The Role of Non-Formal and Informal Education in African Economic Growth

This chapter examines the role of non-formal and informal education in achieving the economic growth and development strategies under Agenda 2063. Persistent concerns about “skills mismatches” in Africa are exacerbated by the disruptions of sustainability imperatives and the Fourth and Fifth Industrial Revolutions (4IR/5IR). There is a foundational misalignment between the dominant focus of skills anticipation systems and many TVET institutions on serving the formal wage economy at the expense of rural and informal economies where most people work. Drawing on a document analysis of major continental economic growth policies and a literature review of academic research, the analysis summarises new skill demands generated by industrialisation, agricultural transformation, and the growth of entrepreneurial ecosystems. The chapter foregrounds the importance of non-formal and informal learning systems, using agricultural education and training as an example, where digital agricultural technologies are reshaping extension and training models. The chapter concludes that Africa’s “skills balancing act” needs to go beyond tensions between resource allocations to schooling versus vocational training, equity versus growth, or articulating education with economic development strategies. (Re)balancing acts are required in reorienting skills anticipation systems; formal, non-formal and informal systems of provision; and ecosystem formation strategies.