This Wednesday, August 12, 2026, the world marks International Youth Day, a UN-designated day meant to draw attention to youth issues and celebrate the contributions of young people globally.
As the world marks this important day, one issue has come up again and again: youth unemployment and skills mismatch.
How can this challenge be tackled?
Employers are pointing to Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) as the clearest route out of youth unemployment crisis that has increasingly more to do with a mismatch between what schools teach and what industry actually needs.
Uganda produces hundreds of thousands of graduates annually, a large share of them from universities and other academic institutions.
According to the on the 2024 National Population and Housing Census by the Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS), 42.6% of young people aged 15 to 24, are neither in employment, education nor training. This has escalated youth unemployment and skills mismatch.
Employers say that too many of young graduates arrive in the workplace without the practical competencies employers are actually hiring for, forcing companies to either retrain them or bring in skilled labour from outside the country.
Why employers are turning to TVET
For Dr Martha Muhwezi, Executive Director of the Forum for African Women Educationalists (FAWE) Africa, the evidence in favour of vocational and technical training over conventional academic routes has become difficult to dispute.
“Why we emphasize TVET, you can get employment. Transition into the world of work; chances are higher in TVET than any other field. And these are people that can employ themselves or they can be employed by any company. We have implemented it in Uganda for the past 8 years, and 98% of the young people that join TVET are either self employed or are employed by other companies,” she says.
That 98 percent figure sits in sharp contrast to the picture facing many university leavers, who frequently spend months or years searching for formal employment after graduation. The distinction employers draw is one of orientation: TVET programmes are built around specific, demonstrable competencies — welding, plumbing, electrical installation, tailoring, hospitality, ICT hardware and similar trades — that can be tested and applied immediately, whereas conventional academic qualifications do not always translate into a skill an employer can put to work on day one.
