year). Therefore, to address the ongoing and future impact of the pandemic, Benin needs to adjust its policy priorities in the short and medium term. 5 The unilateral decision by Nigeria to close its borders with some neighboring countries, including Benin, has impacted the growth of the Beninese economy and impacted a key economic sector – transport and logistics. This decision by the Nigerian government predated COVID-19 and was motivated by Nigeria’s stated desire to curb cross -border smuggling of agricultural products and spur local agricultural production, while also attempting to control the illegal smuggling of illicit drugs and weapons into Nigeria. In late 2020, four borders were reopened although a final solution has not been found. Both countries are working on some mutually beneficial measures such as joint customs checkpoints and police brigades. Meanwhile in December 2021, leaders of all West African countries committed to reopening all land borders by January 1, 2022, to facilitate the flow of goods and people, which had been brought to a halt due to the pandemic. (See https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/top-news/500689-ecowas-leaders-agree-to-reopen-land-borders-in-january- 2022.html.) 10 Box 2. COVID-19 impact on Benin Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, Benin’s economy was impacted by disruptions in trade with neighboring Nigeria and the protracted border closure, which lasted most of 2020. Economic growth dropped from 6.9 percent in 2019 to 3.8 percent in 2020 (+1.0 percent in per capita terms). However, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, while it impacted Benin’s growth performance in 2020, the country’s real GDP growth remained one of the most resilient in the region and has strongly recovered since early 2021. The government’s swift socioeconomic response plan to the pandemic, combined with the continuation of large public infrastructure projects contributed to the country’s growth and recovery. On the supply side, all sectors were impacted. Agriculture suffered from labor shortages, and the services and industry sectors was projected to slow down sharply, contributing a mere 0.3 and 0.8 points to GDP growth, respectively. Physical distancing measures, adopted in the second quarter of 2020, affected the retail, hospitality and transport sectors. On the demand side, COVID-19 pandemic affected public consumption (+ 19.6 percent year over year) and investment (+ 46.1 percent year over year), although the government stepped in to bolster the economy. However, uncertainty about future outbreaks continues to discourage private investments, and net exports with Nigeria remain subdued. The education sector was adversely impacted. As part of the response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the government closed all schools (preschool, primary, secondary, vocational education, and universities) from March 30, 2020 to May 10, 2020. Consequently, about 16,000 schools (all levels of education combined) were closed, affecting more than 3.3 million students and 88,000 teachers. Disruption in learning due to school closures tend to lead to learning losses, dropout of disadvantaged students, and increased inequality, disproportionately impacting girls, children from poorest households, and other vulnerable groups. Benin’s Labor Market 5. Benin’s working-age population (ages 15–65) is generally characterized by low educational attainment. While this has begun to change in recent years given the progress that the country has made in getting more children into school, increased school completion rates for these recent cohorts, and the growing share of youth in the population, there remain significant weaknesses in Benin’s education and training system. While the labor force is young with 61.2 percent of workers ages 15–34, about two-thirds of workers in Benin have incomplete primary education, highlighting the low educational attainment of the workforce and underlying the importance of strengthening the education and skill sectors to provide second-chance programs to help improve and ensure a more skilled workforce. Workers with secondary and postsecondary education level (not in school) account for about a 20.0 percent of the labor force. The share of males who attended postsecondary education is 6.4 percent, 4 times higher than that of females at 1.5 percent. However, since these children and youth are a significant proportion of the overall population, and they have higher school completion rates, the educational attainment of the working-age population is expected to increase (figures 1 and 2), but more could be done to ensure that as this cohort of youth enters the workforce they are equipped with the skills needed for the labor market. 11 Figure 1. Distribution of individuals ages 15–65 Figure 2. Primary and lower secondary (not in school), by highest level of education completion rates for latest attempted available years Source: World Bank estimates using ERI-ESI 2018 data. Source: UISSTAT / World Bank EdStats. 6. There are concerns about working-age population not in employment, education or training. According to the Benin Regional Integrated Survey on Employment and the Informal Sector (Enquête Régionale Intégrée sur l'Emploi et le Secteur Informel; ERI-ESI), 22.3 percent of the working-age population is not in employment, education or training (NEET). A high NEET rate, as compared with the youth unemployment rate, could mean that a large number of youths are discouraged workers, or they do not have access to education (figure 3). The percentage of the out-of-school working-age population not in the labor force generally decreases with level of education (figure 4). Because NEETs are not improving their future employability through education or gaining experience through employment, they are particularly at risk of exclusion from the labor market (Elder 2015), especially women who are nearly twice as likely as men to be discouraged from the entering the labor force and lack access to educational opportunities. Figure 3. Labor market status distribution Figure 4. Labor market status for individuals of individuals ages 15–65 ages 15–65 not in school Source: World Bank estimates using ERI-ESI 2018 data. Note: *The number of observations of individuals who have attempted technical secondary school is low (55 observations). 7. Addressing gender disparity in TVET could bring more female workers into the labor force . Gender mainstreaming is a growing global trend to improve gender parity in TVET programs. While women and female youth are twice as likely as men to be willing to accept employment, they are not actively searching and have opted out of the labor market. This group is often described as discouraged job seekers or hidden unemployed. 12 They are part of potential labor that has exited the labor market altogether. There is a similar pattern in women and girls opting out of school. Girls are more likely to permanently leave the schooling systems after COVID-like disruptions than boys. Another factor for girls leaving school is teenage pregnancy, and the pregnancy rates tend to increase at the time of school closure. Gender disparity is a key concern in terms of both primary and lower- secondary completion rates, adding to gender differences in educational attainment of the working-age population. Reshaping TVET to be more gender inclusive could help encourage more girls and women to stay in school and gain tools to equip them to enter the world of work, which in turn would help Benin more fully realize its workforce potential. Formal Versus Informal Sector 8. The labor market is characterized by a high degree of informality, both in employment and in how jobs are obtained.6 About 16.0 percent of working individuals in Benin ages 15–65 (and not in school) report either being employed by an establishment or an employer; the remaining 84.0 percent reported working on their own account or for households (figure 5). The gender differences are large, with 8.5 percent of women classified as employee or employer versus 22.7 percent of men. The percent classified as employee or employer increases with education level, with up to 68.4 percent of those having attended postsecondary school. In terms of job searching, individuals found their jobs either by establishing their own enterprise or through family and personal relations (figure 6). For example, only 2.3 percent of workers obtained their job through some sort of competitive selection. The share of workers who did not obtain their jobs through personal or family relations, or by setting up their own enterprise, decreases among those with higher levels of education; however, almost 50.0 percent of those who attended postsecondary education still found their job through these two methods. Figure 5. Percent of workers ages 15–65 not in Figure 6. Distribution of job source school classified as an employee or employer for working individuals ages 15–65 (versus working on their own account or for not in school households) Source: World Bank estimates using ERI-ESI 2018 data. Source: World Bank estimates using ERI-ESI 2018 data. Note: *Small sample for those who have attempted technical secondary school 6 The report uses the definition of informality from the 2018 Benin Regional Integrated Survey on Employment and the Informal Sector (Enquête Régionale Intégrée sur l'Emploi et le Secteur Informel; ERI-ESI). Informal workers are those who work on their own account or for households. It is important to note that wage workers may also engage in informal enterprises. The high proportion of informal sector work complicates the government’s goal of facilitating work for TVET graduates. 13 9. In Benin, the share of employment in the informal sector is high when compared with other countries with a similar of GDP per capita. The percent of workers in Benin employed in the formal sector is quite low compared to other countries around the same GDP per capita (figure 7). Having a high level of informal employment is likely to remain a feature of Benin’s labor market for the coming decades . However, there is limited and mixed evidence on the cyclicality of the informal and formal sectors of the economy and it is dependent on the sources of the shocks driving the business cycle, formal sector rigidities, the extent of the informality and the absorptive capacity of the informal market (World Bank 2019c). Based on the projected growth in Benin’s GDP per capita, it is reasonable to expect that the informal sector will continue to be the most important provider of jobs in Benin until 2040. Figure 7. Percent of workers in wage or salary jobs, by country and GDP per capita Source: World Bank estimates using World Bank Open Data. 10. Benin has relatively high informal sector employment when compared to Asian countries that went through similar transformations. Formal sector employment in Benin was less than half of the rate that the Republic of Korea had when Korea had the same level of GDP per capita. In 1965, when Korea had approximately the same GDP per capita as Benin, 32 percent of Korea’s workers were employed in wage and salary jobs (annex 1). This is nearly three times Benin’s level of 12 percent. It was not until the early 1980s that a majority of Korea’s workers were employed in wage and salary jobs, when Korea had a level of GDP per capita that Benin is expected to reach in 2040 given current growth projections. Similarly, Indonesia and Thailand have relatively low levels of informal sector employment, which can be seen from data on wage and salary worker dating back to 1991. Latest figures for Indonesia and Thailand place wage and salary employment at 48 percent and 50 percent, respectively. Judging from the experience of these countries, Benin’s high level of informal sector employment is expected to last for some time, with implications for the vocational education. Labor Market Engagement of the Youth Population 11. Underemployment and skills mismatch in the workplace are pervasive, especially for youth. The unemployment rate in Benin is very low at about 2 percent of the labor force. However, underemployment7 7 Underemployment is defined as those who either involuntarily work part-time (underemployment by hours) or work full- time but earn less than a minimal salary, such as the minimum wage or poverty line (underemployment by earnings). 14 affects nearly 72 percent of those Beninese who report being gainfully employed, and almost 92 percent of the youth between the ages of 15 to 24.8 The vast majority are underemployed in terms of earnings, and underemployment in term of hours is also pervasive. Underemployment also arises from a mismatch between an individual’s job and his or her education or training. Underemployment and skills mismatch in the workplace are common, especially for youth. The typical underemployed worker is disproportionately young, female, rural, self-employed, with low levels of education, and engaged primarily in agriculture, livestock, fishing and forestry. The public and formal private sectors are still very small in Benin, amounting to only 10 percent of the job on offer. However, neither informal nor formal sectors are monolithic. For example, not all who work in the informal sector are poor, and not all who work in the formal sector are above the poverty line. There are significant within-group variations. 12. While data on labor market outcomes of TVET programs are limited, the labor market generally rewards education in Benin. One way of identifying the benefits of investing in education is to estimate the returns to schooling (Patrinos 2016). The returns to schooling are defined as the increase in personal income associated with an increase in one year of schooling, keeping all other things constant. Analysis of earnings using a Mincerian earnings function shows that the return to education in Benin increases with the level of education.9 Table 1. Returns to education using Mincerian earnings function Primary 0.23*** (0.053) Secondary cycle 1 0.374*** (0.065) Secondary cycle 2 0.826*** (0.073) Secondary technical 1.104*** (0.3) Postsecondary 1.283*** (0.089) Experience 0.031*** (0.005) Experience square / 100 -0.033*** (0.007) Female -0.424*** (0.035) Constant 9.475*** (0.095) Observations 4641 R-square 0.15 Source: World Bank estimates using ERI-ESI 2018 data. Note: For highest level of education attempted. Standard errors are in parentheses. Asterisks *** denote the significance level at 1 percent. 8 World Bank Open Data: https://data.worldbank.org/. 9 Given the limited data available, it is not possible to infer whether individuals who had attended technical secondary had higher earnings than those with general secondary education due to the small number of individuals who had attended technical secondary education. 15 Section 2. Status of the Sector and the TVET Reforms Prerequisites TVET services are underprovided in Benin with only about 30,000 learners being able to access formal TVET programs. The vast majority of Beninese students choose to attend general secondary education and not technical secondary education. The number of students in TVET institutions (public and private) in 2019– 2020 was 3.8 per 100 students at the general secondary education level. This bias toward general secondary is evident in the choices that both children and their parents make given that they do not realize or understand the relevance of TVET to the needs of the labor market. The Government of Benin’s aims to significantly increase the number of students accessing TVET programs. This section reviews both the current status of TVET in Benin and the opportunities and challenges for increasing the number of trainees taking formal skills development opportunities. 16 Key Facts of the Benin TVET System 13. The Benin education system begins with six years of schooling. Upon successful completion of this primary level, students can choose between two different secondary education paths. One is general secondary which runs for 7 years in two cycles: cycle 1 is 4 years, and cycle 2 is 3 years. Students following this path would have 13 years of schooling. The other secondary education path is technical secondary, which runs for 6 years in two cycles: cycle 1 is 3 years, and cycle 2 is also 3 years. Students taking this path would have 12 years of schooling. Both secondary education paths offer academic tertiary programs or technical/diploma certificates for seamless learning opportunities. Figure 8. Benin education and training system Source: The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s ( UNESCO) International Centre for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (UNEVOC) 2014. 14. Benin has made significant progress on boosting human development and improving human capital outcomes. The 2020 World Bank’s HCI for Benin is estimated to be 0.40 and ranks Benin at 127 out of 157. This means that a child born in Benin today will be 40 percent as productive when he or she grows up compared to what could have been achieved with a full complement of education and health inputs. This outcome is largely driven by weaknesses in the education sector and is slightly lower than the average for lower-middle-income countries. However, on a positive note, the HCI value for Benin increased from 0.37 to 0.40 between 2010 and 2020. Currently, a child who starts school at age 4 can expect to complete 9.2 years of school by age 18. When 17 factoring in what children actually learn while in school, expected years of schooling represents only 5.7 years, corresponding to a learning gap of 3.5 years. Significant disparities in achievement levels persist between students from the wealthiest 20 percent of the population, compared with the rest of the population. These disparities have been further worsened due to the pandemic, which has undermined earlier social and economic gains, and the development objectives of many projects and plans due to pandemic related mortality and morbidity, livelihood losses, and further negative impacts on jobs, incomes, and learning. The Supply Side 15. The enrollment of students in TVET is very low compared with enrollments in general secondary education. Over the period 2011–2018, for every 100 students only 3 on average are enrolled in TVET. In 2018, only 5 percent of students completing lower secondary education enrolled in TVET. Under the Sector Plan for Education (PSE), the objective is to increase this indicator to 15 percent by 2030, which will represent a learner population of 97,222 from the enrollment figure of 25,213 learners recorded in 2015. Attaining this ambitious target will require policy reforms to enhance the attractiveness of TVET to young people by making TVET a preferred pathway to decent jobs and sustainable livelihoods. 16. In Benin, traditional TVET training is divided into two levels (see figure 8). Access to cycle 1 of TVET is conditional on the completion of the second year of lower secondary education, equivalent to 9 years of education (ILO 2021), though it will be subject to changes in the course of ongoing TVET reform. However, among learners ages 5–17, the median years of education is 4. As a result, only 5 percent of secondary age youth are in TVET, totaling around 30,000 young people. The duration of the training is 3 years, except for agricultural sector where the training lasts 4 years, and this leads to a Professional Aptitude Certificate (Certificat d’Aptitude Professionnelle; CAP) or the Tropical Agricultural Studies Brevet (Brevet d’Études Agricoles Tropicales; BEAT) which also allows learners to continue university studies. Access to cycle 2 of TVET is conditional on the completion of the lower secondary education or cycle 1 of TVET. Apart from these traditional training courses that take place in traditional TVET schools, there are special vocational training courses which can be grouped into three categories: (a) vocational training through traditional apprenticeship, (b) vocational training through dual-type apprenticeship,10 and (c) continuing vocational education. The number of learners enrolled in the public dual apprenticeship system was only 2,048 in 2018, although this figure is a remarkable improvement on the 2011 figure of only 871 learners. Under the dual apprenticeship training system, learners spend 4 days in a week at the workshop of a master trainer and 1 day per week for theory lessons in a public TVET college. However, in reality many learners spend 10–16 days in theory classes before returning to the workshop of the master trainer. 17. Technical education is one of the branches of the TVET subsector. Part of the implementation of the National TVET Strategy included an emphasis on technical education in trades in priority sectors of the national economy (table 2). The technical education is defined in the National Development Plan 2018–2025, and the training courses offered in 2019–2020 school year were from the following fields: science and industry (les sciences et techniques industrielles; STI); science and agriculture (les sciences et techniques agricoles; STA); science and administration and management (les sciences et techniques administrative et de gestion; STAG); science and hotel and restaurant management, and tourism (les sciences et techniques de l’hôtellerie, restauration et tourisme; STHRT); science and family and social education (les sciences et techniques de 10 The dual program in Benin developed curricula for over a dozen trades or craft-related occupations for which the dual system is available. The CQP apprentices of these dual programs show significant positive effects in terms of their acquisition of skills, although there remain concerns regarding the true efficacy of these programs. There are some studies that identify weak links with training providers and master craftspeople, and a poor environment for monitoring and evaluation. The CQP programs account for 10 percent of the overall population of trainees. 