South Sudan: stakeholders' views of technical and vocational education and training and a framework for action

The Republic of South Sudan, recently emerging from the longest civil war in contemporary African history, has set goals towards post-conflict reconstruction in many areas of social services. However, the educational infrastructure continues to struggle, and many stakeholders in government and international and local organisations are not sufficiently aware of the needs, challenges and opportunities that face the implementation of technical and vocational education and training (TVET) in the country. Preparing future generations of youth and adults with in-demand technical skills and retraining ex-combatants to enter a peacetime workforce is essential to the development and growth of South Sudan. As a first step towards creating the foundation necessary for post-conflict training, we collected and analysed qualitative data from focus groups, in-depth interviews, field observations, and archival documents and identified three interrelated elements that require attention for the effective development of TVET: political climate, curriculum and delivery options. The resulting findings offer a starting point for addressing some of the key constraining factors for the important job of TVET development in South Sudan.