Technical and vocational education and training and marginalised youths in post-conflict Sierra Leone: Trainees’ experiences and capacity to aspire

Abstract

The article aims to build on current understandings of the experiences and aspirations of technical and vocational education and training (TVET) trainees in conflict-affected countries, focussing on the case study of Sierra Leone. Employing the capabilities approach pioneered by Amartya Sen, it casts light on the different benefits beyond employability which young people acquire through TVET. This includes the development of their ‘capacity to aspire’. At the same time, the article shows the poor conditions and social stigma that continue to surround TVET and the profession of ‘skilled man’ in the country of Sierra Leone. By doing so, the article shows the potential of capabilities approach and the concept of ‘capacity to aspire’ to more systematically look at the wider benefits of TVET to young people. It also reveals the simplistic nature of the international community’s expectations with regards to TVET’s role in post-conflict societies.

Introduction

Technical and vocational education and training (TVET) has long been debated as a tool for development in sub-Saharan Africa in both academic and policy-oriented literature. Between the 1950s and the 1980s, it was considered one of the most important tools for addressing pervasive youth unemployment issues (McGrath, 2002); TVET was seen as a way to alter young people’s unrealistic preferences for white-collar jobs – the perceived cause of the issue at that time – and encourage them to aspire to manual or farming-related work (e.g. Balogh, 1961, cited in Foster, 1965b). However, this view was criticised by some academics (e.g. Blaug, 1973; Psacharopoulos, 1987, 1991), most prominently by Foster in his ‘Vocational School Fallacy in Development Planning’ (1965b). As a result, TVET was overlooked in favour of basic education in the 1990s. However, there has been a resurgence of interest in TVET among policymakers in sub-Saharan Africa since the 2000s. This interest has emerged as part of a broader concept of skills development ¹ (McGrath, 2002; 2012). Firstly, TVET is seen as a useful way to provide the skills necessary in a changing economic context, thereby promoting economic development (World Bank, 2010; United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), 2012). Secondly, it is considered to provide opportunities for training to marginalised youths, increase their employability, and ultimately address unemployment issues and promote social equity (UNESCO, 2010, 2012; International Centre for Technical and Vocational Education and Training of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO-UNEVOC), 2013).

The latter rationale is especially relevant to the context of conflict-affected countries and so-called ‘fragile’ states (e.g. Department for International Development (DFID), 2005), where the risk of violence and conflict is considered to be high. There, unemployment of marginalised youths raises security concerns; young people are often the largest population cohort in conflict-affected countries and leaving them ‘idle’, that is, unemployed or not involved in education, may increase the risks of widespread disillusionment, social tension, and, potentially, violent conflict or terrorism (World Bank, 2006). ² TVET has been viewed as a key tool in helping young people to become employable and to reduce the risks to conflict affected countries (e.g. Kane et al., 2007; UNESCO-UNEVOC, 2012).

In the context of this resurgence of interest of TVET in policy circles, lively debates have taken place on TVET in recent academic literature (e.g. Allais, 2012; Lewis, 2009; McGrath, 2011; Oketch, 2007; Triply et al., 2013). While Foster’s work continues to be influential (see, for example, King and Martin, 2002; Lauglo, 2010; Lauglo and MacLean, 2005), there is a dearth of research over the last couple of decades investigating young people’s experiences or career aspirations regarding TVET (Hicks et al., 2011; Kikechi et al., 2013; King and Martin, 2002; Odora and Naong, 2013; Powell, 2012; Powell and McGrath, 2014). ³ This is somewhat paradoxical; the discussion about what TVET can and cannot achieve takes place without the involvement of the actual beneficiaries for whom the system should be designed (Powell, 2012). In conflict-affected countries, understanding of their perspectives is particularly crucial considering the potential security implications of large numbers of disengaged young people for these contexts, as mentioned above.

The article, therefore, aims to build on understanding of the experiences and aspirations of TVET trainees in conflict-affected countries, focussing on the case study of Sierra Leone, an understudied case. Employing the capabilities approach pioneered by Amartya Sen, it casts light on the different benefits, in particular the capacity to aspire, which young people acquire through TVET. By doing so, the article shows the potential of capabilities approach and the concept of ‘capacity to aspire’ to more systematically look at the various benefits that TVET provides to young people. At the same time, the article demonstrates the simplistic nature of the international community’s expectations with regards to TVET’s role in post-conflict societies, in view of poor conditions and social stigma that continue to surround it.