18 l’economie familiale et sociale; STEFS); medical and social sciences (les sciences et techniques médico-sociales; STMS); infrastructure and environment; and digital field. These courses are provided by public and private institutions, with the exception of specialties / professions in the medical and social sciences, which are only available at the public institution Ecole de Formation Médico-Sociale de Parakou. Table 2. Technical education domains Institutions Domains Sectors STI STAG STA STHRT STEFS STMS Infrastructure/ Digital Tourism environment Public 14 12 10 4 2 1 1 1 1 Private 9 63 1 7 – – – – – Total 23 75 11 11 2 1 1 1 1 18. Out of a total of 103 institutions at technical education level, 27 are public , teaching more than 80 percent of learners compared to 76 private institutions with less than 20 percent of students in the subsector (table 3). Overall, almost 30,000 students studied at this level in 2019–2020 (8 percent at cycle 1, and 92 percent at cycle 2 of TVET). Public institutions focus primarily on training courses in industry and agriculture domains (STI and STA), with over 76 percent of all students pursuing these field. The private sector focuses primarily on administration and management (STAG), with 77 percent of students and 63 institutions in the relevant field of study. Training programs in private institutions are mostly in nontechnological fields which are not in demand in the labor market, thus adding to the number of unemployed in the country. Female students are underrepresented and constitute 9,340 or 31 percent of all students. They primarily study hotel and restaurant management, tourism, family and social education, administration and management, and medical and social fields. Table 3. Technical schools enrollments Institutions Number of students Number Classrooms Number of teachers male female total of groups male female total Public 27 17,791 6,624 24,415 954 586 1,709 261 1,963 Private 76 2,538 2,716 5,254 284 479 984 103 1,087 Total 103 20,329 9,340 29,669 1,238 1,065 2,686 364 3,050 19. Around 3,000 trainers and administrative staff in 103 institutions ensured technical education in 2019–2020. Teaching staff of public institutions consists of state agents (public officials and staff contracted according to the public law) and TVET instructors. The proportion of state agents among trainers is 56 percent, and among them 52 percent hold a professional teaching diploma. In private institutions, the percentage of teaching staff with a professional degree is around 25 percent. 20. The vast majority of public technical education establishments (26 out of 27) have power supply, and 22 institutions have access to drinking water. Overall, 101 out of 103 educational institutions, both public and private, have access to power and 96 to drinking water. The workshops in technical education institutions are predominantly constructed but remain underequipped with materials suitable for training. 21. There are different options for learners to receive vocational training. There are the trade centers (les centres de métiers; CM), vocational training centers (les centres de formation professionnelle; CFP), certain technical education establishments and craft businesses, and vocational training by apprenticeship. Learners can benefit from these professional training opportunities and earn a diploma or qualification in various trades. Earning a diploma upon completion of vocational training is confirmed by the Trades Qualification Certificate (certificat de qualification aux métiers; CQM) or the Professional Qualification Certificate (certificat de 19 Qualification Professionnelle; CQP), depending on whether this training is provided through the traditional or dual type of apprenticeship system. There is also qualifying training confirmed by obtaining the Certificate of Professional Qualification (l’Attestation de Qualification Professionnelle; AQP). This process is in an experimental phase at the Vocational Training Centers of Abomey, Djougou, at the Lycée Technique de Kpondéhou and some private institutions. 22. The overall number of learners in vocational training centers for 2020 was 2,879, up by 7 percent compared to 2019. The share of the private sector is 34 percent, with a total of 33 institutions against 66 percent learners in 15 public ones. The proportion of girls enrolled is 37 percent. Sewing, hairdressing and masonry are the trades with the highest trainees (more than half of the total) while baking, plumbing and the installation and maintenance of solar panels are the trades with limited enrollment. The distribution of the overall enrollment is as follows: 1,571 learners, including 727 girls, i.e., 46 percent in renewed traditional apprenticeship program (CQM); and 937 learners, including 234 girls, i.e., 25 percent in dual apprenticeship program (CQP). 23. A responsive and high-quality skills development system is essential for Benin’s workforce to obtain the skills demanded as Benin transitions through the middle-income stage of development. The current skills development system in Benin, which consists of technical secondary education as well as technical and professional training, is quite small and nascent. The government has put in place an ambitious strategy to improve both the size and effectiveness. Skills demand in Benin is expected to increase and change as a result as production moves up the value chain with economic development, but also due to global trends in technological change. The TVET sector and skill supply more generally has been identified as being crucial to Benin’s economic reform in the Government Action Program (Programme d’Action du Gouvernement; PAG), the National Development Plan for the period 2018–2025, the Education Sector Plan for 2018–2030, and the Strategy on Technical and Vocational Training for 2019–2025. See box 3 for further information. 24. One of the key strategic orientations of the National Development Plan (Plan National de Développement; PND) is the development of a healthy, competent and competitive human capital. Under the proposed reforms, the TVET system is expected to be the engine of growth, offering opportunities for young people to acquire skills that are in demand in the labor market. In this regard, emphasis will be on access, equity, inclusiveness and quality; improving the internal and external efficiency of the system; and amelioration of the governance system. For that, the country needs to improve coordination and execution across multiple agencies. Box 3. Key recommendations from the National TVET Strategy Benin envisions the development of a national TVET strategy for a well-educated and well-trained labor force by 2030. The strategy aims to increase enrollment in TVET by ten-fold in terms of the number of trained students, to eliminate gender disparity, and to implement numerous reforms to improve the quality and market-relevance of TVET. In preparation of its new TVET strategy, the Government of Benin has conducted a TVET diagnostic, which identified a wide range of challenges, both at the system level and service-provider level. At the system level, the diagnostic study noted an overly burdensome administrative structure, numerous outdated regulations that have not been implemented, slow decision-making processes, and fragmentation in governance of the TVET system across several ministries inhibiting accountability for reform and the development of multiple pathways connecting to job-relevant education and the world of work. The resulting inability of the system to respond to demand for skill needs is demonstrated by many employers seeking informally trained workers in basic industrial specialties (e.g., mechanical engineering, car and motorcycle mechanics, carpentry, electricians, plumbers) rather than graduates of TVET programs. 20 At the service-provider level, the diagnostic study found that significant problems with the quality of training provided including outdated curricula, outdated equipment, and a lack of equipment as well as a lack of ongoing professional development for teachers and a weak link between professional development and potential employers. Specifically, the new TVET vision will support the following objectives: ▪ Offer opportunities for integration and mobility through the development and recognition of professional skills that meet the needs of the economy. ▪ Strengthen the skills of active professionals and enable lifelong learning. ▪ Support entrepreneurs and job creators through training and other mechanisms to help them understand the impacts of their decision making and their role in the country’s labor market. ▪ Help establish a diverse, adaptable and accessible set of training opportunities to cater to the multifaceted needs of the labor market, and to help develop skilled labor to meet those needs. ▪ Strengthen the ability of low-skilled craftsmen to access training opportunities by increasing opportunities for those in the labor force with little to no formal education and training. ▪ Benefit from innovative and adequate funding and ensure that there are diverse mechanisms for funding that help support the sector, while simultaneously ensuring that such scarce resources are used in an efficient manner. ▪ Support the evolution of strong partnerships with the private sector to both ensure that training programs are current and relevant to the needs of employers and to keep pace with changing market circumstances. ▪ Improve socioeconomic efficiency, the quality of public service of education and training and management efficiencies in the sector. Source: Ministry of Secondary and Technical Education and Vocational Training (Ministere des Enseignements Secondaire, Technique et de la Formation Professionnelle; MESTFP) (September 2019). 25. Technical and vocational education services are underprovided in terms of quantity and quality.11 The largest employment sector in Benin is the agriculture sector, which accounts for about a third of all workers. These workers typically have little access to training, and the TVET system could do more to attract these learners into their training programs. In 2019–2020, the number of students in technical and vocational training institutions (public and private) was 3.8 per 100 students at the general secondary education level.12 Within these institutions, administrative and management fields tend to be preferred and represent over 53 percent of enrollment, while the agricultural fields enroll only 23 percent of students, despite the agricultural sector being the main provider of employment in Benin. Unfortunately, this enrollment imbalance contributes to youth unemployment to the extent that the job market is unable to absorb the number of students who have focused on the administrative and management fields, while the agricultural students who are working in their fields could use more formal skill-building opportunities rather than the more typical path of acquiring skills through informal apprenticeships. Improving technical and vocational training opportunities are important for these workers who may not be continuing in the traditional academic path to meet specific labor force needs. 11 Systematic Country Diagnostic (SCD), January 2018. 12 See annual statistics of the Ministry of Secondary Education and TVET (2019 –2020). In 2013, out of nearly 896,800 students at the secondary level only 29,300 were engaged in TVET programs. The barriers to entry for those in the workforce is high and it is critical that the entry requirements be modified to increase opportunities for those already dropped out of school in earlier years. The CQP program accommodates about 3,500 of those enrolled or approximately 10 percent. 21 26. Women are significantly underrepresented in Benin’s TVET system and promoting gender parity is a goal of the government’s TVET reform strategy. Currently, 31 percent of TVET students are female, and the government aims to reach 50 percent by 2030. Of course, the economic rationale for promoting gender equity in TVET is to ensure efficient matching of potential talent and field-related needs. Literature on the determinants of gender disparity in specific TVET fields include gender discrimination, social norms, location of TVET schools, and time of day or duration of TVET programs. 27. The government has embarked on the expansion of the TVET system. The technical, economic, and financial feasibility studies for the priority economic sectors have been carried out, and the development of the economic model for each TVET school is in progress. The government is developing plans to expand TVET infrastructure, which include estimating costs for construction of new technical lyceums (lycées techniques agricole; LTA) and trade schools (écoles de métiers; EMs)13. International organizations and firms, such as the France Education international, have already been engaged to support national institutions working on curriculum in revising and improving the design of existing programs, and supporting the development of new ones. This international expertise will also be used to develop a set of teaching and learning materials, assessment and certification procedures, and the requisite equipment requirements.14 To strengthen the quality of training, the government has provided teachers with external and internal training opportunities while attracting international expertise to modernize and strengthen TVET institutions (for example, Lokossa School of Technical Education, l’Ecole Normale Supérieure de l’Enseignement Technique de Lokossa). The actions already undertaken include: (a) the recruitment and training of 24 student teachers in various field at the GIP-Academy of Versailles in France (GIP-Académie de Versailles), which has been ongoing since 2000; and (b) the recruitment of 662 student teachers from LTAs with a view to engage them in training starting in 2022. This training would be held at the National University of Agriculture, with contributions from international expertise and government financing of 2,512,500,000 CFAF (US$4,440,195), which was included in the 2022 national budget. Simulating the Growth of Planned TVET Enrollment in Benin 28. A tenfold increase in TVET enrollment would move Benin from having the one of the lowest TVET secondary enrollment rates, given its GDP per capita, to one of the highest in 2040, given current projections of GDP per capita growth. According UNESCO Institute of Statistics (UIS), in 2016, 1.7 percent of the secondary- age population was enrolled in vocational secondary. A tenfold increase in secondary vocational enrollment would mean that 11.6 percent of the secondary school age population would enroll in vocational secondary schools, resulting in Benin having one of the highest vocational enrollment rates per capita (figure 9). Moreover, based on the IMF’s forecast of growth in GDP per capita,15 this would mean that Benin would have a high level of vocational secondary enrollment until 2040. 13 Construction/rehabilitation and equipment for three existing LTAs and two new LTAs have been included in the national budget starting in 2022, for a total estimated amount of 27 billion CFA francs (equivalent to about US$31.5 million). 14 As part of the pedagogical and training preparation, international expertise is being mobilized to: (a) develop training curricula with effective involvement of the private sector in order to make the training more flexible and responsive to the labor market needs; and (b) draw up the list of equipment, including technical specifications and quantity, as well as to prepare the cost estimates for this equipment while taking into account the number of students/trainees in each training program. 15 The World Economic Outlook (WEO) (IMF 2020) provides forecasts of GDP per capita until 2025; future years’ forecasts were calculated for this note assuming the IMF forecasted growth rate for 2024–2025 continues. 22 Figure 9. TVET enrollment target in comparison with other countries relative to GDP per capita Source: World Bank estimates using World Bank Open Data. 29. A number of countries have increased vocational secondary enrollment rates by 10 percentage points or more within the span of a decade, although only one country, New Zealand, started from such a low base of less than 2.0 percent. In the decade between 1983 and 1993, New Zealand’s secondary enrollment rate in TVET increased from 0.6 percent to 13 percent. The bulk of this increase occurred between 1992 and 1993 with the share of secondary students enrolled in vocational education increasing from 5.0 percent to 13 percent. 30. The East Asia growth model offers interesting insights into the relationship between economic and education policy, given the central role of education in the economic success of many East Asian countries. Studies have shown the effects of education as a driver of growth in Japan, Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, as well as the then-newly industrialized countries of Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia, and these educational effects characterize the key elements of East Asian growth model. For these countries, macroeconomic policies provided a stable environment for private investment to flourish, resulting in a high level of domestic and foreign investment as well as technology transfer (World Bank 1993). All these countries shifted trade policies at the beginning of their period of rapid growth from import-substitution industrialization to an export-orientated model. This began with Japan in the late 1950s and was followed in the mid- to late 1960s by Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Taiwan whose policies promoted manufacturing exports. In the mid- 1980s, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand also reduced trade barriers. Importantly, these countries either had widespread education particularly at the primary level prior to pursuing export-oriented growth or pursued education policies to expand primary and secondary education during their economic growth. This created workforces that, while relatively low skilled and therefore low cost compared to high-income countries, were nonetheless trainable workforces. Having an established basic education system enabled these countries to 23 provide higher levels of schooling to respond to the demand for higher skill labor as their economic growth continued. 31. Benin’s vocational secondary enrollment target for 2030 is higher than when Korea developed its TVET system in 1965. In 1965, Korea had the same GDP per capita as Benin does today, around US$1,200 USD in constant 2005 terms (figure 10). In the same year, Korea began to shift toward export-orientated growth in which light manufacturing exports was the driver (UNESCO 2007). During this time, it had a 7 percent vocational secondary enrollment rate,16 which is higher than Benin’s. This offers a useful example since Benin is expected to surpass this TVET enrollment rate by 2030 and sustain it until at least 2040. It is also important to note that the rate of increase in TVET enrollment being targeted is higher than what Korea experienced based on available data, and that Korea did not have a vocational program at the lower secondary level but rather at the high school level. 32. Benin’s vocational secondary education enrollment rate lags behind Indonesia and Thailand when they had the same GDP per capita; Indonesia and Thailand experienced rapid growth in secondary vocational education at a level of GDP higher than Benin currently has. In the 1970s, when Thailand had the same GDP per capita as Benin’s, its vocational secondary enrollment rate was higher than what Benin’s is currently. Thailand did not embark on an export-orientated growth model until the early 1980s, after which its vocational secondary enrollment rate began to grow (figure 11). Similarly, in the 1980s, Indonesia had the same GDP per capita as Benin’s, but it was not until after 2000 that the vocational secondary enrollment rate grew rapidly. While Benin has a lower vocational secondary enrollment rate than both Indonesia and Thailand did when they had the same GDP per capita, Indonesia and Thailand did not experience rapid growth in the vocational secondary enrollment rate until: (a) after export-orientated growth began, and (b) at roughly the same level of GDP per capita—a level that Benin is expected to achieve between 2030 and 2040 given current projections. As a result, if Benin achieves its TVET enrollment targets for 2030, it will have a much higher secondary vocational enrollment rate than Indonesia and Thailand. 