According to the World Bank, agriculture is uniquely suited as a tool for development to “produce faster growth, reduce poverty and sustain the environment.”[1] Agribusiness has a large and growing portion of gross domestic product across developing countries. Growing urban markets are demanding a greater diversity of value added food products, opening windows of opportunity for innovation and entrepreneurship.
With dismally low levels of education in rural areas[2], many people in need of jobs cannot take advantage of these new opportunities. According to the International Labour Organization, as much as two-thirds of young people aged 15 to 24 is “underutilized in some developing economies, meaning they are unemployed, in irregular employment…, or neither in the labor force nor in education or training.”[3] Often, there is a mismatch between the demand for workers and the availability of trained personnel.
Skills gaps in agriculture exist because of weaknesses in the education and training pipeline from primary school to university and non-formal training. Producing a diversified, high-quality workforce for the agriculture value chain requires strengthening the educational pipeline.
InnovATE’s Work on Youth and Workforce Development
AET Systems/Institutional Assessments:
Thematic Studies:
- Capacity Building for Agricultural Technical Vocational Educational and Training (ATVET) Programs in Developing Countries: A Case Study in Nicaragua
- The Role of Agricultural Technical and Vocational Education and Training in Developing Countries
- Challenges and Opportunities for AET in Post-Conflict Sub-Saharan Africa
- Thematic Brief: Youth Violence and Education-Based Interventions for Citizen Security in Central America’s Northern Triangle
- Thematic Brief: Rethinking Interventions Addressing Youth Violence in Central America’s Northern Triangle
- Youth Violence and Citizen Security in Central America’s Northern Triangle
Contemporary Challenges in AET:
- Developing the Capacity of Middle-Level Tertiary Education in Preparing and Nurturing Young Entrepreneurs in Sub-Saharan Africa
- Brief: Preparing Young Entrepreneurs in Sub-Saharan Africa: Middle-Level Tertiary Education
- Review of Research and Practice for Youth Engagement in Agricultural Education and Training
- Brief: Youth Engagement in Agricultural Education and Training
- Engaging Rural Youth in Entrepreneurship through Extracurricular and Co-curricular Systems
- Brief: Engaging Rural Youth in Entrepreneurship through Extracurricular and Co-curricular Systems
- Project-based Learning: Equipping Youth with Agripreneurship by Linking Secondary Agricultural Education to Communities
- Brief: Equipping Youth with Agripreneurship: Linking Secondary Agricultural Education to Communities
Good Practice Papers:
- Cultivating Youth Entrepreneurship through Agricultural Education and Training
- Place-based STEM Education
- Agriculture and Youth Development
- Leveraging field experiments to reinforce student learning in Senegal
- Project-based learning for student engagement
Reports and Presentations:
- Building Capacity of the Cambodian Agricultural Education and Training System
- From Citizen Security to Food Security: A cross-sector discussion of violence in Central America
[1] World Bank. (2008). World Development Report 2008: Agriculture for Development. http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTWDR2008/Resources/WDR_00_book.pdf
[2] “Rural males have an average of four years of education in Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, Middle East and North Africa, and Latin America and the Caribbean, and just above six years in East Asia and the Pacific. These averages are two to four years less than in urban areas. Women’s level of education is even lower, with averages below two years in South Asia and the Middle East and North Africa.” World Bank. (2008). World Development Report 2008: Agriculture for Development. Pg. 216. http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTWDR2008/Resources/WDR_00_book.pdf
[3] International Labour Organization. (2013). Global Employment Trends for Youth 2013. Pg. 2. http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/—dgreports/—dcomm/documents/publication/wcms_212423.pdf