Foster’s vocational fallacy theory and TVET students’ experiences and career aspirations

In The Vocational School Fallacy in Developmental Planning (1965b), Foster questioned the role of TVET in the economic development of developing countries. He did so by examining young people’s career aspirations and expectations, which were and continue to be largely dismissed in the field. He disproves the widely-held belief that students possess an irrepressible preference for white-collar jobs and reject manual jobs; he shows that the majority of students in academic schooling already preferred artisan employment or farming when they were not largely exposed to vocational and technical subjects. He states ‘in Ghana, at least, the disdain for manual labour believed to be so typical of the products of formal education is not at all in accord with the fact’ (Foster, 1965b: p. 149). He further argues that the factors determining young people’s aspirations were the occupational structure and opportunities present in the economy, and that these were perceived with a ‘remarkable level of realism’ (Foster, 1965b: p.149).

Foster (1965b) also criticises the unproductiveness of TVET as a tool to promote employability or economic development. He states that many of those who were trained in technical institutions often experience difficulties in obtaining employment in the area of training while academic education is more ‘a vocational education providing access to those occupations with the most prestige and, most important, the highest pay’ (Foster, 1965b: p. 145). He was not against the introduction of TVET per se, however. He comments later that ‘I personally am in favour of attempts at more diversified types of curriculum and school systems for pedagogical and educational reasons. Don’t expect such changes to influence the realities of the labour market, however…’ (Foster to King, personal communication, 3 September 1999. Cited in King and Martin, 2002, p. 25). Indeed, he criticised the view of educational institutions as a primary tool for social change in general, and this thesis is further developed in his relevant wider work (Foster, 1965a).

There are two key issues raised by Foster that remain contentious. The first is whether or not the TVET curriculum to which students are exposed would have any influence on their career aspirations. Foster (1965b) has denied this possibility, but it should be noted that he has argued so without drawing on a sample of students from a vocational school or TVET institution (King and Martin, 2002). Furthermore, contrary to Foster’s argument, recent studies show that TVET programmes do have a positive influence on students’ career aspirations (Kikechi et al., 2013; King and Martin, 2002; Powell, 2012). The second issue concerns whether or not students hold realistic aspirations and sensible perceptions of occupational opportunities. On the one hand, King and Martin (2002) support Foster’s argument that students have realistic views of the occupational opportunities that exist and that these largely determine their aspirations, with manual labour perceived positively. On the other hand, Odora and Naong (2013) claim that the ‘disdain for manual labour’ linked to TVET continues in the case of South Africa and that students do not wish to pursue technical jobs.

This article will explore the two issues, taking a qualitative approach that attends to the context surrounding TVET institutions and young people’s lives. With the exception of Powell (2012), all studies over the last two decades that touch upon TVET students’ voices use quantitative surveys. However, Powell (2012) demonstrates the importance of the insights that can be gained through qualitative studies. She conducted qualitative interviews with 20 Further Education and Training (FET) college students in South Africa and found that many did not choose to go to FET colleges as others have found (e.g. Odora and Naong, 2013). However, she refutes the conclusion that South African young people regard FET as their last choice. She shows how TVET programmes at FET colleges changed some participants’ negative perspective of the subjects they were learning and boosted their interest in obtaining employment in the area of training.

Capabilities approach and ‘capacity to aspire’

In order to analyse young people’s aspirations and the educational experiences of TVET students, the article adopts the capabilities approach, focussing on the notion of ‘capacity to aspire’. The capabilities approach was pioneered by Amartya Sen (e.g. 1999). The approach criticises narrow views on poverty, that is, poverty as the shortage of income, and integrates it into a broader view, that is, poverty as capability deprivations, establishing a more comprehensive conceptualisation of development, centred on the well-being of individuals. The capabilities approach focusses on choices and freedoms (or ‘capabilities’), as well as on achievements (or ‘functionings’, to use Sen’s term). Functionings reflect the various ‘doings and beings’ that a person may value and that he or she manages to successfully achieve in his or her life. These range from basic achievements, such as being adequately nourished, to more complex activities or states, such as engaging in self-reflection. On the other hand, capabilities refer to alternative functionings that a person can choose to achieve, in order to lead the kind of life he or she values (Sen, 1999). Sen argues the importance of having a set of choices available, taking the example of fasting; fasting is not the same as being forced to starve, precisely because of the option that the person has, to eat. Thus, the well-being of individuals is measured by the availability of a set of alternatives, as well as by his or her completed functionings.