33. Comparing Benin’s enrollment targets with East Asian countries’ raises the importance of having an adequate supply and institutional capacity to increase enrollment in TVET and of ensuring that TVET enrollment is ultimately market driven. Compared with the East Asian countries of Korea, Indonesia and Thailand, Benin has a much lower vocational secondary enrollment rate than these three countries did when they had the same GDP per capita. Vocational secondary enrollment rates in these countries grew and ultimately exceeded the level that Benin has set as its target for 2030, but this level was achieved at a much higher level of GDP per capita than Benin is expected to have by 2030, a level closer to 2040. If one were to draw lessons from these East Asian countries, it is clear that Benin’s vocational enrollment is currently too low if Benin intends to replicate the East Asian growth model, and that capacity to enroll the target for 2030 will be needed. However, economic growth is complex, and East Asian countries clearly required the skills of graduates of nonvocational programs as evidenced by increased educational attainment more broadly. Ensuring that Benin’s TVET sector is responsive to demand from the employers in terms of the types of skills needed and the amount of graduates will be crucial to ensure that Benin’s TVET sector can thrive. At the same time, too much government intervention of vocational programs may deprive the economy of the other types of skills that graduates receive in general programs that are also required for economic growth. 16 The secondary enrollment rate is defined as the number of vocational students in high school divided by the ages of the middle and high school population (there was no vocational program at the middle school level). 24 Figure 10. Korea TVET enrollment by GDP per capita (1995–2005) and Benin TVET enrollment target and projected GDP per capita Source: World Bank estimates using World Bank Open Data. Figure 11. Secondary TVET enrollment rate and GDP per capita LMIC Asian Tigers Source: World Bank estimates using World Bank Open Data. 25 A Market-Based Framework to the National TVET Strategy 34. To address the economic structural issues and global trends, there is a need for Benin’s TVET sector to be responsive to demand for skills from employers and families by implementing a national TVET strategy under a market-based framework. Learning from the TVET enrollment experiences of other countries that have a similar GDP per capita, the relatively nascent level of vocational enrollment in Benin offers the opportunity to establish a well-working, market-based TVET sector that can meet the future skill needs in the workforce. A market-based approach for TVET is similar to any other industry whereby individuals are free to choose whether or not to pursue vocational studies and which type; however, there are a number of specific market failures in the TVET sector that require government intervention to resolve. 35. The first type of market failure is a credit constraint and the opportunity cost that prevent families from financing vocational education. This is a fundamental issue in financing education in which investing in a child’s education yields higher future earnings but not until well into the future. Furthermore, a student committed to TVET is not earning the wage he would had he joined the workforce. Typical financing methods including bank loans are not feasible given the long-time horizon and risk. Intervention by the government to finance vocational education, though not necessarily the provision, can help alleviate the credit constraint and ensure that those who wish to pursue TVET studies are able to do so. There is a wide range of financing models ranging from public provision of educational services to differentiated per capita grants to private providers to target specific populations, such as women, in specific TVET fields and programs. 36. The second type of main market failure relates to information access. Generally, families are not fully informed of the benefits and risks of pursuing a particular field of study. Employers may not be fully informed of the qualifications that an individual has despite completing some or all of a vocational program or having received vocational training informally from employers or family members. TVET providers including schools may not fully understand the needs or changing needs of employers or of families. Based on research that has identified problems with imperfect and incomplete information in the TVET system, the National Strategy includes interventions to alleviate TVET market failures. These interventions include strengthening the quality assurance (QA) system, ensuring greater transparency in the career trajectories of school graduates, establishing stronger skill qualification systems and recognition, and improving links between TVET program providers and the labor market. 37. A third type of market failure arises from sociocultural barriers to accessing TVET, particularly gender disparity. Gender norms that dissuade or prevent women from pursuing specific TVET fields represent a market failure because it inhibits the choice of women and ultimately the efficient allocation of talent. Gender norms can manifest themselves in various forms as discussed previously and can affect girls from a young age. While social norms themselves are difficult to change, many of the needs of female students in specific TVET programs can be addressed in ways ranging from the timing of specific programs to the provision of adequate sanitary facilities. 38. A fourth type of market failure revolves around the capacity of TVET providers to identify the training preferences of families and the needs of employers. The leadership of TVET institutions and the TVET sector (including those who design curricula and allocate financing) need to be able to identify the demand for types of skills by employers and families. This requires a wide range of skills from outreach, market research, to strategic planning and staff management. The teaching staff at TVET institutions should have content knowledge of vocational and general skills and be able to teach students of all types, including from disadvantaged backgrounds. 26 39. By prioritizing the response to fundamental market failures of the TVET sector, Benin will have the foundation needed to respond to employers, families, and learners. If families had complete information about schools and fields of studies and employers fully understood the types of skills and capabilities of TVET graduates, then the TVET sector could effectively act as an efficient and effective intermediary between those demanding skills (employers and families) and those supplying labor (the learners). In this way, the TVET sector would be providing the desired (changing) skills training and education to meet the needs of the labor market. 40. Finally, effective government intervention requires careful attention to pilot programs and their evaluations, especially given mixed evidence from international studies on the effectiveness of TVET interventions. There is emerging evidence, including from randomized-controlled trials, on TVET that paint a mixed picture of the effective TVET programs (whether or not graduates of these programs are performing well in the labor market, and whether the skills acquired are those demanded by employers). Recent investments in TVET in Benin offers the government the opportunity to thoroughly test new interventions, troubleshoot and modify their designs, and test the effectiveness of new programs before the sector becomes too large and reforms become more difficult and costly. The new policy and new investments into the TVET sector propose to make monitoring and evaluation into an integral part of TVET sector governance, rather than as a set of individual studies. This is expected to help mainstream evidence-based decision-making into sector governance. 27 Section 3. System of Governance and Financing There is no single model of a TVET system that is unambiguously better than another model. Successful TVET systems are often supported by a range of models, all of which have some key properties that make them successful. These characteristics include connecting the needs of the employer with the needs of the learner, focusing on system efficiencies, strengthening governance, and navigating and managing reforms. It is critical to understand how the numerous TVET responsibilities are shared between the government, training providers, the role of employers and partners, the geographical and regional distribution of actors in the sector, and other key stakeholders. Understanding the manner in which the TVET sector is financed is a critical step in the development of the subsector. This is a complex exercise given the numerous ways in which TVET services are provided in any country, such as public/private and formal/nonformal/informal. Other factors include the many actors in place throughout the system; the nature, duration, and level at which courses are pitched; and where in the spectrum of training a particular program falls, such as during initial stage of learning, as continuing education, or as jobs-related training. Finally, TVET sector providers play a role in determining sector financing. 28 TVET System Challenges 41. This section provides insight into the legislative, regulatory and institutional structures that underpin the TVET landscape in Benin and summarizes key recent developments in the sector. Governance 42. Generally, governance is evident at two levels: (a) the policy and strategy level, and (b) the operational level. The policy functions include TVET reforms and implementation strategies; innovation in TVET provision and instructor profiles; decentralization strategies and institutional level autonomy; and access, equity, and inclusiveness. Establishing and defining the role of Sector Skills Bodies and financing of TVET are other important policy issues. The operational and management governance that function at the training delivery level include activities such as the development and delivery of training curricula, the training of trainers, the organization of apprenticeships (formal and informal), work-based or experiential learning and internships, and stakeholder partnerships to support quality-assured, employment-oriented skills development. Figure 12. TVET governance Improved coordination and supervision Stakeholder Quality and mobilization relevance and participation Harmonizing Skills standards TVET development and Governance priorities qualifications Innovative Equitable technical and funding and financial accountability partnerships Regulation and consensus building 43. Governance is at the heart of TVET and skills development systems. Effective governance is a prerequisite for successfully driving TVET reform and generally improving TVET at the system level, and an enabler for:  achieving improved coordination and regulation of the TVET system;  mobilizing stakeholder participation, including the central government, private sector, local communities, NGOs, CSOs, and parents;  addressing the economic and social goals of TVET; 29  setting skills development priorities;  promoting consensus building among stakeholders;  ensuring accountability;  promoting active and innovative partnerships (administrative, pedagogical and financial partnerships);  harmonizing standards and qualifications; and  ensuring quality and training relevance. 44. TVET systems can also be classified in several different ways. One of the most common is to define the subsector by whether it is financed entirely by public money or through publicly established institutions and trainers who are considered civil servants. Box 4. Typology of TVET governance Studies have compared governance structures in Austria, Denmark, Germany, and Switzerland, which use the dual vocational education and training system (Rauner and Witting 2010). The framework put forth by these studies uses a two-dimensional matrix in which one axis measures system integration and another axis measures input versus output orientation of the system. These two dimensions are further measured by categories for integration that include consistent legal frameworks, cooperation across relevant bodies, and innovation strategies, ensuring a balance across relevant policy areas and clear allocation of strategic and operations functions. The matrix reveals that governance structures can be classified as coordinated/output oriented, fragmented/output oriented, fragmented/input oriented, and coordinated/input oriented. The figure shows how the framework applies to these four countries: Austria, Switzerland and Denmark have coordinated, output-oriented systems, while Germany has a fragmented, input-oriented system with high transactions costs (Caves and Renold 2018). Fragmented Coordinated output-oriented output-oriented governance governance Fragmented input- Coordinated input- oriented oriented governance governance 30 Governance and Institutional Structures in Benin 45. The Ministry of Secondary, Technical and Vocational Education (Ministère de l’Enseignement Secondaire et de la Formation Technique et Professionnelle; MESTFP) is responsible for policy formulation, including planning and regulating student flows. The TVET Directorate under the ministry is in charge of policy implementation with oversight responsibility for all TVET institutions, public, semi-public and private. 46. As currently structured, the governance functions at the policy level are split among several directorates of the MESTFP. The Directorate of Examinations and Competitions (La Direction des Examens et Concours; DEC) is responsible for examinations and assessment of student learning outcomes. Directorate of Pedagogical Inspection, Innovation and Quality (La Direction de l’Inspection Pédagogique de l’Innovation et de la Qualité; DIPIQ) is in charge of regulating program offerings. The National Engineering Institute for Training and Capacity (L’Institut National d’Ingénierie de Formation et de Renforcement de Capacités des Formateurs; INIFRCF) is in charge of designing training programs in alignment with demand, occupational standards and training curriculum, and associated pedagogic support. The National Steering Committee for Vocational Training through Apprenticeship (Le Comité National de Pilotage des formations professionnelles par Apprentissage; CNPFPA) is responsible for apprenticeship training, while dialogue with stakeholders and partners is supported by the National Consultation Framework for the Promotion of TVET (le Cadre National de Consertation pour la Promotion de l’EFTP or CNCP), subordinated to the Minister of Secondary, Technical and Vocational Education and Training of Benin. There is also the National Commission for Apprenticeship (La Commission Nationale pour l’Apprentissage; CNA) under the Ministry of Labor and Public Service with responsibility for the coordination and regulation of the apprenticeship sector. The CNA also supports the TVET sector in the modernization of informal apprenticeships. 47. TVET in Benin is organized under six other line ministries, governed by different legislative instruments, and managed under different structures. It does not operate under a unified policy or single legal framework. The six ministries involved in the TVET sector are: the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research, the Ministry of Labor and Public Service, Ministry for SMEs and Employment Promotion, the Ministry for Planning and Development, Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and Fisheries, Ministry of Health and Ministry of Water Resources. 48. There is no clear articulation or adequate coordination among these ministries or with the TVET ministry and other agencies in the TVET sector. The multiplicity of governance structures raises issues of coordination, regulation, and overlap of roles and responsibilities. As a result of this policy fragmentation and dispersion, significant disparities in training standards and procedures for accreditation, QA, assessment and certification are to be expected. The absence of a national TVET qualifications framework, against which all TVET qualifications can be benchmarked, is another weakness of the TVET system in the country. 49. In the existing governance structure, the National Consultation for the Promotion of TVET (Cadre National de Concertation pour la Promotion de l’EFTP; CNCP-EFTP) has responsibility for the coordination of public and private TVET provision, curriculum development, and implementation of new training programs. It is also in charge of facilitating internships and industry collaboration with training providers. Given the extent of CNCP-EFTP’s responsibilities, there are major governance challenges. 50. The governance system is highly centralized with very little involvement of major stakeholders , especially those from the private sector, including industry organizations and employer associations. At the policy level, effective governance is hampered by inadequate institutional capacity, lack of transparency in the allocation of material and human resources to public institutions and the absence of the professional voice of partners in making decisions about the skills needs of the formal and informal sectors. 31 51. At the operational level, the governance and management of public TVET institutions is steered away from the national level. These institutions have limited decision-making autonomy in many areas of their operations, including staff recruitment, resource mobilization and utilization, curriculum development and students’ admission requirements. The lack of financial autonomy of TVET institutions is also an important weakness of governance system. In addition, heads of public TVET colleges do not have the authority to hire and fire staff, effectively reducing their ability to assume firm control over their institutions. Moreover, because of a lack of expertise or authority, teachers cannot design and teach new courses that respond directly to market demand or emerging needs of the digital economy. This limited institutional autonomy partially explains the mismatch of skills supply to demand. 52. Other governance weaknesses at the institutional level include lack of collaboration with Parent Teacher Associations, poor management of human, financial and material resources, irregular meetings, consultations and knowledge exchange, weak interaction with stakeholders, and inadequate management autonomy and representation on school boards. Several laws address the TVET needs of citizens and policy challenges. One of the most recent is the decree No. 2016-427 of July 20, 2016 that confers on the MESTFP the mandate to design, monitor and evaluate the overall education and training policy in conformity with the applicable laws and regulations of Benin. 53. The ministry is in charge of QA, determining the norms and training needs of trainers, as well as the general conditions for recruiting, training, promotion and deployment of the staff. The ministry also has oversight responsibility for all public and private TVET institutions, including the application of the relevant regulations regarding program offerings and regulation of the flow of students from the lower to the upper levels of the education system. Recent Governance Reforms 54. The governance of the TVET sector of Benin is undergoing significant changes. TVET framework law (Loi–cadre relative a l’enseignement et a la formation techniques et professionnels) to promote private sector participation in TVET service delivery was approved by the National Assembly and became a law in early 2022 (the law № 2022-01 of January 25, 2022). Furthermore, a new agency known as the National Agency for the Development of Technical and Vocational Education and Training (l'Agence de Développement de l'Enseignement Technique; ADET) has been established to manage the key tasks associated with TVET. This new entity is expected to coordinate, implement, supervise, and monitor all projects and programs that relate to the National TVET Strategy. 55. As of March 2021, in its ongoing reforms and strengthening of the TVET system, the Government of Benin has presented for consideration and promulgation a draft TVET bill to the National Assembly. The proposed law is designed to give legal backing to the activities, decrees, and legislative instruments for an effective, holistic, inclusive, and efficient TVET system. The law makes provision for institutional accreditation, management of the dual apprenticeship system, involvement of local authorities, partnerships with the private sector, the role of the state, and reinforced the coordination function of a CNCP-EFTP in terms of participation of the private sector and the professional community in the governance of TVET. 56. For the CNCP-EFTP to effectively play its assigned coordination and regulatory role with the private sector as well as to exercise overall oversight responsibility over the entire TVET system in the country, it must enjoy a certain amount of deliberative and implementation autonomy. In this regard, lessons may be learned from national TVET authorities and regulatory agencies in countries with similar development trajectories and skills training ambitions. Such apex bodies have their existence, membership, mandate and functions embedded in law and backed by legal instruments and government decrees. 