Area: Africa
Country: Ethiopia

From August 10 to 23, 2018, the SKY project members visited Ethiopia to make arrangements for a large-scale assessment of garment sector workers. Since 2016, we have worked in close collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Education and Federal Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) agency for the preparatory survey and have signed a Memorandum of Agreement for an enlarged survey. In addition, through discussions made during this trip, we have reached agreements for partnership with three other stakeholders, namely, the Ethiopia Investment Commission under the Prime Minister’s Office, the Textile Industry Development Institute under the Ministry of Industry, and the Industry Park Development Corporation.

Based on these agreements, beginning in approximately November 2018, we will conduct a large-scale skills assessment of garment sector workers in two industry parks: Hawasa and Bole Lemi II.

Global garment companies’ zeal for investing in Ethiopia is heating up. At the same time, a discrepancy between conventional domestically-oriented enterprises and foreign-invested export-oriented firms is creating a dual labor market, and there is growing criticism that TVET has not been able to supply workers equipped with the kind of skills that the market demands. To contribute to a reduction in the supply-demand gap for a skilled workforce, SKY project will swiftly complete the assessment so that we can make effective policy proposals.(by Shoko Yamada)

[Photo: SKY project member with State Minister of Education Ato Teshome]

Ethiopian Federal Ministry of Education http://www.moe.gov.et/
Ethiopia Investment Commission http://www.investethiopia.gov.et/
Industry Park Development Corporation http://www.ipdc.gov.et/index.php/en/
Textile Industry Development Institute http://www.fibre2fashion.com/etidi/