In the tradition of the capabilities approach, various capabilities have been discussed, including capabilities for education (e.g. Walker and Unterhalter, 2007) and for work (e.g. Bonvin and Galster, 2010). Partly inspired by the capabilities approach, Appadurai (2004) develops the idea of ‘capacity to aspire’ as the core cultural capacity needed for the empowerment of the poor and disadvantaged. Appadurai (2004) argues that aspirations are certainly related to ‘wants, preferences, choices, and calculations’ (p.67), but are never individual, as we tend to think; they are ‘always formed in interaction and in the thick of social life’ (p.67). On a larger scale, they are related to general beliefs about life and death, the nature of worldly possessions, etc. These are connected to local ideas about marriage, work, friendship, etc., and can be broken down further into specific wants and choices, such as a particular job and piece of land. Using the map as a metaphor, he explains that ‘capacity to aspire’ is a capacity to navigate among the more and less immediate objects of aspiration, developing nodes and pathways between them. Therefore, a more developed capacity to aspire does not mean merely having lofty aspirations, but would instead contain a greater number of nodes and a thicker or more realistic sense of pathways to reach the ends. He argues that the capacity to aspire is fundamental in empowering the poor because it helps them to battle against poverty themselves; aspirations concern the future – which the work of development or poverty reduction is fundamentally linked to – and the strengthening of this capacity can nurture other more concrete capacities. However, this is less developed among the poor, in comparison with the more privileged. Appadurai contends that the poor do have aspirations, but the pathways to reach the aspirations that they possess are ‘more rigid, less supple, and less strategically valuable’ (p.69), not because of any cognitive deficit, but simply because of a lack of experience in practising navigational capacity.

The capabilities approach has the potential to advance the field of TVET research; it can carry the field beyond the dominant ‘productivist’ approaches, in which the value of TVET is mainly measured by its promotion of employability and economic growth. The capabilities approach, in contrast, focusses on TVET’s contribution to individual well-being and empowerment, prioritising individual needs (López-Fogués, 2012; McGrath, 2012; Powell, 2012). However, the approach has barely been applied to TVET research to date (López-Fogués, 2012; Powell, 2012; Powell and McGrath, 2014; Tikly, 2013; Wheelahan and Moodie, 2011), and only one study (Powell, 2012), as far as I am aware, has focussed on the issue of aspirations. Powell (2012) used the term ‘capability to aspire’, drawing on the concept of ‘capability to choose’ by Leßmann (2009) and ‘capacity to aspire’ by Appadurai (2004). Through this lens, she shows that the FET helped the South African students to develop a ‘capability to aspire’, bolstering their self-confidence and helping them to envision future plans that they had not considered before attending the college.

In this paper, I will employ the capabilities approach to examine the functionings which TVET trainees in Sierra Leone value and have achieved through their training, and how they relate to the trainees’ development of a ‘capacity to aspire’. I use the term ‘capacity to aspire’, as my analysis of aspirations will be based on Appadurai (2004)’s conception. Before exploring this material, however, the article will first describe the historical context surrounding TVET in the country and the methodology used to generate the data.

Strong academic tradition versus weak TVET in Sierra Leone

Over the years, Sierra Leone has developed a strong academic tradition whereas TVET has been seen as an inferior option. Freetown came to be known as the ‘Athens of West Africa’, with students and scholars coming from all over sub-Saharan Africa to Fourah Bay College (FBC), the first university in West Africa (Paracka, 2003). The eminent educational tradition in the country was characterised by an elitist nature, following a British grammar school style, with subjects including Greek, Latin, and Bible history, for example (Sumner, 1963). In the course of their educational history, Sierra Leoneans began to perceive that educational advantage was essential in achieving higher social, political and economic status. As a result, they came to prefer academic education to vocational training, although the relevance of such education was doubtful to the majority of children who lived in rural areas. Indeed, when the British tried to introduce vocational subjects, the pupils and their parents opposed the idea, considering that they would be taught inferior subjects and remain in subordinate positions (Corby, 1990).