32 57. The government has also established an institutional framework for implementation of the National TVET Strategy with the overall objective to coordinate activities related to implementation of this strategy. The institutional framework consists of the Steering Committee, the Technical Coordination Committee, and the Strategy Implementation Support Unit (replaced by the ADET, a Presidential Agency). The relevant structures are linked to the Ministry of State in charge of Development and Coordination of Government Action. 58. The Steering Committee is the body for strategic guidance and oversight of the entire strategy implementation process. It is responsible for the following: (a) examination and validation of the procedures and mechanisms for operationalizing the National TVET Strategy; (b) approval of the annual activity programs and budgets for the implementation of the National TVET Strategy; (c) approval of the final reports of the feasibility studies related to the implementation of the strategy; (d) the approval of the research and monitoring and evaluation (M&E) reports on the implementation of the strategy; (e) examination and validation of the semi- annual and annual technical and financial reports; and (f) reporting to the President of the Republic. The Steering Committee meets once per quarter and as many times as necessary when convened by its chairman. It has the following composition: President, Minister of State in Charge of Planning and Development; Vice-President, Minister of Economy and Finance; Rapporteur 1, Minister of Secondary Education and TVET; Rapporteur 2, Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research; and Member, Minister of Preprimary and Primary Education. 59. The Technical Coordination Committee is responsible for monitoring implementation of the strategy. It is responsible for the following: (a) participating in the selection of firms responsible for feasibility studies by sector; (b) following up on the feasibility studies related to the implementation of the National TVET Strategy; (c) reviewing research and M&E reports on the implementation of the strategy; (d) participating in the selection of delegated or project managers in support of the implementation of structuring projects resulting from development programs by sector; and (e) monitoring of the activities of the Implementation Support Unit. The Technical Coordination Committee meets once a month and as many times as necessary when convened by its chairman. 60. The Technical Coordination Committee has the following composition: ▪ President, Representative of the Minister of State in charge of Planning and Development; ▪ Vice-president, Representative of the Minister of Secondary Education and TVET; ▪ Rapporteur, Coordinator of the Support Unit for the implementation of the Strategy; ▪ Members, Representative of the Office of Analysis and Investigation of the Presidency; ▪ Representative of each minister of the Steering Committee; the Permanent Technical Secretary of the National Consultation Framework for the Promotion of TVET; representative of each sector technical commission actually installed from the private sector; representative of Seme City; and two representatives of the technical and financial partners. 61. The main mission of the Strategy Implementation Support Unit (represented by the new agency, ADET) is to implement the guidance and decisions of the Steering Committee and the Technical Coordination Committee, under the guidance of the Minister of State in Charge of Planning and Development and the Minister of Secondary Education and TVET. The key objectives of this unit include, inter alia, the actions to: (i) strengthen and develop partnerships for the implementation of the National TVET Strategy; (ii) ensure the setting up and financing of projects for the development of TVET programs in six priority sectors and support their implementation; (iii) propose and organize the implementation of the actions necessary to facilitate the partnership with all stakeholders in the context of the implementation of the strategy; (iv) develop the annual action plans and the related budget to support the implementation of the strategy; (v) elect and monitor the assignments of delegated project implementers and/or contractors mobilized by the sector; (vi) draft the biannual and annual technical and financial reports for consideration by the Steering Committee; (vii) report to the Chairman of the Steering Committee and to the Analysis and Investigation Bureau on any situation affecting 33 the implementation of the Strategy; (viii) serve as the Secretariat for the sessions of the Technical Committee and the Steering Committee; (ix) develop and provide information on the various indicators of the strategy; and (x) ensure resource mobilization for implementation of the strategy. 62. Benin can build upon this initiative by learning from the experiences of other countries in the region and beyond to strengthen industry collaboration in its TVET system. This can be done through the participation of the private sector in the governing structures of TVET institutions and by ensuring that TVET institutions develop management plans for improving institutional governance and teaching and learning with participation of private sector. In addition, the role of the sector skills councils could be strengthened. It has been shown in a number of countries, such as Ghana and Kenya, that a well-established TVET agency with a legal mandate to drive a country’s TVET reforms is a critical factor for success. TVET agencies are generally required to coordinate, supervise, and harmonize TVET provision. Table 4 elaborates on some important functions of TVET agencies. Table 4. Key functions of the national TVET agency Coordination Supervision Harmonization ▪ Accreditation and licensing ▪ Governance and regulatory ▪ Legal and institutional arrangements ▪ Quality assurance framework ▪ Training provision ▪ Teacher development ▪ Program offerings ▪ Public and private provision ▪ Gender mainstreaming ▪ Admission requirements ▪ Training infrastructure ▪ Participation of vulnerable ▪ Occupational standards ▪ Learning pathways and environments groups ▪ Qualifications framework ▪ Sector Skills Bodies ▪ Funding and resource ▪ Assessment and ▪ Skills gap analysis and shortages mobilization certification ▪ Private sector and industry collaboration ▪ Accountability and ▪ Recognition of prior ▪ Technical and financial partnerships transparency learning ▪ Involvement of local communities and ▪ Internal and external ▪ Monitoring and evaluation PTAs efficiencies ▪ Development partners’ support TVET Financing and Resource Mobilization 63. Financing of TVET is a major challenge facing TVET provision in Benin. Government funding of TVET was only 11.8 percent of the ministry’s budget in 2019, which is inadequate. Private sector contribution to TVET financing was mainly through the Fund for the Development of Continuing Training and Apprenticeship (Fonds de Développement de la Formation Continue de l’Apprentissage; FODEFCA), dedicated mainly to the continuous development of vocational training. FODEFCA was originally supposed to be funded from a 4.0 percent tax levied on the total wage bill of enterprises but this apprenticeship levy is not effective. FODEFCA functions with a modest government subsidy of about 1 billion CFAF per annum. If the issues of transparency and accountability in the use of the funds collected are guaranteed, it is estimated that restoration of the apprenticeship levy at even 2.0 percent of the wage bill of enterprises will generate about 10 billion CFAF to support skills training in the country. However, it must be noted that conflicts over the use and management of training levies can generate tension between the government and sections of the private sector, which may perceive these levies only as an additional tax burden. 34 Figure 13. TVET financing 64. Under the Decentralization and Deconcentration Plan (P2D) of the MSETFP, local and regional authorities are expected to play an important role in the financing of vocational training. However, studies are needed to identify and cost the training needs at the local level as well as to examine how these initiatives can be funded. The TVET reform agenda also envisages to allow training institutions to establish school-based production units to generate internal resources as supplementary funds to support training at the school level. 65. In many countries, the private sector also participates in TVET financing through various mechanisms, the most common being the payment of skills development or training levies. Training levies are usually set by legislation between 1 percent and 2 percent of the total wage bill of the enterprise. In South Africa, 80 percent of the Skills Development Levy is distributed to the different sector education and training authorities (SETAs) and may be paid as grants to employers to upgrade the skills of their employees. The balance of 20 percent is paid into the National Skills Fund (NSF) to support skills that do not fall under the SETAs. The NSF, which is managed by the Department (Ministry) of Higher Education and Training (DHET), enables the state to drive key skills strategies, meet the training needs of the unemployed, and promote strategic partnerships and skills innovation. Changes in Budget Allocations from 2015 to 2020 66. Between 2015 and 2020, actual public budget allocations for education increased from 216.1 billion to 266.5 billion CFAF, respectively, with an average annual growth rate of 4 percent (at the constant prices of 2015). This expenditure only covers direct expenses by the ministries in charge of education and does not include the costs paid for shift hours or the salaries paid to aspiring teachers, which are included in the common expenditure of the Ministry of Economy and Finance. In 2015, overtime and shift hours paid for the subsector 35 of ESTFP (TVET) were estimated at 16.8 billion CFAF, representing nearly 8 percent17 of the sector budget. In 2019 and 2020, these expenses are respectively estimated at 12.9 billion CFAF and 20.08 billion CFAF, representing 5 percent and 7 percent, respectively, of the sector budget. The largest increases in overall budget allocations were recorded in 2016, 2017, and 2020. The main drivers for the increases in 2016 and 2020 are salary expenditure while that of 2017 is related to investment expenditure, domestic financing, especially at the level of the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research. The sharp drop in 2019 is mainly due to the drop in domestic financing of investment spending, which amounted to 38 billion CFAF in 2018 to 14 billion CFAF in 2019 (see tables A3.1-A3.6 in annex 3). 67. The share of education budget allocations in total budget allocations, excluding debt, fluctuated between 17.8 percent and 24.2 percent during the period 2015–2020. If the last 3 years (2018–2020) are considered, this share has remained around an average of 22.8 percent. The share of budget allocations in GDP increased from 3.2 percent in 2015, to 3.5 percent in 2017, before falling to 3.0 percent in 2019; it stood at 3.1 percent in 2020, very far from the 6.0 percent target agreed internationally for developing countries like Benin. 68. The analysis of budget allocations by type shows that overall, current expenditure, which is dominated by staff expenditure, has increased in nominal terms, from 187.3 billion CFAF in 2015 to 247.7 billion CFAF in 2020, i.e., an average annual growth rate of 5.7 percent.18 Overall, investment expenditure, which is dominated by domestic financing, declined slightly from 28.8 billion in 2015 to 28.1 billion in 2020, with the exception of 2017 and 2018, in which there was a sharp increase in domestic financing. The share of budget allocations, by type as a percentage of total expenditure, is presented in table A3.3. This table shows that the share of operating costs in total expenditure fluctuated from 86.7 percent in 2015 to 89.8 percent in 2020, with a peak of 92.6 percent in 2016. Over this period, the average share of these costs was estimated at 85.7 percent. Apart from 2017 and 2018, during which the shares of investment expenditure were 24.5 percent and 8.6 percent, respectively, the average share of annual investment expenditure was 10.4 percent. The share of staff costs fluctuated between 2016–2020, with a peak of 71.2 percent in 2016, falling to 56.6 percent in 2017, and rising to 64.7 percent in 2020. Roughly speaking, over the review period, nonstaff expenditure varied between 21.0 percent and 25.0 percent. The share of domestic financing in investment expenditure increased sharply in 2017 and 2018, and during this review period, it exceeded external financing. 69. It is important to develop sustainable financing models for TVET to promote transparency, relevance and efficiency, and to start shifting from the traditional input-based models of allocation and use of resources to more performance-based financing models. There is momentum to explore the opportunities of the financial allocation mechanism to promote demand-responsiveness, for example, by introducing performance-based elements related to the relevance of skills acquired through TVET (figure 14). Alongside quality assurance processes, they help extend accountability requirements. Performance contracts can establish accountability requirements in terms of employability of graduates and additional reporting, such as requiring institutions to share information about the career trajectories of their graduates. 17 See the financial simulation model RESEN 2017, STP-PDDSE. 18 For more about BOOST methodology, see https://www.worldbank.org/en/programs/boost-portal/about-the-portal. 36 Figure 14. Financing models Source: Specht 2014. 70. Public expenditure on training is fragmented across several ministries. The bulk of expenditure is shared by two ministries. According to BOOST data from 2014 to 2018, the Ministry of Secondary, Technical and Professional Education and the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research spend 49 percent and 39 percent of expenditure on training, respectively (figure 15). Expenditures by these two ministries consists of training of students, administering training, and funding for training centres. The remaining 11 percent of expenditures is split between nine ministries, excluding additional ministries that have split into more than one since 2014 (figure 15). The largest spenders on training include the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sports whose expenditure on training is classified as sports training, and the Ministry of Small and Medium Enterprises and the Promotion of Employment whose expenditure on training is classified as the training of commercial trades and training centers. Note that some of the remaining expenditures may be used on the training of employees of ministry staff particularly those of large ministries, for example, for training of teachers by the Ministry of Maternal and Primary Education. However, this comprises a small proportion of public expenditure on training. The public expenditure is included in this analysis because it also aims at improving the skills of the workforce, much like private sector expenditure on training. 37 Figure 15. Average expenditure on training by ministry 2014 –2018, as a percent of total training expenditure Others (9 Ministry of Small ministries) and Medium 5% Enterprises and the Promotion of Employment 3% Ministry of Tourism, Sports and Culture 4% Ministry of Ministry of Higher Secondary, Education and Technical and Scientific Professional Research Education 39% 49% Source: World Bank estimates using the BOOST data of the Ministry of Economy and Finance of Benin. 71. Public expenditure on training by all ministries has historically ranged between 10 billion CFAF and 34 billion CFAF or 1.9 percent to 3.6 percent of total government expenditure. The amount of public expenditure on training rose from 2008 to 2015 and then declined (figure 16). As a percent of total government expenditure, the level of spending was highest in 2018, based on the latest year of data available in the BOOST dataset. Figure 16. Public expenditure on training, all ministries 4 45 Total expenditure (billions FCFA) Percent of total expenditure 3 30 2 Total expenditure on training as a percent of total government 15 1 expenditure Total expenditure (billions FCFA) 0 0 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 Source: World Bank estimates using the BOOST data of the Ministry of Economy and Finance of Benin. 38 72. Expenditure on salaries has been relatively stable since 2009; nonsalary recurrent expenditure and capital expenditure on training has varied considerably especially after 2015. Since 2009, salary expenditure related to training has varied around 10 billion CFAF. Recurrent expenditure other than salaries grew until 2015 and was substantially higher than public salary expenditure until 2016, after which time it dropped substantially. Nonsalary recurrent expenditure includes three categories of spending: goods and services, operating grants and other recurrent expenses. Capital expenditure has been quite variable since 2015; it was approximately a quarter of a billion CFAF in 2016 and 2017 before increasing to 5.4 billion CFAF, the highest amount recorded in the available historical data, which started in 2007. Box 5. TVET financing in Benin – the role of FODEFCA While Benin is attempting to reform its TVET sector in an effort to enhance the education system’s efficiency and effectiveness, one important issue that needs to be addressed is having a reliable system of financing the TVET sector. Training systems should have a sustainable and stable source of financing, while simultaneously ensuring that financing levels are significant enough to improve training outcomes. Reliance on public financing alone for the TVET sector usually does not work for two main reasons: (a) the greater share of public resources are typically channeled to basic and compulsory education, with TVET and higher education sections typically receiving less in public resources; and (b) government allocations for education and training in many developing countries is unreliable and varies considerably from year to year both in terms of allocation and execution of budgets. It is therefore important that the financing of TVET systems expand its resource base to include other beneficiaries such as employers and trainers. Benin established the Fund for the Development of Continuing Training and Apprenticeship (Fonds de Développement de la Formation Continue et de l’Apprentissage; FODEFCA) in its national vocational training policy in February 1999. FODEFCA was established with support from the World Bank through the Support Project for the Development of In-Service Vocational Training (Projet d’Appui au Développement de la Formation Professionnelle Continue; PADFPC), including remedies to existing structural weaknesses in the apprenticeship tax which was the main mechanism to generate resources to finance the training of Benin’s diverse labor force. In December 1998, the Government of Benin enacted the National Policy for In-Service Vocational Training (Politique Nationale de la Formation Professionnelle Continue; PNFPC). Moreover, following a prior commitment under the Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSP), the government established the FODEFCA to help implement national policy and explore solutions to supporting demand-driven vocational training. The PADFPC was established and financed by the World Bank as a Learning and Innovation Loan by signing agreements with the government to partially support project activities and with FODEFCA as the project implementing agency. The FODEFCA also received support from the French Development Agency (Agence Française de Développement; AFD) which further strengthened FODEFCA’s managerial and implementation capacities. The FODEFCA is a public administrative body with a legal identity and financial autonomy. It is governed by a management committee that comprises 12 members represented equally by (a) employers’ and self - employed organizations, (b) unions of private sector employees, and (c) representatives of the state with each group represented by four individuals. The committee head is appointed by the Council of Ministers, and the committee is expected to meet quarterly. The FODEFCA is expected to promote training by improving the quality and relevance of this training and supporting the needs of the skilled labor in enterprises in both the formal and informal sectors of the economy. This will be achieved by improving worker productivity and enterprise competitiveness, reducing unemployment and poverty, helping the youth transition to the world of work, and strengthening the capacities on the supply side. The target groups include workers in the private sector, agricultural sector, master craftsmen and apprentices, and those considered as being not in education, employment, or training (NEET). 