These guidelines follow the publication of Digital Transformation of TVET and Skills Development Systems in Africa - Guidelines for countries to undertake a situational analysis (‘the Situational Analysis Guidelines’).

In concert with the situation analysis guidelines, these guidelines are based on primary research commissioned by UNESCO and the ILO (2020) and ILO’s ‘five building blocks’ conceptual framework for TVET and skills development systems (2021).

In practice, many of the elements in the building blocks are inter-dependent: a framework involves complex interactions between individual learners, workers and the labour market as well as a range of institutions and stakeholders in the public and private sectors. These institutions include education and training providers, regulatory bodies and intermediaries such as public and private employment services, business support services, and local and regional authorities. There are complex financing and data flows, assessment and certification systems and interactions with different policy domains where the politics of skills formation impact the programmes and policies that are in operation.