Following the end of the decade-long conflict in 2001, policymakers and donors used TVET as a central tool to help young people acquire sustainable livelihoods in the post-conflict society. Most immediately, TVET was used to assist the Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration process of ex-combatants to give them alternative ways to build livelihoods in peace, which were not embedded in conflict or in the war economy (Paulson, 2009). The education system was also reformed after the conflict and in order to raise the status of TVET, a TVET track equivalent to the academic track was created. The TVET track was also standardised by means of the national qualifications which may be acquired at the end of the training (World Bank, 2007). As a result, enrolment in TVET is reported to have expanded rapidly after the war, with more than 31,000 students enrolled (Peeters et al., 2009).

Nevertheless, TVET remains on the margins of the education system; it is allocated less than 5% of the country’s educational budget, with priority given to primary education (Peeters et al., 2009). The number of existing TVET centres equivalent to Senior Secondary Schooling (SSS) is much fewer than the number of secondary schools; there were only 70 TVET centres in total compared to 466 secondary schools in the country (Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MEST), 2007). Furthermore, the type of training offered at TVET is criticised as missing a link to labour markets (Peeters et al., 2009: Batmanglich and Enria, 2014). As a result, the TVET system as a whole is reported to suffer from ‘low quality, low relevance, limited access, inefficiencies, and cutbacks’ (Peeters et al., 2009: p. 102). Most of the statistical data introduced here are drawn from the time of my study (2009). However, I will later discuss the contemporary context and relevance of these to it (see Discussion and conclusions Section).

Methodology

The data presented here is drawn from seven months of fieldwork in Sierra Leone in 2009 as part of a larger research investigating the different educational experiences of young people there (Matsumoto, 2012). The majority of data was collected in Makeni town in the Northern Province. Makeni is the capital of Bombali district and has a population of 125,970 according to the 2015 Population Census (Statistics Sierra Leone, 2016). Historically, the Northern Province has been a deprived area, and this has also affected the provision of educational services. After the conflict, moreover, many ex-combatants remained in Makeni and in surrounding towns in the Northern Province. In addition, as it is the largest city in the Northern Province and the fifth largest city in Sierra Leone, young people from rural areas come to Makeni seeking educational and other opportunities.

I selected and studied the Technical and Vocational Institution of Makeni (TVIM) ⁴ between July and December 2009 as the TVET institution case study. It was the largest and most well-functioning TVET institute among the three that existed in the city. In order to build overall knowledge of the institution and a good relationship with teachers and students there, during the first months I visited the institution and observed different courses two or three times a week, also engaging in informal conversations with teachers, administrators and students. Then, I recruited 15 participants in total, seven from the Masonry course, a male-dominated course with participants at basic schooling levels, and eight from Home Management, a female-dominated course with participants that had little or no schooling experience. I held a weekly session with the students to generate data on different themes over a three-month period. I used different types of interviews, focus group discussions and task-based participatory methods (writing and drawing) in these sessions, as well as continuous participant observation in the institution. I conducted the research with the participants in English, with the exception of a few who did not feel comfortable with English and responded in Krio. In these cases, I asked another participant to help translate, especially at the beginning of the fieldwork, but as I built a basic understanding of the language during my stay, I began to conduct interviews alone. For all cases, I have transcribed the interviews in English, respecting their expressions as much as possible.

Although the focus in this article is the TVET centre and a group of trainees there, I make reference to two other groups of young people who participated during the same period following the same procedures: a group of 15 young people who were attending a public, average SSS and 10 young people who were not in schooling. ⁵ In addition, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 49 key adult informants including professionals in the educational field at the national, regional and local level and others who worked with disadvantaged young people. Alongside the various documents collected, adult interviews provided background to the young people’s perceptions and experiences (see Matsumoto, 2012 for further details of the methodology).