39 The FODEFCA is replenished from the following sources: apprenticeship tax, beneficiary contributions, development partner support, financing from other external bodies, donations, grants, and investment of fund resources. It uses a form of payroll levy in which the guiding key principle is that those who benefit should pay for those benefits. However, such approaches for raising resources have not been used for training benefits alone, and funds have been diverted to unintended purposes. One of the most common examples is when financing meant for continuing training gets diverted to initial training. Moreover, the FODEFCA combines resources generated through the apprenticeship tax with general revenues. Therefore, the FODEFCA faces significant challenges both in meeting the commitments made under the World Bank-financed operation and in addressing the fact that the system was never be able to fully mobilize the resources to meet the current level of need. Given the unpredictability of state financing, the FODEFCA will need not only to maintain the apprenticeship tax at 2 percent, but also to disengage it from the salary payment component of employers. This will mean that the FODEFCA will need to source the allocation directly by tax authorities. Improving Gender-Balance in TVET Through Innovative Financing 73. Significant gender-based inequalities exist in the Beninese labor market. To ensure that both men and women have access to labor markets will not only require changes in society, increased awareness of the role that women can play both in the support of family welfare and on a broader scale in terms of support to the country’s economic growth. To realize such outcomes, Benin would have to ensure that girls and women have equal opportunities with boys and men throughout their life. This wound include equal access to opportunities in TVET programs, access to new technologies and processes, the range of skills they can benefit from and the set of workplace opportunities they can access. Even when women do participate in the labor force, they still face considerable disadvantages in terms of segregated occupations19, tenure, pay gap, and discrimination based on their gender. 74. Benin can achieve some of these goals by focusing on training of girls and women with the skills needed for employability and the labor market. However, this will require a TVET system which ensures that all decisions are taken with a gender perspective. Understanding the opportunities for women in the labor market and undertaking a comprehensive gender-focused analysis of the demand for labor can support TVET systems to make this transition into an equitable, efficient, and relevant system to prepare girls and women for work in a rapidly changing economic landscape. By actively employing programs and strategies to increase female labor force participation rates, Benin can improve the utilization of its labor force. 75. While there are many ways to achieve such outcomes, one approach that has been employed in many countries is the use of gender-based or gender-responsive budgeting. This approach accounts for the budgetary needs by gender throughout the budgetary process from planning, program development, costing, budgeting, and through approval, implementation and auditing. Gender-responsive TVET budgets would focus on the expected or anticipated share of women and men in the system, share of female trainers, program costs for expanding or making gender-sensitive program modules, new programs that are developed to specifically expand access and participation of women in these programs. An example from Bangladesh is illustrated below. The interventions aimed at strengthening women’s participation in the country’s TVET system. The process is carried out at three levels: (i) the institutional and management level, (ii) the programmatic level, and (iii) at the level of partnerships. At the first level, the current situation in the TVET sector with respect to gender is analyzed 19 In many countries, there are laws and norms steeped in cultural beliefs and stereotypes, that limit the occupational set for girls and women, and very often societal pressures and behavioral expectations compel women to choose employment options which are more traditional in nature and in the informal sector. 40 and mapped to identify gender gaps to ensure that appropriate strategies and plans can be adopted to alleviate these disparities. The second level focuses on the training cycle with a careful assessment of needs, design of new programs, M&E systems in place both at ADET and SEME City, and other relevant stakeholders. Finally, the program aims to strengthen partnerships to key partners, the community in which these programs exist, and across the length and breadth of the country in collaboration with key partners. The Bangladesh program has developed a 10-Step Action Plan highlighted below. Box 6. Action plan to improve participation of women in TVET institutions Step 1: Begin with a gender-based situational mapping of the institution Step 2: Analyze data, undertake causal analysis and identify gender gaps Step 3: Chart out an Initial Tentative Gender Action Plan Step 4: Conduct a gender analysis of the Training Programme Cycle Step 5: Set up social campaigning guidelines and promotional measures for attracting female students Step 6: Establish and strengthen gender-responsive strategic partnerships Step 7: Strengthen staff capacity on gender issues and establish a Gender Mainstreaming Unit or Network Step 8: Carry out a gender budgeting exercise Step 9: Set up research and documentation units Step 10: Plan for a Participatory Gender Audit (PGA) or Finalize the Gender Action Plan 41 Section 4. Ensuring the Quality and Relevance of TVET programs Quality assurance mechanisms are built into TVET systems to ensure that the training being provided is of value to the learner and meets the needs of the labor market. These are relative concepts and are not absolute measures of quality but ones that are agreed upon by employers, employees, trainees and other stakeholders at any given point in time. Even learners of the highest quality training programs may not find value in their training if market conditions temporarily deteriorate or change to a degree that renders their training less relevant to the needs of the labor market. Quality assurance aims to support mechanisms, procedures and processes that respond to the needs of the labor market, helps learners acquire recognized credentials, supports learners in acquiring skills that enable them to progress to the next unit of learning, and help them access more and better jobs in the labor market. 42 The Importance of a Robust Quality Assurance System 76. To meet its objective to increase TVET enrollment tenfold by 2030 as well as adequately prepare young people with skills and knowledge for employment, Benin’s TVET policies must follow market trends. It should provide relevant training that ensures that qualifications are valued on the labour market. To develop a high performing TVET system, it must develop and maintain a close relationship with the world of work. 77. An effective quality assurance (QA) policy framework will help to support the development and maintenance of a high performing TVET system. A QA system is made up of a combination of measures established to make sure that processes and procedures are set to safeguard the quality of the TVET system and any subsequent improvements. The measures relate to quality standards with fundamental principles, criteria and indicators. When a feedback loop is incorporated, any shortcomings will be highlighted and corrected, thus quality of the system will be continuously improved. With QA measures in place, a strong TVET system can produce competent graduates over extended periods of time. Most high performing TVET system have good QA systems that sustain high training standards year after year. The performance of a QA system is highly dependent on the enabling environment and the essential prerequisite conditions for it to thrive. As Benin reforms its TVET system, it is crucial to have a robust QA framework. Key Features of an Effective TVET QA System 78. It is important to clarify at the outset that a QA system is generally part of a wider and more comprehensive quality management system. This QA system includes procedures, processes or systems used to guarantee and improve quality. It encompasses quality planning, QA, quality control or audit, and quality improvement (see figure 17). Figure 17. Quality management system Quality Planning Quality Quality Quality Improvement Management Assurance System Quality Control/Audit 79. The Deming cycle of quality assurance defines quality management processes as Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA). This approach can be applied at all levels of any organization for quality management. Figure 18 depicts an overview of the quality processes in a TVET institution. The processes are divided into four main categories: - Management process. This focuses on strategic planning and setting the overall direction and framework for the institution. 43 - Core process. This revolves around delivering teaching and learning. - Support process. This relates to administration, finance, human resources, facilities and learning support services. - Partner process. This depends on partner and/or external stakeholders, ranging from agreement arrangements with authorities, accreditation bodies, private sector, employers, foreign entities, etc. 80. A quality management system implies the clear definition of roles and responsibilities of the key stakeholders in the TVET landscape. At a strategic level, a vision for the sector is set through strategic objectives (both qualitative and quantitative) to be achieved by a set date in the future. These objectives are achieved thanks to a quality management system which relies on a set of quality standards. The enforcement of standards takes place by an internal quality assurance system and by external quality audits. At a higher level, the accreditation and re-accreditation processes of programs and institutions ensure adherence to quality standards of the training program. Independence, fairness and rigor of a QA system ensures high quality standards of training, as well as credibility and trust in the TVET system. Figure 18. Overview of quality processes in TVET Quality Management of TVET INPUT PROCESS OUTPUT • Physical infrastructure Management process Competent graduates • Learning resources Core process: Teaching • Human resources and learning • Financial resources OUTCOME Support process • • Legislation, policies and Availability of graduates Partner process strategies with in-demand skills • Curricula • Improved employability • Learners 81. According to the European Training Foundation (ETF 2015), a holistic TVET QA system addresses five key areas and their interconnectedness (see figure 19). These areas include: • Policy and governance. This supports policy development from planning through review and includes financing and data management. • Qualification standards. This supports the setting and attainment of standards for TVET qualifications and TVET personnel. • Provision. This supports learning provision quality regarding curricula/contents, didactics-learning processes, learning contexts, information and guidance services, resources, and the fitness of the physical environment. • Assessment, validation and certification. This supports the integrity and reliability of learning outputs. • Data and knowledge creation. This supports the identification, collection, analysis and usage of quantitative and qualitative demand/supply information. 44 Figure 19. Key areas of a TVET QA system Policy and governance Data and Qualification knowledge standards creation QA in TVET Assessment, validation, Provision certification Source: ETF 2015. The Current TVET QA system in Benin 82. There is an absence of a regulatory framework. Although the MESFTP has the overall responsibility of implementing policies and decisions in the field of TVET, there is no unified regulatory framework that governs the QA of the Benin’s TVET system. The absence of a shared and common framework makes it difficult to coherently align and coordinate policy initiatives of the different departments and subsectors. There are practically no performance indicators available to subsectors to perform even a self-evaluation of their subsector’s performance. This disconnect is acutely felt when it comes to aligning TVET policies with those of employment, youth integration and other disadvantaged groups. Lack of Governance and QA Framework 83. The lack of quality assurance at the core of the system makes it almost impossible to improve its governance. Moreover, this absence of QA does not allow key stakeholders to share and securely achieve the objectives of the sector. Major shortcomings of the sector are: (a) absence of management and monitoring system for TVET subsector under the responsibility of the MESFTP, which does not define or set expectations and results; (b) lack of human resources both in terms of numbers and competence to implement and monitor training plans in the TVET institutions, and (c) outdated review of curricula in several fields. 84. At the operational level, DIPIQ has delegated the functions of enforcing quality assurance at the departmental level to the departmental directorates, the Head of School, and to the parent-teachers association (APE) within their respective institutions. The Head of School becomes judge and party in this current arrangement. The implementation of the Ten-Year Education Sector Plan (Plan Décennal de Développement du Secteur Éducatif; PDDSE) has been challenging for Benin and more particularly in the TVET subsector. It appears that right now the GOB does not have the capabilities and resources to operationalize the plan. With scarce resources available, the TVET subsector and to a larger extent the MESFTP can focus only on day-to-day management. 45 85. Without an established QA framework to implement the PDDSE, it is difficult to plan quality measures, assess the subsystems at the appropriate levels, or establish adequate quality control at the regional and national level. The TVET system has few measurement tools at regional, sectoral, and national levels that would give the different departments and TVET operators the ability to monitor and evaluate their own systems, processes and organization’s performance. The lack of this common framework reduces clarity, transparency, and the coherence of the policy initiatives of the different departments in the TVET sector. This situation can cause inadequate allocation of resources and ineffective adjustments to problems that arise. National Qualifications Framework (NQF) 86. The development of an NQF in Benin is in progress and led by UNESCO. The NQF can be considered an important building block on which the QA is built, and TVET providers must comply with its guidelines (box 7). The NQF will require education and training providers, including TVET providers, to ensure that their training programs produce graduates with the competencies specified in the NQF standards. Moreover, NQFs will be beneficial to all the parties concerned, especially within the context of globalization, regional cooperation, mobility of workers, and competitiveness. The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) initiatives related to TVET are gradually preparing the ground for the regional qualifications framework, the African Continental Qualifications Framework (ACQF). This regional initiative is on the way to harmonize NQFs such that they are comparable and would facilitate recognition and mobility of skills across the region (see ECOWAS 2020). Box 7. National Qualifications Framework and the quality of technical and vocational training The 2019 TVET Policy of Uganda provides important insights on the links between the National Qualifications Framework (NQF) and quality of technical and vocational educational training (TVET). The TVET policy puts much effort in ensuring the quality of TVET programs, through the establishment of the NQF. It acknowledges that once in place, the NQF will allow TVET providers to reshape their program according to these standards. In general, the NQF is supposed to guide the TVET reforms in respect to the curriculum, assessment, teacher training and links to the labor market. The NQF also offers solutions to the problems of progression between secondary education and postsecondary vocational education and training, and between TVET and higher education. One common problem is that the learning achieved in one education/training sector or one institution is not recognized in another. As a result, learners have to restart or relearning what they already know. This problem is more acute when learning has been achieved informally, for example, in the workplace. The NQF offers solutions to these problems. First, NQF creates ‘progression routes’ based on levels (i.e., clear pathways that take the learner from his/her starting point to the desired qualification goal). The process of designing these progression routes is often referred to as articulation of qualifications. This means ensuring that the qualifications in a particular field or progression from one sector or institution to another are designed to fit well with each other, e.g., by including knowledge and/or skills that are a prerequisite for embarking on a subsequent qualification. Also, NQF often introduces the procedures for facilitating learner progression, such as exemptions, recognition of prior learning, fast-tracking, and credit accumulation and transfer (CAT) systems. The TVET policy also clarifies the path to establish the NQF. There should be clarity about the proposed purposes and scope of the NQF, the range of complementary policy measures required, and the nature of the proposed framework. Designing the NQF means creating a framework into which existing or new qualifications will be placed. The design of the NQF requires the development of: (a) a framework of levels with descriptors for each level; (b) procedures and criteria for accrediting and registering qualifications on the NQF, accrediting education and training providers; and (c) ensuring that assessment leading to the award of NQF qualifications conforms to the national standards. 46 There is a standard international practice for the management of the NQF to be assigned to an apex body, such as a national qualifications authority, that is independent of but accountable to the government. First, the interests of government in an NQF are strategic. They depend on ensuring that certain broad policy goals are achieved. The process of building the NQF may involve disagreements among social partners in which the government may not wish to get directly involved. Second, the NQF will be more successful if it generates a sense of ownership among the social partners and education and training providers. This is easier to achieve if the government is not seen to be directly managing the process. Third, from a purely practical point of view, NQF management is an ongoing operational responsibility that government may prefer to allocate to a separate body. For the NQF to operate effectively, the following four sets of functions must be carried out: the management of the framework, standards and qualifications development, quality assurance of education and training providers, and assessment and certification. The national agency responsible for the NQF will always have the first set of functions. This typically comprises: (a) developing, implementing and reviewing NQF procedures; (b) consulting with stakeholders on the NQF development and implementation; (c) registering qualifications on the NQF; (d) disseminating public information and advice on the NQF; and (e) advising the ministry on policy and resource implications. Source: 2019 TVET Policy of the Republic of Uganda. Accreditations, Examinations, Assessments, Inspection, and Audit 87. Public institutions are exempt from accreditation process. Private institutions depending on the programs they offer are either accredited by the MESFTP (the Direction de la Programmation et de la Prospective (DPP), TVET directorate (DETFP)) or the FODEFCA and the Direction Générale du Renforcement des Capacités et de l’Employabilité (DGRCE). Assessments and examinations are under the responsibility of the Direction des Examens et Concours (DEC) for all TVET institutions and falls under the MESFTP. The responsibility for inspection and audits of institutions rests with the DIPIQ. In practice, however, the institutions may hire underqualified teachers, and inspections are not carried out regularly due to financial constraints. Potential Bias and Dissemination of Quality Assurance Authorities 88. Accreditation and inspection are conducted by several organizations in the system and from different ministries. Moreover, formal public institutions do not require any accreditation. Administrative and financial inspection of the institutions are under the responsibility of the General Inspectorate of Ministries (l'Inspection Générale des Ministères or IGM). However, because of the lack of financial resources, inspections are not done regularly. As a result, there is no a level playing field for the TVET institutions, and there is a lack of fairness and trust in this system. It is the DEC that administers assessment and examinations across the whole system. The absence of a proper QA system creates a situation where the examination and test carried out under the DEC has much more credibility than any assessment done at the institutional level. Quality of Teaching 89. The training quality of teachers remains a serious concern due to a number of factors, including an obsolete curricula, outdated and weak pedagogical methods, inadequate training and learning equipment, and perhaps most importantly, the trainers themselves are lacking in adequate skills, experience and qualifications to conduct quality trainings. Therefore, the quality of teachers is compromised as they neither receive ongoing training nor adapt to technological developments occurring in the workplace. Inadequate training of teachers leads to inadequate instruction for basic industrial specialists (i.e., mechanical engineers, car and motorcycle mechanics, carpenters, electricians, plumbers, etc.). This poor training of teachers is exemplified by the fact that 47 employers are seeking workers from nonformal vocational training instead of TVET graduates of formal programs. 