Upskilling for Future Generations: How Can a Gender and Generational Approach Re-Conceptualise Technical and Vocational Education and Training as a Vehicle for Social Transformation for Slum-Dwelling Young Women in Sierra Leone and Cameroon?

Technical and vocational education and training (TVET) is a key component of the UN’s ‘decent work’ agenda which seeks to align fair and secure working conditions with the aspirations of workers to meet Sustainable Development Goal 8. This project targets a gap in current TVET provision by focussing on gender equality as an essential foundation of ‘decent’ work and the skills agenda for aspirational young people. Adopting an innovative gender mentoring methodology, which brings marginalised young women engaged in skills training into dialogue with gender activists, the research team will interrogate the gender norms which create barriers for young women to access ‘decent work’. Working in partnership with the fastest growing skills provider in Africa, Don Bosco, in two rapidly expanding cities, Yaounde in Cameroon and Freetown in Sierra Leone, the project will employ youth researchers to explore how TVET can operate as a vehicle to challenge wider societal gender discrimination.

Research team: Dr Ross Wignall, Oxford Brookes University; Dr Brigitte Piquard, Oxford Brookes University; Mr Yusuf Ibrahim, Njala University, Sierra Leone; Professor Marie-Thérèse Mengue, Catholic University of Central Africa, Cameroon