Sierra Leone Skills Development Project

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The Development Objective of the Skills Development Project for Sierra Leone is to increase access to demand‐led skills training and build the foundations for a demand‐led skills development system in Sierra Leone.It has two components. First component, Skills Development Fund (SDF) aims to increase access to demand‐led skills upgrading in Sierra Leone. The SDF supports skills demand and supply through two corresponding windows: (a) Window 1 targets selected training institutions that wish to improve the relevance and quality of their training programs and to introduce new short‐term courses for out‐of school unemployed and underemployed youth, with a focus on girls; (b) Window 2 targets businesses in the productive sectors (agriculture/agro‐processing, fisheries, mining/extractives, construction, and tourism) that need to address the skills gaps to expand their production and markets or to upgrade their production process to climb higher up the value chain.Skills upgrading initiatives to be supported by the SDF will be selected through a competitive process based on the merit and the labor market relevance of the initiative.The evaluation of the applications for SDF will be carried out with highest standards of integrity, focusing on (a) evidence from the training needs assessment and its robustness for assessing the expected labor market absorption of graduates (for Window 1); (b) the likely impact of requested support on labor productivity (competitiveness) for businesses (for Window 2); (c) targeting/inclusion of youth to be trained; (d) alignment between the proposed grant’s objectives, inputs, budget, and human resources; (e) value for money (that is, cost‐effectiveness based on a comparison of the unit costs of training and the expected outcomes); and (f) monitor able outputs and results. Second component, Capacity Building and System Strengthening aims at building a foundation for a demand‐led skills development system through (a) establishment of an integrated skills information system to support evidence‐based analysis and policy development and (b) piloting the accreditation of skills training programs with the participation of industries.For the establishment of an integrated skills information system, the project will build on the development of a Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) data platform being piloted with support from the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ) managed TVET technical assistance project funded by the European Union (EU).Also under component 2, the project will support a pilot certification of graduates of TVET of at least two programs in different sectors to strengthen the accreditation process with industry participation.The proposed project will help document these processes and the actors involved and lessons learned will be disseminated to (a) participating TVET providers, (b) the National Council for Technical, Vocational, and Other Academic Awards (NCTVA), and (c) other policy makers and stakeholders. While the project will not cover the accreditation of all TVET programs, it will help explore the framework for program accreditation. This may include (a) setting standards for program accreditation, (b) formalizing accreditation processes (self‐evaluation and external validation), (c) institutional setup for accreditation, (d) disclosure of accreditation results, and (e) strategies for improving outcomes using accreditation standards.