Although the data is almost 10 years old, this article engages and contributes to the theoretical and conceptual discussion regarding the aspirations and experiences of beneficiaries of TVET, which is not so bound by the age of the data. Also, there is newer evidence that suggests my data is still relevant to present Sierra Leone, as I will later discuss (see Discussion and conclusions). Because I will situate the findings in light of developments that took place later, I will write my data and the context that surrounds it in the past tense.

Findings

Taking the capabilities approach as a framework, the findings are grouped into the following four sections. Firstly, the TVIM as the TVET institution case is described, as a backdrop to TVET trainees’ experiences and aspirations. The second section demonstrates the limited choices that the trainees had when enrolling in TVET; in other words, many were attending the institutions due to a lack of other options. The third section, nevertheless, reveals a number of functionings that the young people have achieved through the training at the centre. The final section shows the capacity to aspire held by the TVET trainees in comparison with that of other groups of young people with different educational experiences. The findings on the whole will cast light on the different benefits, in particular the capacity to aspire, which young people acquire through TVET, although the poor conditions and social stigma continue to surround it.

TVIM as a case TVET institution

Inaugurated in 1990, TVIM is one of the vocational centres founded for the professional training of African-Americans by a Christian minister in the United States. In 2009, it had 551 trainees. The institute accepted only people aged over 17 years old, regardless of their education or literacy level. The TVIM adopted a formal training style with a combination of training at the centre and on-the-job training. For the first 12 months, the trainees received theoretical and practical training at the centre, as well as a daily one-hour literacy class. Training was offered in Carpentry, Masonry, Home Management, Metal Work, Electricity, Agricultural Survey, General Agriculture, and Tailoring. After one year of training at the centre, students completed six months of on-the-job training at a workshop or company related to the skills they have learned.

The quality of training provided by the TVIM was poor. It became a semi-governmental institution, with instructors’ salaries paid by the government. TVIM also received support from various international organisations, and a large number of the trainees’ fees were covered by them. However, not much equipment and machinery was provided. When asked about the major challenges for TVET, the Training Manager of TVIM responded:

…tools and equipment. Facilities… When you go to Carpentry, you will find out that there is nothing… except benches… We don’t have computers, vehicles. We only have a poor old vehicle, we have been using that for the past 15, 20 years (Interview, 1 December 2009).

Enrolling at TVIM due to limited choices in order ‘to do something’

Many of the students enrolled at TVIM were there because they did not have other options to meaningfully occupy their time. Many had dropped out of schooling at primary or secondary level (Dean of TVIM, Interview, 14 October 2009), and had done so because the circumstances did not allow them to continue. For example, Isatu, the only female trainee in Masonry, was originally from Kailahun in the east. She had stopped attending school in year one of Junior Secondary School (JSS) in 1996 because her father, who had been paying her school fees, died in the war. She said that she was ‘doing nothing’ and so came to TVIM wanting ‘to do something’. The expression ‘to do something’ as a motive for coming to TVIM was frequently mentioned by different trainees, and used in contrast to their previous state of ‘doing nothing’ (e.g. Alpha and Paul in Masonry; Josephine in Home Management). The expression of coming to TVIM ‘to do something’ seems to imply that they chose to enrol at the institute because it was more meaningful than ‘doing nothing’, but not because of a particular preference for this type of training or the careers with which it was associated.

Furthermore, some trainees more clearly suggested that they enrolled at TVIM as a last resort. For instance, Alpha from Kabala in the north had stopped attending schooling in SSS2 when his father, who had been paying for the school fees, passed away in 2006. He said ‘I was unable to get sponsorship. I could not pursue the level of education I was expecting. That’s why I find myself in this institution at least for me to learn a trade…’. The fact that TVET was not the preferred option among young people was also evident from the aspirations mentioned by those not currently in schooling; all of them – except one – said that they would like to return to formal academic schooling and continue on to tertiary education if they had the opportunity (see the Section of TVET Trainees’ Capacity to Aspire in Comparison to other Young People, for more details). Some even explicitly stated their rejection of TVET. Mabinty was 18 years old at the time of the fieldwork and had stopped schooling in Form one (JSS1 in the current system) because of the war. She did not want to enter TVET because with academic schooling she would be educated to a higher level and could better assist her family. Her parents too, she said, wanted her to return to formal schooling, not TVET. Mabinty and Musu similarly told the researcher that they did not like the type of work that they would learn at TVET institutions because their wish was to obtain white-collar work or to become ‘someone honourable’, in Mabinty’s words, such as a doctor, lawyer, minister, nurse or office worker. Musu stated that even if she received an offer to begin training at a TVET institution, she would prefer to wait until an opportunity to attend school arrived.