90. According to the Human Resources Department of the MESFTP for the 2006–2007 academic year, only 61 percent of the teachers were qualified for the job. The quality of teaching is at the core of the system and without qualified and competent teachers, no significant improvement can be achieved. Although the DIPIQ sets the qualification requirements and issues the certificates for teachers to teach in training institutions, in practice, this process is not followed by training centers. Inspections and other enforcement measures are poorly implemented due to lack of financing. Poor Allocation of Scarce Resources 91. Inconsistencies are evident in the allocation of resources to schools. The allocation of teachers to schools is not aligned with curriculum requirements or the number of students. Teaching conditions have deteriorated at the postprimary level. Enrollment growth at the primary level and improving completion rates at this level have exerted pressure on teaching staff at subsequent levels of education. Textbooks are very unevenly distributed with a randomness measure of over 80.0 percent, although the total number of books is sufficient. There is a lack of basic school facilities. The education sector is also largely underfunded. Overall, Benin spends only 2.9 percent (2018) of its GDP in government education spending. Most of Benin’s peer countries spent a larger portion of their GDP on education: Togo 5.4 percent, Senegal 4.8 percent, Ghana 4.0 percent, and Rwanda 3.1 percent. In addition, only 42.0 percent (2018) of the population has access to electricity and only 14.0 percent (2017) of the population uses the internet. This is lower than the averages for both the region and its income group. 92. The COVID-19 pandemic further exposed weaknesses in the training system in Benin,20 particularly its lack of digital preparedness (see box 2). The pandemic revealed that there exists a lack of connectivity and digital skills at the institutional level and the individual learner level, as well as among trainers. To ensure that future pandemics and other disruptions allow for education continuity, measures must be put in place that include, among other things, addressing the lack of devices for the learners to learn remotely. Moreover, it is imperative that Benin addresses the issue of connectivity, and specifically broadband connectivity, the lack of which continues to hamper the ability to develop more resilient educational ecosystems, at least at the senior secondary and postsecondary education and training levels.21 20 It also exposed the global weaknesses, including in more advanced economies. Worldwide, TVET systems struggled to provide program continuity by moving education online but pivoting from in-person to full online programming was difficult for many countries and programs. 21 There has been a recent focus on improving countries ’ fixed-line infrastructure through the installation of a 2,000 km optical fiber backbone with ninety points of presence, which helps increase network coverage and access. This backbone stretches from Porto Novo to Malanville in the far north of the country. There are opportunities to increasingly digitize TVET content modules and ensure that students can use this content to support student centered learning activities. Furthermore, the use of digital technologies, and especially new technologies such as Virtual Reality (VR)/Augmented Reality (AR) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) would enable training systems which would not only allow for the conservation of materials since consumables would not be needed to support training activities but would also ensure the safety and well-being of the new trainees just entering the profession. 48 Administrative and Financial Capabilities of Heads of School 93. Managerial capability of the heads of schools also has been identified as a weakness that is adversely affecting the quality of the system. Most of the heads of school are promoted from teachers, and they do not necessarily possess managerial competences to help them perform well in their new position. At the same time, the leadership of the TVET institutions is extremely important for their performance. Lack of managerial competences of school leaders affects the progress of these institutions. Private Sector Participation in TVET 94. Training programs are underdeveloped and do not always promote collaboration between training institutions and potential employers. However, in this regard, Benin has had some success and is a bit of an outlier compared to many developing and even some advanced economies. While other countries have typically attempted to integrate employers into education-led programs, Benin has taken an alternative approach and integrated actors from the education system into an informal employer-led program (Caves et al. 2021). In three comparator countries, there are a low-level links across these two groups despite efforts to improve employer- education links and efforts to bring formal education into an existing employer-led program in the informal labor market.22 95. The overcentralization of TVET institutions in Benin has limited participation of the private sector in TVET delivery. Generally, the partnership that exists between the MESTFP and the private sector involves participation in curriculum development, certification of trainees from the apprenticeship system, use of master craftsmen as co-trainers in the dual apprenticeship system, and representation on the governing boards of vocational training centers. 96. Over the years, efforts have been made to strengthen private sector involvement in the governance of the TVET system in the country. There has been support for skill-building and curriculum development between the private sector and TVET institutions. For example, the creation of a Sector Skills Body for the building and construction sector supports curriculum development, and a consultative framework for articulating the skill needs of the sector is a promising initiative to promote industry engagement with the TVET sector. Infrastructure 97. Inadequate infrastructure is a serious impediment to quality. According to the Annual Statistics 2019– 2020 (MESFTP) most of the laboratories in the technical education domain (enseignement technique) are underequipped with materials suitable for training. Similarly, the number of computers out of order is alarmingly high. As many as 283 out of 370 (76 percent) public-sector computers are not in working condition. In the formation professionelle sector, only 6 out of 19 (31 percent) public sector institutions have library facilities. The situation is even worse in the private institutions where only 5 out of 31 (16 percent) institutions have library facilities. Moreover, the status of the training equipment is often obsolete and in poor working condition. Statistical Data and Benchmarking of TVET Institutions 98. Availability of consistent, regular, reliable, and timely data on TVET is scarce in Benin. The absence of reliable statistical data adversely affects informed decision-making. Much of the data available have been produced by external organizations in connection with studies carried out by them. Tracer studies of students 22 Education-Employment Linkage Index (EELI) developed by Bolli et al. (2018). 49 posttraining to follow up on their integration in the job market, feedback on the training, employment status and possible career plans are essential to give valuable feedback on the overall performance of the system. Tracer studies, training providers’ assessment, surveys of the employers and beneficiaries should be regularly conducted to assess the effectiveness and efficiency of TVET programs, and their results should be publicly disseminated. 99. Benchmarking enables students, employers, TVET providers, and other stakeholders to understand and compare the quality of TVET institutions and programs. Being able to understand the quality of TVET institutions and programs is critical for the accountability of the TVET sector and the maintenance of a well- functioning skill-development market. Generally, it is difficult for the average student to understand the quality of the TVET programs and institutions that she or he may be considering attending. It is also difficult for employers to ascertain the quality of the education that graduates of TVET institutions and programs have received. Benchmarking TVET institutions involves the selection of indicators that measure different aspects of the quality of the institutions or program that can be compared across institutions and understood by students, their families, employers and other relevant stakeholders. Benchmarking indicators may reflect aspects of inputs, which include the qualifications of staff, and availability of training equipment including computers. They can also reflect process aspects, including the number of hours students have contact with teachers during the week, how much time is spent using training equipment, and outcome indicators of graduation rates and graduating on-time rates, as well as tracer studies of employment outcomes of graduates. Indicators are often grouped into criterion reference indicators, which capture a minimum quality standard with the indicator describing whether or not a minimum standard is met, or comparative indicators in which institutions are ranked, for example, according to a student-teacher ratio. These indicators empower students to make more informed choices about which institutions to choose, provide guidance to TVET institution providers on how to improve the quality of their institutions, and offer a means to demonstrate quality improvements (figure 20). Figure 20. Importance of tracer studies and employer satisfaction surveys data To decide which programs to offer To assess program effectiveness—whether and how many students to enroll programs provide relevant skills for students to succeed after they graduate Data from graduates To contribute to the To help students make informed choices program/institutional quality assurance about which programs to enter process 100. The key challenges of implementing benchmarking are (a) selecting indicators; (b) collecting and disseminating indicator data; and (c) establishing an independent body to establish, manage and verify benchmarking. Selecting indicators for benchmarking seeks to balance indicators’ capturing a holistic representation of quality while simultaneously being user-friendly and understandable to the average potential student, family or employer. For example, a large set of indicators may be required to capture the various aspects of the quality of an institution or its program, but a set of indicators that is too large would be difficult for students and employers to understand and use to make decisions, in addition to being more costly to administer. 50 Collecting and disseminating indicator data is a second key challenge that requires careful deign. Institutions require capacity both in terms of record keeping and the human resources to report on benchmarking in order for indicator data to be collected. At the same time, the data need to be widely disseminated, accessible to families, students and employers, and useable. Finally, an independent body is needed to establish, manage and verify the indicator data collected from institutions. This requires sustainable financing to maintain the benchmarking and to fund training and investment to increase capacity. It also requires an independence and strong accountability mechanism in order for the benchmarking indicators and program to have credibility among students and employers. 101. The World Bank’s Training Assessment Project (TAP) offers an assessment of institutions’ TVET system as a whole to enable workers to find and retain employment in economies that are rapidly shifting to the economic frontier. Technological advancements are rapidly changing the skill needs of workers in many occupations, and this is especially true in economies that are shifting toward the technological frontier. TAP is structured around ten action areas: (a) setting strategic direction, (b) gathering, analyzing, and publicizing data for informed decision-making, (c) developing a demand-driven approach to training, (d) establishing a sustained relationship with government, (e) ensuring institutional financial viability and efficiency, (f) fulfilling quality standards, (g) creating a teaching experience conducive to learning, (h) preparing students for the world of work, (i) enabling students to pursue education and training opportunities, and (j) responding to COVID-19 and other emergencies. The TAP assessment begins with a mapping exercise to understand the structure of the training system in a country. An institution survey is conducted to collect data through in-depth interviews with institutions related to the ten action areas. TAP establishes focus groups with key stakeholders including students, recent graduates, institutional managers, and employers. This was first piloted in Albania and Kenya, and it is currently being implemented in Europe, Central Asia, East Asia and the Pacific. Formal and Nonformal Skills Acquisition and Recognition of Prior Learning 102. In 2019, Benin developed the procedure for recognition of prior learning (RPL) in which a learner may obtain formal recognition, in the form of a certificate or diploma, of experiences acquired in professional life. However, this procedure is not yet operational. RPL will offer anyone engaged in working life the opportunity to capitalize on the knowledge and skills they have acquired throughout their professional experience. To benefit from RPL, there are age requirements, plus the person must be in formal, informal or voluntary employment, have experience of professional activities related to the diploma or certificate for at least five years, and provide documented proof of jobs held and the experience acquired (box 8). Box 8. Recognition of prior learning Recognition of prior learning (RPL) is a process used to evaluate and identify knowledge, skills, attitudes, and practices acquired through experience and informal skills acquisition. This type of learning can happen in settings outside training institutions and classrooms and enable learners to acquire competencies and demonstrate learning outcomes beyond a predetermined and accepted set of standards and competencies. While RPL is often stated to have found its practical roots in adult education programs in the post-World War II era, it goes back much further. Recognition theories can be traced to the nineteenth-century philosophical tradition of Hegelianism where “the self is formed within a relationship of acknowledgement by the other, i.e., individual autonomy remains abstract unless enacted through mutual recognition” (Hamer 2011). RPL is called by many different names and phrases around the world, such as accreditation of prior learning (APL), accreditation of prior experiential learning (APEL), validation de acquis des experiences (VAE), or bilan de competences. As RPL experiences significant popularity around the world, it is used in many countries to understand individuals who acquire skills and competences without going through formal education and training processes but find themselves increasingly constrained in the labor market where employers demand 51 formal qualifications. In these ways, RPL provides an important process to consider in the context of Benin and other countries of West Africa. However, prior to the implementation of an RPL process it is important to identify and recognize learning milestones that learners must achieve in their progress toward acquiring qualifications. Once these milestones and standards are clearly defined, it is then possible to give learners the appropriate credit and credentials for the competences and learning outcomes that they have already acquired through informal means. This will reduce the amount of time these learners need to spend in a formal training program. In any effort to provide skill training to a workforce, it is important to understand and recognize the starting point for each learner and to begin the training process from there. One of the most important contributions of RPL is that it increases access to formal training systems which would otherwise be inaccessible to learners given the very high barriers for entry. The RPL process places significant administrative burden on governments, training providers and other stakeholders since skills and competencies of each learner has to be assessed to determine the learner’s previously acquired set of skills and competencies. The process typically will require the following steps: (a) listing the evidence that will need to be gathered for decision-making, (b) making transparent the process involved, (c) ensuring that learners have all the information needed to prepare their portfolio of evidence, and that they have an understanding of the scope of skills and competences that will be assessed, (d) developing appropriate assessment tools and methods to gather evidence beyond those provided by the learners, (e) recording and reporting outcomes, and (f) making decisions on certification. RPL procedures should only be applied by trained personnel, faculty and trainers who have the requisite expertise in the subject and skills areas, as well as the necessary skills and expertise to make such assessments. While RPL methods have been in place and used for many years in TVET systems around the world, there is growing recognition that the expectations placed on RPL have not been fully realized and that efforts to expand the reach of formal training systems to marginalized and disenfranchised learners across countries has not been fully addressed. Most of this evidence comes from advanced economies where there are a multitude of opportunities and avenues to pursue skills development. In less developed economies, like Bangladesh and Nepal, the RPL procedures that have been put in place in recent years have had very positive responses and opinions from those who have benefitted from going through the process. It is expected that the establishment of RPL procedures in Benin would be met with a similarly enthusiastic response from those who have been excluded from formal education and training systems to date. 103. To improve system flexibility and responsiveness to labor market needs it is important to prioritize short-term, modularized, stackable programs over long-duration programs. As a higher proportion of learning is taking place through nonformal, informal and digital learning, a challenge is how to accredit and recognize the skills acquired through these means. Therefore, there is a need to develop an innovative mechanism to recognize the skills and knowledge acquired on a modular credit approach (box 9). However, it should be noted that a coherent and consistent approach to RPL depends on how it is implemented in conjunction with the NQF. Importance of Coherent TVET and Employment Policies 104. It is important that training policies are aligned with the current and anticipated needs of the job market. This will help ensure employability and smooth integration from the training institution to the occupational positions in the workplace, which are key indicators of the quality of a TVET program. The labor market observatories around the world aim and should not only provide up-to-date and reliable data of the current labor needs but also conduct regular studies of the key economic subsectors to anticipate future skills needs. When it comes to meeting immediate skills needs, preemployment training is not enough. TVET institutions should mobilize resources to address in-service training to match market needs within their geographic locations. Transparency and access to data on future skills needs should be available to encourage 52 private operators to develop training offerings. The coordination between the National Employment Agency (l’Agence Nationale Pour l’Emploi or ANPE)23 and TVET authorities is critical in ensuring this coherence. Technological Change, Greening and Automation 105. Technological change to reduce carbon emissions and demand for green jobs is expected to affect the role and relevance of TVET. Technological change, greening and automation are among the emerging trends and new challenges for the sector. Government policies to place a price on carbon emissions are expected to change the demand for different types of skills; even if carbon pricing does not emerge as a government policy in Benin, it is being included in international trade agreements, which can potentially affect Benin’s exports and competitiveness. Analysis of the United States’ O*NET