The principal PPET issues

1. The principal PPET issues PPET is urgent and of strategic importance because of the social pressures (50% of young people outside the euducation system following EPT) and the economic pressures (90% of young people entering the world of workwithout qualifications), but itremains marginal and under-financed In theorythereis an agreement to integrate the formal and the informal in a unified initiative, but thisintegrationishindered by the absense of recognition of non-formal and informal in terms of finance and certification

2. The principal PPET issues Twoemergingkey points : the professionalisationboth of young people in work and thosewhoremain non-qualified and of the training of young people in rural areas But neither of these points emergedfrom the discussions or the working groups

3. The main agreements There isneed for national strategies and operationalpoliciesat central and local levels Both public and privatepartnersneed to beinvolved in defining how thispolicyisrolled out Statistical and analytictools must bestrengthened in order to enable effective and co-ordinatedpiloting of the entire PPET initiative

4. The main agreements The skills profiles and curricula of training need to bedefined in relation to local social and economiccontexts and must encourage the employment of young people wherethey live EPPT must betargeted on gainingemployment in the qualified labour market

5. Discussion points EPPT must beco-ordinated and piloted, but underwhich national structures , leadership and responsibility : Ministries operating in the field of TVET? Co-ordination of ministriesresponsible to Prime Ministers? Those set up by autonomous and multi-partner bodies ? A precisediagnosisneeds to be made of the evolvingneeds of the labour market ; but whotakes the lead in this? Public authorities, professional bodies, social partners ?

6. Points for exploration and furtherdebate PPET versus TVET? Whatis the differencebetweenboth concepts? The competencesrequired in basic education : namelylifeskills, generalskills, entrepreneurshipskills ? Movingfromrecurrentexperiments to a consolidation of reformed or improvedapprenticeship : how canthisbedonewithin the EPPT structure ?

7. Points for exploration and furtherdebate National qualification frameworks : how to recognise the non-formal and the informalwithinthem, and create progression and mobilitywithindifferentschemes ? Forecastingskills and competences : isthis a question of diagnosingemerging occupations or of establishing flexible training and qualification pathways as close as possible to local and sectoral labour markets ?

8. Action guidelines Insofar as public financingfails to succeed in lendingcrebility to initiatives likereformedapprenticeship, the routes to innovatorycareers in rural areas and all the emergingforms of alternance, nothingmuchislikely to change in African countries There willbe no integrated PPET system unlessthereis positive recognition and certification of skillsacquiredatwork

9. Action guidelines One of the difficultiesencountered by all reformsis to passfromexperiment to consolidation and deployment : itis more thanevernecessary to develop the capacity to buildsystems and to roll out initiatives that have provedsuccessful Reinforcing the capacity of all involved in EPPT/TVET is of great importance : trainers, economic and professionalpartners, decision-makers…