Education and Employment in the Informal Sector: A Review of Some Recent African Research

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Periodical article

Title:	Education and Employment in the Informal Sector: A Review of Some Recent African Research
Author:	Rathgeber, Eva M.
Year:	1988
Periodical:	Canadian Journal of African Studies
Volume:	22
Issue:	2
Pages:	270-286
Language:	English
Geographic term:	East Africa
Subjects:	informal sector educational policy Education and Oral Traditions Labor and Employment Bibliography/Research
External link:	https://www.jstor.org/stable/485905
Abstract:	In the 1980s youth unemployment and underemployment has become a problem of increasing concern in many African countries. As the capacity of the formal sector to provide employment opportunities has decreased relative to population growth, the importance of the urban informal sector has increased dramatically. Therefore, a critical question for African planners and education policymakers has become how to prepare school leavers for participation in the informal sector. This paper reviews some recent East African research on the acquisition and use of crafts skills in the informal sector. Three key policy implications arise from an examination of these research findings: 1) African policymakers must address themselves to the integration of formal and informal learning; 2) they must recognize the legitimacy of the informal sector in the African context; and 3) although some African countries, such as Kenya, have implemented the vocationalization of primary school curricula, it is not clear that this will have a positive effect in the long term. Bibliogr., notes.