Africa’s youthful population, expanding markets and industrial ambitions create extraordinary potential. Yet skills mismatches, uneven training quality, limited work-based learning, fragmented labour-market information and barriers to inclusion continue to constrain productivity and opportunity.
The green transition, digitisation and emerging technologies make action more urgent. Training systems must anticipate change, employers must help shape and deliver learning, and qualifications must support trust and mobility across the continent.
ASW 2026 is designed as a convening and implementation platform: a place to compare approaches, build partnerships and agree on practical pathways that connect learning to employment, enterprise and industrial value creation.