data helps identify the types of skills that are being demanded from the green occupations. Analytical skills, for example, are in higher demand among emerging green occupations including programming, science skills, mathematics, and system analysis skills (Bowen, Kuralbayeva and Tipoe 2018). Mechanical skills are also in increased demand, especially those related to green technology, such as solar and wind power and other technologies to reduce emissions, including the repair and maintenance of equipment, as well as operation and selection of equipment. The role of education quality is key to adapting technologies that help reduce carbon emissions. Higher quality education systems can improve the impact of carbon taxes on reducing emissions and mitigate the effects of carbon taxes on wage inequality and output (Macdonald and Patrinos 2021). Sustainability approaches such as greening infrastructure, greening curriculum and training, greening research and the workplace, and greening institutional culture need to be mainstreamed to the TVET of Benin. Box 9. Modular TVET programs One of the main changes that has taken place in technical and vocational education and training (TVET) systems around the world are reforms associated with curricula that have focused on replacing single programs of long duration with modularized programs and course offerings. Programs can be modularized across the full spectrum of courses, including introductory courses, core and mandatory courses, electives, and specialized courses. Program modularization is closely tied to the structure of decision-making in TVET systems in any given country, and systems with a greater degree of devolved responsibilities and bottom-up approaches to system implementation are able to offer more modularized systems. The reform toward modularization has been in place for several decades around the world with different countries adopting these reforms in varying degrees. However, with the significant changes in the technologies that have taken place in recent years, it should be anticipated that even more modularizations will take place and bite-sized training modules and units are likely to become more popular. The following list includes the reasons to support modularized programs: ▪ Qualifications can be modified quickly to match changes in the world of work. ▪ Courses can be tailored for the level of the learner, ensuring that learners do not have significant gaps in their learning. ▪ Employers have the flexibility needed to train their employees in skills that the employees lack, and which suits the employees’ learning needs. ▪ Learners have options for entry and exit into initial and continuing TVET programs. ▪ Training providers can establish relatively precise points from which potential learners need to be engaged to restart their training, using RPL to determine skills acquired informally or through other 23 the National Employment Agency was established from the merger of the Coordination of Initiatives and New Employment Projects (Coordination des Initiatives et Projets d’Emploi Nouveaux or CIPEN), the National Solidarity Fund for Employment (Fonds de Solidarité Nationale pour l’Emploi or FSNE) and the Employment and Training Observatory (l’Observatoire de l’Emploi et de la Formation or OEF). 53 practices. ▪ Learners have plug-and-play options as they move from one training provider to the next due to the development of a broader system of training. ▪ Learners can experience regular and continuous success at shorter time intervals, thereby allowing them to see and monitor their progress, and helping to minimize program dropouts. This is made possible by linking awards or certificates or other forms of incentives to successful completion of modules. ▪ Learners who are already in the workforce and thereby have a difficult time engaging in full-time and long-term training programs benefit significantly from short-term modularized programs. ▪ Multidisciplinary approaches among training providers allow learners the flexibility to customize the set of skills needed to advance in their careers. ▪ Learners have a way to acquire traditional credentials such as diploma, bachelor’s degree, and master’s degree by breaking these into shorter-duration credentials that can be combined or stacked to earn a full diploma or degree. ▪ The possibility for credit transfer programs can be put into place by combining credits, which allows learners greater flexibility in their ability to access different programs to meet their needs. Source: International Labor Organization (ILO), 2015. Gender Mainstreaming into Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) in Bangladesh. 106. Job-intensive, routine cognitive tasks are increasingly susceptible to automation, and there is more market need for workers with nonroutine, cognitive skills. Since 2001, the share of employment in occupations heavy in nonroutine cognitive and socio-behavioral skills has increased from 19 percent to 23 percent in emerging economies and from 33 percent to 41 percent in advanced economies (World Bank 2019b). Automation is expected to change the task composition of occupations, particularly occupations heavily involved with routine tasks, which in turn will change the skill needs of these occupations. For example, in the agribusiness sector, autonomous tractors, robotic seeding and weeding, and drones that apply fertilizer and pesticides are being developed to reduce labor needs for farming. While it may be awhile before these technologies become financially viable for the average farming household in Benin, the productivity benefits of these technologies for large landowners in Benin may not be that far off and workers in this agribusiness sector will need to build or acquire different skills to stay relevant. 107. More attention also needs to be given to changes in the digital sector. Website designers in the past required thorough knowledge of programming and programming languages including HTML and JavaScript; however, there are many tools and websites that exist which enable individuals to create websites for marketing or selling with no need for knowledge of programming. As the types of tasks in the labor market change, the skill development of workers must also evolve. For example, agribusiness occupations will require knowledge of applying and servicing robotics technology, while website design jobs will require knowledge of web marketing. Moreover, the trend in automation technology may potentially eliminate occupations altogether, and therefore, it is important for workers to be able to acquire skills or build on existing skills. Research on artificial intelligence and machine learning suggests that higher order cognitive skills, creativity, and social intelligence are the skills needed to complement automation technology (World Bank 2016). 108. These types of higher order cognitive skills are not normally associated with vocational education programs; however, as shown by the above examples, it is clear why technical occupations in the future will require these skills. More broadly, skill-based technological changes increase the productivity and earnings for higher-skill workers relative to lower-skill workers, and this has been a feature of productivity changes over the past several decades. Reducing skill-based technology’s effect on wage inequality and gaining the most economic growth from technological change relies in part on the education system’s ability to endow learners with skills that complement technology, and which can be provided by quality TVET education (Bentaouet Kattan, Macdonald and Patrinos 2020). Ensuring that vocational education programs can respond to technology- 54 driven changes in the task composition and skill requirements of occupations will be essential to Benin’s economy taking full advantage of technological change; this is why a TVET system that is responsive to the demands of the market is so important. System Resilience, Digitization and Digital Skills 109. Technology is changing the skills requirements of occupations, affecting both new entrants to the labor market and older workers. Digital skills are at the core of new technologies. They can be acquired through formal education and training as well as informal learning. They are a prerequisite for working in an increasingly technology-driven workplace and environment. Digitalization of TVET will not only contribute to building digital skills in important economic sectors like hospitality and tourism and transport and logistics, but also in industrial fields like mechatronics and cybersecurity. Digital skills training can also support lifelong learning and RPL as existing employees acquire and validate their digital competencies. 110. To expand the digital footprint in Benin, the TVET system should incorporate distance learning, assessment, and simulations. This can be done by producing digital spaces where actual work environments are modelled, flipped classrooms are available to learners who want to acquire knowledge online and practice skills in class or workshops, and personalized learning environments are accessible to students who want to learn at their own pace and according to their aspirations and abilities. 111. Digitalization of TVET in Benin will require investments in digital infrastructure and adequate funding to cover broadband costs as well strategies to address the limited digital skills of trainers and teachers. The digital competence of teachers must be prioritized since this is a limiting factor for digitalization of TVET. Digitalization strategies would include: • Raising awareness about the importance of digital skills and literacy. • Developing online platforms, portals and tools for staff training, including simulation tools for delivery of practical training. • Creating guidelines on using digital platforms and tools for online learning and teaching. • Providing provision of digital equipment and tools, including computers and mobile devices. • Offering affordable high speed and reliable internet connection. The Current TVET Reform in Benin 112. The present reforms of the TVET sector in Benin will address the whole sector at all levels. The necessary framework issues will be addressed by the creation of ADET, a single entity with overall responsibility for TVET matters in Benin. To build capacity to accommodate the expected tenfold increase in TVET learners by 2030, it will be important to set up new training institutions and provide competent teachers and administrators to meet this ambitious target. The task requires attention to quantity and quality. Therefore, QA is fundamental to the success of TVET reform. Recommendations for a Successful TVET QA System in Benin 113. Benin can improve its TVET Quality Assurance by addressing the system at several levels and implementing the following set of recommendations: • Creating a single entity with overall responsibility of TVET matters in Benin; • Developing a strategic vision for the TVET sector; • Segregating roles and responsibilities for accreditation and audit of TVET and provision and delivery of TVET; 55 • Developing preservice and in-service training for TVET teachers, including regular externship in enterprises; • Building capacity for TVET leaders and administrators; • Creating financial and administrative autonomy of TVET institutions; • Ensuring periodic review of training programs with relevant sectoral industry representative; • Carrying out independent systematic process evaluation and tracer studies of all TVET programs; • Ensuring all TVET institutions have an internal QA policy and that it is implemented; • Ensuring TVET institutions maintain their facilities, machines, training equipment as well as their IT services; • Providing adequate learning and recreational resources for the learners; • Making sure grievance and complaint mechanisms are in place in TVET institutions; 56 Section 5. Policy Recommendations Based on the above analyses, this section provides key policy recommendations that support the development of the sector in Benin. 57 Policy Recommendations 1. The Government of Benin (GOB) is pursuing a comprehensive set of reforms to support skill training of the Beninese population. At the core of these reforms is making improvements to the TVET subsector and development of an entrepreneurial culture in the country to support job growth. The key reforms focus on improving access, equity, quality, and relevance of programs; modernizing the sector governance and institutional management; improving quality assurance (QA) procedures; providing training of trainers; and offering assessments and certifications with a specific emphasis on the recognition of prior learning (RPL). These reforms are intended to address the core challenges afflicting the Beninese TVET system, which include, among others: (a) limited access to secondary and postsecondary skills development opportunities; (b) inequities within the system which tends to favor males over females candidates; (c) poor program quality with overemphasis on theory and less on practice; (d) relevance to the needs of the labor market; (e) a highly centralized system of administration with significant coordination failures across government entities and agencies, and between government entities and other ecosystem partners; (f) poorly trained teachers with little or no industry experience; (g) weak data on inputs, outputs and outcomes, and the need to improve the data driven nature of the system; and (h) lack of an entrepreneurial culture to translate skills into productive outcomes. 2. Reforming the TVET system in Benin requires adequate resources and sustained efforts over time. To successfully reform the TVET architecture and ecosystem would include: (a) modernizing TVET sector governance, improving coordination across the TVET ecosystem, and streamlining organizational structures24; (b) developing administrative and regulatory guidelines for institutional autonomy; (c) establishing a strong and independent QA system, strengthening links between the education and training sector, employers and social partners, and enhancing the role of the private sector and strategic partners in the TVET ecosystem; (d) developing sustainable financing models for TVET and diversifying sector financing to improve sustainability; (e) promoting industry relevance through appropriate certification; and (f) strengthening data systems with skills audits, national skills surveys, and tracking of trainees into employment, and supporting the use of data for decision-making. Digitalization of TVET in Benin will also require investments in digital infrastructure, connectivity and digital readiness of trainers and students. 3. Statistical data. Reliable and timely data should be available at all levels of the TVET system for proper planning, resource allocation and informed decision-making. This would mean setting up an information system within the MESFTP and with other key ministries. Surveys of learners after completion should be undertaken consistently, with data analyzed and published in a timely manner. Tracer studies, training providers’ assessments, surveys of the employers and beneficiaries should be regularly conducted to inform the effectiveness and efficiency of the TVET programs. 4. Strengthening TVET Quality Assurance Procedures. This could be done by making improvements to the QA system predicated on the following key guiding principles: (a) autonomy and independence of the QA system; (b) output/outcome-oriented system as opposed to one focused on system inputs; (c) prioritization of programs which are industry certified; (d) prioritization of short-term, modularized, stackable programs that provide system flexibility over longer duration program; (e) qualifications and certifications standards which are transparent, documented, benchmarked, and validated; (f) acknowledgement that skills are acquired through a range of mechanisms and the importance of recognizing skills regardless of the mechanism of acquisition; and (g) accreditation of training providers over time. A QA agency will ensure that enforcement of quality is systematically adhered to in public and private TVET institutions. It will also ensure transparency, fairness in 24 The government has already passed the needed legislation for the establishment of an independent TVET entity that will support and guide all investments in TVET and related institutions in Benin. 58 dealing with public and private institutions, and increase quality standards in TVET subsector. This in turn can stimulate healthy competition between operators, which can encourage private operators to enter the market. 5. Internal QA policy. To sustain any initiative to improve quality across the system, TVET institutions should put in place and maintain an internal QA system. This will help standardize processes and procedures across the different institutions. The development of such a system will provide an opportunity to review current processes and procedures and increase efficiency. This will at the same time help in defining quality indicators setting quality objectives for the institution. 6. Program design. The design of the programs should be driven by the current and anticipated market demand. The practical components and competencies should be clearly defined, and emphasis should be placed on proficiency in skills demanded in the labor market and delivery under a competency-based approach. Greater autonomy and authority should be given to institutions to develop programs based on the needs of the local industries and communities. While designing the programs, the flexibility and modularity in delivery and assessment, taking into account the digital dimension, sustainability and greening agenda, and gender aspects, should be built in. This will make education and training more responsive and flexible to the needs of students and industry and will improve access to education and training for those who are already in the workforce and thereby have a difficult time engaging in full-time and long-term training programs. It will also allow the TVET institutions with quality modular offerings, which are in demand in the labor market, to cater to in-service training for workers seeking to upgrade their skills or those who are unemployed and seeking training for employable skills. 7. Develop Qualifications, Skills and Occupational Standards. Benin would need to develop a set of qualifications, skills and occupational standards and then use this against student outcomes based on prescribed training modules to determine the skill level of trainees. The establishment of such standards and the determination of student learning allows trainees to understand their skill levels, employers to make informed decisions on filling specific posts, and training institutions to constantly modify and change their programs and systems based on the needs of the actual labor market. These standards are not established solely by the ministry in charge of vocational education and training but are often heavily informed by employers themselves and facilitate easier transition between training and the labor market. 8. Program delivery. Capacity building for teachers and school leaders must be put in place. Teachers require both technical and pedagogic skills, and emphasis should be made on developing the right skills for the labor market. Improvements could be made to rigorously prepare and assess externships, which are experiential learning opportunities, similar to internship. Externships are provided in partnerships between educational institutions and employers, and they give teachers and learners practical experiences in their fields of study. Innovative pedagogical approaches with application of technologies should be a compulsory feature of the program. Part of these programs can be delivered through online teaching as part of the building systems resilience. Investment in quality infrastructure to improve quality of delivery is also important. This includes didactic Teachware, machines and equipment for relevant trades. Computers and IT infrastructure such as internet connectivity should also help in building a quality infrastructure. Pedagogic supervision of teachers should be implemented, especially after training, to ensure that practices learned are implemented. Flexibility in delivery should be encouraged, and part-time, modular courses should be offered regularly to encourage skills development. The philosophy of assessment should be aligned with the competency-based approach. Learners should be given the opportunity to acquire modular credits (badges) which they could accumulate to earn a qualification. 9. Program review. Reviews should be carried out systematically as part of the regular processes. Each year, results of learners, efficiency of programs, findings of tracer studies, unit costs, and results of the pedagogic inspection reports should be analyzed and corrective actions developed and agreed upon. Each institution 59 should develop, implement and monitor participation of the private sector on its school improvement or school management plan. This plan should state the overall development objectives of the institution over a timespan set out by policy makers and local stakeholders, and recommendations should following the annual review. 