Technical and vocational education and training and marginalised youths in post-conflict Sierra Leone: Trainees’ experiences and capacity to aspire

Abstract

The article aims to build on current understandings of the experiences and aspirations of technical and vocational education and training (TVET) trainees in conflict-affected countries, focussing on the case study of Sierra Leone. Employing the capabilities approach pioneered by Amartya Sen, it casts light on the different benefits beyond employability which young people acquire through TVET. This includes the development of their ‘capacity to aspire’. At the same time, the article shows the poor conditions and social stigma that continue to surround TVET and the profession of ‘skilled man’ in the country of Sierra Leone. By doing so, the article shows the potential of capabilities approach and the concept of ‘capacity to aspire’ to more systematically look at the wider benefits of TVET to young people. It also reveals the simplistic nature of the international community’s expectations with regards to TVET’s role in post-conflict societies.

Lections through Lecture Performance. Making forgotten conflicts visible through International and Comparative Education

“…Thus, it is possible to participate actively in the construction of the pedagogical practices of the future, after invoking the social imaginary and reflecting on the international educational past and present. Therefore, the use of Lecture-Performance (Even and Schewe, 2016;Milder, 2011) as a pedagogical method in the field of International Education contributes to reinventing the teaching practice in areas of knowledge tied to the use of traditional teaching methodologies (Belloni, 2008;Kester, 2019;Matsumoto 2018;Oruc et al, 2019). Lecture-Performance is a construct in which pedagogy and artistic practice converge and interact to further the deconstruction of knowledge through the development of divergent thinking that is coupled with various artistic readings on situated educations.…”

Young people’s participation experiences of technical and vocational education and training interventions in low- and middle-income countries: a systematic review of qualitative evidence

“…Economic gains Young people in several studies increased their economic gains to cover basic needs (Alcid 2014;DeJaeghere 2018;DeJaeghere et al 2019;Matsumoto 2018;Vong et al 2017) and diversified their income sources (Botea et al 2015;DeJaeghere 2018;Management Systems International and A Tetra Tech Company 2017). While some young people appreciated that TVET participation offered them more job options to be economically resilient in developing markets characterized by frequent turmoil, some participants lamented the failure of TVET to fundamentally changed their working status and earning abilities (Korzh 2013;Lefebvre et al 2018;Vong et al 2017).…”

Factors Affecting Effective Delivery of Technical Skills Practical Lessons in The Colleges of Education in Ghana

“…That is, vocational technical education arrangement ought to be receptive to the requests of industry. Matsumoto (2018), vocational technical education should be more diverse because of the changes in the labour market, to be able to integrate the youth into the working world. Bagale (2015) recognized two significant goals of vocational technical education as the pressing need to prepare the workforce for self-employment and the necessity to raise the productivity of the informal sector.…”