Skills in Guinea : Supply and Demand
In Guinea, the quality of human capital is as crucial for economic success as its vast mineral resources. Improving the quality of education, ensuring the creation of a productive labor with high returns, and, above all, encouraging the creation of...
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| Format: | Report |
| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2017
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/905311497588215383/Skills-in-Guinea-supply-and-demand http://hdl.handle.net/10986/28055 |
| Summary: | In Guinea, the quality of human capital
is as crucial for economic success as its vast mineral
resources. Improving the quality of education, ensuring the
creation of a productive labor with high returns, and, above
all, encouraging the creation of private enterprises through
a favorable business climate are all essential to boosting
productivity and skills. Today, traditional civil service
opportunities available are insufficient to absorb
ever-growing numbers of Guinean graduates. University
enrollments have increased tenfold over the past 10 years,
reaching more than 95,000 students in 2012. Graduates
between the ages of 25 and 35 face an unemployment rate
close to 30 percent, posing a threat to social stability.
Education remains disconnected from work, and students are
not distributed among academic disciplines according to any
economic logic. Technical and vocational training is
underdeveloped relative to the needs of industry, namely
mining, construction, and agriculture in particular.
Companies hire mainly through personal connections, creating
a system in which, for all sectors but agriculture, the
majority of employee’s report obtaining their jobs through
acquaintances. Even in the formal economy, firms recruit
predominantly via informal networks. The lack of transport
infrastructure and weak electrical power grid, coupled with
a poorly developed financial system and challenging
institutional environment hinder both the creation of new
businesses and growth of existing businesses. Growth
projections are encouraging, although not as high as
expected due to the Ebola virus disease, and demand for
skilled labor is now a national priority. Maximizing the
outputs of these new jobs will require strengthening the
linkages between higher education (including technical and
vocational education and training (TVET)) and high-growth
sectors. In this note, we review the current state of
education and workforce skills in Guinea. With the support
of the new employer-employee survey prepared under this
technical assistance and household surveys covering years
2007 and 2012, the note will identify the key bottlenecks
faced by firms in hiring qualified workers. The note will
conclude by providing recommendations to improve workforce quality. |
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