10. Stakeholders’ involvement and participation. To ensure the success of TVET reforms depends on greater involvement and participation of key stakeholders from business and industry. Ideally industry would be involved at all the stages of the training cycle (design, implementation, assessment, review) of the TVET system reform. Official platforms could be created to foster collaboration with industry at several levels. The quality procedure could include industry participation in curriculum design, teaching and learning (guest trainer, internship and externship), assessment and exams (jury). Partnerships with industry leaders (departmental/local) and MOUs could be encouraged. 11. Financing. It is important to develop sustainable financing models for TVET to promote transparency, relevance and efficiency. There is momentum to explore the opportunities of the financial allocation mechanism to promote demand-responsiveness, for example, by introducing performance-based elements related to the relevance of skills acquired through TVET. 12. A systematic approach is necessary for improving and ensuring the quality of TVET. TVET reforms should be driven by quality of provision, labor market needs, and innovation and digital technologies with a strong focus on employability and entrepreneurship. The ambition of Benin to increase enrollments in TVET will materialize partly by raising the attractiveness of TVET. However, this depends on young people perceiving TVET as a viable pathway to good jobs and decent livelihoods or as progress toward higher academic and professional levels. Reforms to expand TVET provision should therefore be underpinned by quality, mechanisms for absorption of graduates into the labor market, and policies that promote the deliberate choice of TVET. 13. The global trends indicate the need for a TVET system that can be responsive to changing demand for skills from the labor market and overcoming sociocultural barriers to ensure an efficient allocation of talent. Table 5. Proposed actions Phasing of Anticipated TVET Key areas to enhance quality and Proposed Actions by outcome from the Development improve relevance of TVET programs GOB reforms Timeline Governance structure Promulgate TVET law, Alignment of the Short-term - Legal and regulatory modernize TVET sector TVET sector work framework governance, improve with the priorities - Formulation of national TVET coordination across the for national policies and reforms TVET ecosystem, and development - Strategic leadership at the streamline organizational policy and operational level structures of TVET - Resource mobilization and institutions with coordinated funding participation of the private sector Tracking and monitoring of the TVET Develop a robust and Informed (evidence- Short-term system dynamic TVET based) decision - Data and information Management making gathering and analysis Information System 60 - Graduate tracer studies, graduate output and employment data - Internal and external efficiency - Progress of reform implementation - Access and attractiveness of TVET Staffing, educational resources and Support institutional and Better quality Short-term infrastructure systemwide faculty and teaching staff and - Faculty institutional resources to ensure development/expansion to development quality instruction address the shortage of Provide educational qualified academic and resources and administrative staff laboratories, and expand - Twinning arrangements school infrastructure, between qualified including technologies internationally recognized training institutions and the target TVET institutions National TVET qualifications Develop and maintain an Multiple pathways to Medium-term framework inclusive national TVET job-relevant - Occupational standards and qualifications framework education and the awards world of work - Benchmarking of qualifications against unified levels - Support for RPL and lifelong learning - Inclusiveness of qualifications obtained from different learning environments (formal, informal and nonformal) Private sector involvement in TVET Institute active dialogue Improved Medium-term - Internships and job placements for regular interaction relevance of service - TVET delivery, assessment and with captains of industry, delivery that enables certification employers, and other learners to acquire - Sector Skills Bodies stakeholders job-relevant skills - Funding support and resources External and internal quality Put in place an Enhanced Medium-term enhancement mechanism independent quality quality of TVET - Autonomy and independence assurance system; programs and of the external quality introduce, maintain and improved assurance system improve, on a continuous accountability of - Output/outcome-oriented basis, the internal quality training providers system instead of input- assurance system within focused system each TVET institution, - Prioritization of industry- with close involvement certified programs of academic staff and - Prioritization of short-term, students modular, stackable programs 61 - Transparent, documented, benchmarked, and validated qualifications and certifications - Mechanisms for recognition of prior learning - Accreditation of training providers over time - Internal quality assurance system Female participation in TVET Gender mainstreaming Greater gender Medium-term - Provision of measures such as to TVET and targeted equality and stipends and training outreach programs women's environment adapted to the empowerment needs of female learners - Affirmative admission criteria - Girl-sensitive outreach programs, student support services and job counseling Financing of TVET Invest in studies to Sustainable, Continuous - Determine cost of training evaluate the cost of TVET outcome-based improvement provision courses and increase financing - Inadequate funding of TVET budgetary allocation to - Diversification of funding TVET sector, and sources intensify engagement - Find alternative financing with private sector mechanisms outside government subsidies Technological change, greening and Mainstream green Culture of Continuous automation infrastructure, green sustainable practices improvement curriculum and training, in TVET green research and the workplace, and green institutional culture 62 References Bentaouet Kattan, R., K. Macdonald, and H. Patrinos, 2020. “The Role of Education in Mitigating Automation’s Effect on Wage Inequality Year of Publication.” Labour 35 (1): 79–104. Bolli, T., K. M. Caves, U. Renold, and J. Buergi. 2018. “Beyond Employer Engagement: Measuring education Employment Linkage in Vocational Education and Training Programmes.” Journal of Vocational Education and Training 70 (4): 524–63. Bowen, A., K. Kuralbayeva, and E. L. Tipoe. 2018. Characterising Green Employment: the Impacts of ‘Greening’ on Workforce Composition. Energy Economics 72: 263–75. Caves, K. and U. Renold. 2018. “Goal-Setting for TVET Reform: A Framework for Identifying the Ideal System in Nepal.” Journal of Education and Research 8 (1) 1–22. Kathmandu University School of Education. Retrieved February 17, 2022 from https://www.learntechlib.org/p/208754/. Caves, K. M., A. Ghisletta, J. M. Kemper, P. McDonald, and U. Renold. 2021. “Meeting in the Middle: TVET Programs’ Education–Employment Linkage at Different Stages of Development.” Social Sciences 10 (6): 220. ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States). 2020. African Continental Qualifications Framework (ACQF) Mapping Study: Regional Report. AU-EU Skills for Youth Employability Programme – SIFA Technical Cooperation. Elder, S. 2015. “What Does NEETs Mean and Why Is the Concept So Easily Misinterpreted?” Work 4 Youth Technical Brief 1, International Labor Organization, Geneva. ETF (European Training Foundation). 2015. “Promoting Quality Assurance in Vocational Education and Training: the ETF Approach.” ETF Working Paper, European Training Foundation, Torino, Italy. IMF (International Monetary Fund). 2019. “The Spending Challenge for Reaching the SDGs in Sub-Saharan Africa: Lessons Learned from Benin and Rwanda.” IMF Working Paper 270, IMF, Washington, DC. ILO (International Labor Organization). 2021. Case Study: Update on Improving Apprenticeship in the Informal Economy in Benin. Geneva: ILO. http://www.oit.org/skills/pubs/WCMS_808737/lang--en/index.htm. Institut National de la Statistique et de l'Analyse Economique. 2018. Enquête Régionale Intégrée sur l'Emploi et le Secteur Informel (ERI-ESI). Bénin. Macdonald, K. A. D., and H. A. Patrinos. 2021. « Education Quality, Green Technology, and the Economic Impact of Carbon Pricing.” Policy Research Working Paper 9808, World Bank, Washington, DC. http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/580021634238409921/Education-Quality-Green- Technology-and-the-Economic-Impact-of-Carbon-Pricing. MOES (Ministry of Education and Sports of the Republic of Uganda). 2019. “The Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) Policy 2019.” MOES, Kampala, Uganda. Patrinos, H. A. 2016. “Estimating the Return to Schooling Using the Mincer Equation.” IZA World of Labor 218: 1–11. Rauner, F., and W. Wittig. 2010. “Differences in the Organisation of Apprenticeship in Europe: Findings of a Comparative Evaluation Study.” Research in Comparative and International Education 5 (3): 237–50. doi:10.2304/rcie.2010.5.3.237. Specht, G. 2014. “Ensuring TVET quality.” Paper presented at the Regional TVET Conference 2014, Jakarta, Indonesia. 63 UN (United Nations). n.d. “World Population Prospects: The 2019 Revision,” United Nations, Population Division (website), n.d. https://population.un.org/wpp/. UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization). 2007. “Improving Education Planning and Management through the Ise of ICTs.” Proceedings of UNESCO-KEDI Study Visit, Seoul, Republic of Korea, 10–13 July 2007. Seoul: UNESCO-KEDI. World Bank, 1993. The East Asian Miracle: Economic Growth and Public Policy. Washington DC: World Bank. ———. 2016. World Development Report 2016: Digital Dividends. Washington DC: World Bank. ———. 2018. Benin Systematic Country Diagnostic (SCD). Washington DC: World Bank. ———. 2019a. Benin Learning Poverty Brief. Washington DC: World Bank. ———. 2019b. World Development Report 2019: The Changing Nature of Work. Washington DC: World Bank. ———. 2019c. Global Economic Prospects, January 2019: Darkening Skies. Washington DC: World Bank. doi: 10.1596/978-1-4648-1343-6. License: Creative Commons Attribution CC BY 3.0 IGO. 64 Annex 1. Comparison of Formal Sector Employment in Benin and Korea Figure A1. Formal sector employment in Benin and Korea Source: World Bank estimates using World Bank Open Data. 65 Annex 2. TVET Governance in Ghana, Kenya, South Africa and India Box A2. Commission for TVET in Ghana The TVET coordination and regulatory body in Ghana is the Commission for TVET (CTVET), which was established by an Act of Parliament in 2020 (Act 1023) to replace the erstwhile Council for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (COTVET). The Commission is mandated to formulate national policies for skills development across all levels (pretertiary and tertiary) and sectors (formal, informal and nonformal). The Commission’s coordination activities extend to all nine government ministries undertaking skills training of one kind or the other as well as private training providers. The Commission is governed by a 15-member Board with an industrialist as the chairperson and other representatives coming from the public and private sectors. The Commission is empowered to: ▪ Formulate national policies for skills development across the broad spectrum of levels (pretertiary and tertiary), sectors (formal, informal and nonformal), and alternative forms of education. ▪ Coordinate, harmonize and supervise the activities of training institutions. ▪ Accredit programmed, institutions and centers. ▪ Rationalize the assessment and certification system. ▪ Ensure quality in delivery of and equity in access to TVET. ▪ Maintain a national TVET database. ▪ Facilitate research and development in the TVET system. ▪ Source funding to support TVET activities. ▪ Facilitate collaboration between training providers and industry to promote demand driven curriculum development and placement, and national internship programs. ▪ Promote cooperation with international agencies and development partners. ▪ Advise government on all matters related to the management and improvement of the TVET system. Source: See www.ctvet-gov.gh. 114. One of the key functions of the Ghana CTVET is to facilitate collaboration between training institutions and industry to promote industry-led and demand-driven curriculum development and delivery, workplace experience learning, recognition of prior learning, and competency-based training qualifications, which are benchmarked on the National TVET Qualifications Framework. Ghana has developed an eight-level National TVET Qualifications Framework starting at level 1, which focuses on persons with minimal or no formal education background but who can demonstrate some basic skills, knowledge and understanding of a TVET area (table A1). Table A2: The Ghana National TVET Qualifications Framework Level Qualification / Certificate Entry Requirements 1 National Proficiency I Persons with basic skills, knowledge and understanding of a TVET area but with minimal or no formal education 2 National Proficiency II National Proficiency I 3 National Certificate I Basic Education Certificate, equivalent to grade 9 4 National Certificate II Upper Secondary School Certificate, equivalent to grade 12 or National Certificate I 5 Higher National Diploma Upper Secondary School Certificate or National Certificate II 6 Bachelor of Technology Higher National Diploma (BTech) 7 Master of Technology Bachelor of Technology (MTech) 8 Doctor of Technology Master of Technology (DTech) 115. Ghana has begun the process of establishing Sector Skills Bodies to leverage the participation of industry in TVET delivery. As at May 2021, eight Sector Skills Bodies have been inaugurated for the 66 Pharmaceutical Industry, Automotive Industry, Renewable Energy, Oil and Gas Industry, Textiles, Apparel and Garment, Logistics and Transportation, and Healthcare Industries. These bodies, with membership between 15 and 20 industrialists, are expected to focus on business opportunities, innovation and skills demand in the various sectors. They will also make evidence-based recommendations to the Commission for TVET (CTVET) on occupational standards, curriculum and learning materials, and facilitate greater industry involvement in skills development. 116. The TVET system in Kenya is steered by the TVET Authority (TVETA), which operates under the Ministry of Education. The TVETA was established under the Act is the TVET Curriculum Development, Assessment and Certification Council (CDACC) with the responsibility to address matters of syllabus, examination, assessment and competence certification. In this respect, the TVET governance structure in Kenya mirrors that of Benin’s where the CNPC-EFTP, as the main TVET coordinating body under the MSTEFP, also has several directorates that are assigned with specific responsibilities. 117. The TVET Act of 2013 prescribes the functions of TVETA, which is mandated to: ▪ Regulate and coordinate training. ▪ Determine the national TVET objectives. ▪ Accredit and inspect programs and courses. ▪ Inspect, license, register and accredit training institutions. ▪ Ensure the maintenance of standards, quality and relevance in all aspects of training, including training by or through open, distance and electronic learning. ▪ Approve the process of introduction of new training programs and review existing programs in TVET institutions. 118. The Kenya National Qualification Authority (KNQA) is required to develop and maintain a framework for defining the various levels of qualifications and competencies and set admission requirements for all qualifications. The Kenya National Qualifications Framework (KNQF) structure comprises qualifications frameworks for general and further education and training, TVET, and higher education subsectors, which include 10 levels, with the doctorate degree as the highest qualification at level 10. 119. The TVET governance system in South Africa also closely resembles that of Benin’s in that it is centrally steered by the Department (Ministry) of Higher Education and Training (DHET), although with a significant difference. In South Africa, the governance structure also includes the Sector Education and Training Authorities (SETAs), which are responsible for identifying skills gaps and demand for new skills, promoting QA and administering training funds and levies for upgrading the workforce. There are currently 23 SETAs in various fields including, among others, agriculture, insurance, mining, health and welfare, and manufacturing. 120. In India, the Sector Skills Councils (SSC) play a similar role as the SETAs in South Africa. SSCs are autonomous, industry-led bodies set up by the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship. The SSCs develop occupational standards, provide training of trainers’ programs, conduct skills gap studies, and assess and certify trainees. Currently there are 38 SSCs in India with a large representation of industry and businesses on the governing councils. 67 Annex 3. TVET Financing Table A3.1. Changes in budget allocations for education from 2015 to 2020 in millions CFAF 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 Total education expenditure (nominal in millions CFAF) 216.145 228.425 260.760 269.232 253.451 275.771 Total education expenditure (actual terms, 2015 in millions CFAF) 216.145 226.874 259.946 266.604 251.979 266.499 Actual annual growth 5.0% 14.6% 2.6% -5.5% 5.8% Educational expenditure as a percentage of total government expenditure excluding debt service 20.5% 24.2% 17.8% 23.1% 22.8% 22.6% Educational expenditure as a percentage of the GDP 3.2% 3.3% 3.5% 3.4% 3.0% 3.1% Source: Ministry of Secondary and Technical Education and Vocational Training ( Ministere des Enseignements Secondaire, Technique et de la Formation Professionnelle; MESTFP). Table A3.2. Changes in budget allocations for education by type of expenditure from 2015 to 2020 in millions CFAF 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 Current expenditure 187.306 211.628 196.787 219.227 225.482 247.670 Staff 124.802 162.719 147.562 161.510 168.159 178.513 Other, nonstaff 62.504 48.909 49.225 57.717 57.323 69.157 Investment expenditure 28.840 16.797 63.973 50.006 27.969 28.100 Domestic 23.386 8.691 47.156 38.041 14.000 18.735 External 5.454 8.106 16.818 11.965 13.969 9.365 Total expenditure 216.145 228.425 260.760 269.232 253.451 275.771 Current educational expenditure as a percentage of current government expenditure excluding debt service 28.8% 31.9% 29.9% 32.9% 33.6% 33.8% Table A3.3. Changes of budget allocations by type and as a percentage of total expenditure from 2015 to 2020 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 Current expenditure 86.7 92.6 75.5 81.4 89.0 89.8 Staff 57.7 71.2 56.6 60.0 66.3 64.7 Other, nonstaff 28.9 21.4 18.9 21.4 22.6 25.1 Investment expenditure 13.3 7.4 24.5 18.6 11.0 10.2 Domestic 10.8 3.8 18.1 14.1 5.5 6.8 External 2.5 3.5 6.4 4.4 5.5 3.4 68 Table A3.4 Changes in educational expenditure implemented from 2015 to 2020 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 Current expenditure 196.062 194.407 191.851 202.443 207.167 234.567 Staff 139.362 149.198 147.684 154.230 162.863 181.572 Other, nonstaff 56.700 45.208 44.167 48.214 44.304 52.995 including allocation 41.200 38.631 38.620 41.770 38.785 46.003 Investment expenditure 22.638 9.396 31.153 14.885 15.245 14.482 Domestic 12.807 6.827 27.528 11.380 11.573 8.557 External 9.831 2.569 3.625 3.505 3.672 5.925 Total expenditure in nominal values 218.700 203.803 223.004 217.328 222.412 249.048 Total expenditure in constant CFAF in 2015 218.700 202.419 222.308 215.206 221.120 240.675 Table A3.5 Budget implementation rate per major type of expenditure from 2015 to 2020 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 Current expenditure 104.7% 91.9% 97.5% 92.3% 91.9% 94.7% Staff 111.7% 91.7% 100.1% 95.5% 96.9% 101.7% Other, non-staff 90.7% 92.4% 89.7% 83.5% 77.3% 76.6% including allocation 89.5% 94.3% 98.8% 85.2% 80.1% 116.4% Investment expenditure 78.5% 55.9% 48.7% 29.8% 54.5% 51.5% Domestic 54.8% 78.5% 58.4% 29.9% 82.7% 45.7% External 180.3% 31.7% 21.6% 29.3% 26.3% 63.3% Total expenditure 101.2% 89.2% 85.5% 80.7% 87.8% 90.3% 69 Table A3.6 Changes in expenditure implemented per ministry 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 MEMP 98.683 100.189 103.798 105.111 119.110 Current expenditure 95.632 94.612 99.837 98.819 115.652 Investment expenditure 3.052 5.577 3.961 6.292 3.458 MESTFP 58.614 58.232 64.257 68.443 79.504 Current expenditure 56.597 57.025 63.626 66.725 75.983 Investment expenditure 2.017 1.207 631 1.718 3.521 MESRS 43.936 60.958 45.768 45.186 44.509 Current expenditure 42.178 40.214 38.980 41.623 42.931 Investment expenditure 1.758 20.744 6.787 3.563 1.578 Total on Education 201.233 219.379 213.823 218.740 243.123 Share of MEMP expenditure 49.0% 45.7% 48.5% 48.1% 49.0% Share of MESTFP expenditure 29.1% 26.5% 30.1% 31.3% 32.7% Share of MESRS expenditure 21.8% 27.8% 21.4% 20.7% 18.3% Note: MEMP = Ministry of Nursery and Primary Education; MESTFP = Ministry of Secondary, Technical Education and Vocational Training; MESRS = Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research. 70