The Virtual Conference organized from 16 – 22 January 2017 on the topic of “Diversifying the funding sources for TVET” was attended by 219 participants from 81 countries. It facilitated the sharing of experiences, tools and best practices on funding for TVET, and built on comparative studies on the financing of skills development conducted in South-East Asia (French Development Agency, UNESCO, Gret), in Latin America, and in Sub-Saharan Africa (French Development Agency, Association for the Development of Education in Africa, Gret).

The conference was mainly organized around three main topics:

Improving the cost-efficiency of public resources: A first step to address the lack of resources to fund TVET is to promote a cost-efficient use of public resources, notably through the implementation of output-based funding approaches. The conference focused on possible approaches and advantages and risks of output-based funding strategies. It also asked the question how output-based systems should be designed to function appropriately;

Supporting the development of income generating activities by training providers: training providers are increasingly pushed to develop income generating activities to complement their resources. The conference offered the opportunity discuss how training providers can be supported in developing income generating activities, the risks associated with implementing such a strategy, and how these activities should be implemented;

Mobilizing the industry through the introduction of tax- or levy systems: one of the ways to improve funding for TVET involves mobilizing the industry through the implementation of tax or training levies. The conference focused on participants’ experiences with such systems, recommendations for the implementation of tax/levy systems, and on how they can be managed and used strategically.