These strong preferences for academic education reflect the Sierra Leonean context in which manual labour – or ‘skilled men’, as many there called the profession – continued to be regarded as low in status; it was considered to be a profession for those who are socially marginalised. For instance, the Training Manager at TVIM commented:

The average Sierra Leoneans think that to be a skilled man you are a dropout… You still see the British pattern. That’s the problem. If you ask people what you would like to be in the future you never say a carpenter, a mason, or an electrician, but a doctor, a lawyer, and those sorts of things (Interview, 1 December 2009).

As the comment by the Training Manager of TVIM above also shows, the low social status of technical jobs was perceived to be related to the British colonial legacy. As mentioned in the Section of Strong academic tradition versus weak TVET in Sierra Leone, the educational model during the colonial period followed a British grammar school style, and people perceived that those who received this type of education came to ‘succeed’ in Sierra Leonean society. As a result, people continued to associate white-collar jobs with prestige whereas technical jobs were associated with the concept of being a ‘dropout’, which was viewed with stigma, as I will explain in more detail below.

At the same time, unfavourable perceptions of TVET and the ’skilled man’ appeared to be changing. The Training Manager at TVIM told the researcher that people had begun to take the profession of ‘skilled man’ more seriously, due to the scarce employment opportunities in post-conflict Sierra Leone. As not enough white-collar jobs were available, university graduates were often unemployed, and people realised that it was better to obtain technical training in order to at least obtain work of some kind (Interview, 1 December 2009). Another reason that TVET institutions seemed to be gaining more recognition was due to the formal qualifications that they provided (e.g. Training Manager at TVIM, Interview, 1 December 2009). Indeed, several youths had decided to attend TVIM to obtain a formal qualification. Ishaka and Jacob, who had completed some secondary schooling, had both been working as masons in Kabala before coming to TVIM. However, their earnings were so low that they decided to obtain formal training and a certificate, hoping to find better jobs and higher salaries once they had completed the training. In other words, unlike others who had no other options besides ‘doing nothing’, the two decided to attend TVIM although they had the alternative of continuing to work (however low their income would be).

Expanded functionings as a result of the training

Although for many young people, TVET appeared not to be their first choice and the conditions in which they received training were poor, the study found that the training and experiences that they obtained at the TVIM expanded the actual functionings they valued.

The most essential functioning that they achieved and valued was literacy. For instance, Kadiatu, a student in Home Management originally from Bo in the South, had never been to school because her parents did not support her receiving an education. She decided to attend the TVIM institute because she wanted to ‘know how to write and do something’. She learned how to read and write through the daily literacy classes at TVIM. She commented:

I didn’t feel fine because I didn’t go to school, I couldn’t read and write because I didn’t go to school. I came here and I can do many things. I can do something because I learn book [reading and writing] here. (Emphasis added).

As Kadiatu’s comment illustrates, literacy was seen as the basic functioning that allowed her to ’do many things’, or – in the language of the capabilities approach – a ‘fertile functioning’ (Wolff and de-Shalit, 2007: p.10). ‘Fertile functionings’ are those which promote the securing of further functionings.

The second functioning that the trainees achieved at TVIM and that they valued are practical skills in their area of training. For example, Jamal in Masonry commented that TVIM was the only institution that had good teachers in the area, and that it was helping him to learn how to plan and construct a building. Several others also commented on how they had become capable of doing new things, with some making money from these activities already. This is exemplified in the comment below from Jacob, who had been doing masonry work in Kabala as mentioned above: ‘We change life here … Before I used to work for 1000 Leons for a day … It was a hard labour. Right now I can get 5000 Leons in 10 minutes [working for construction] … So [TVIM] already improved my life’. His comments demonstrate that the new skills he acquired at TVIM were allowing him to make more money in a shorter time than before. Similarly, Josephine in Home Management told the researcher that she had learned to do ‘a lot of things’, such as food preparation and Gara tie-dying, a typical method of cloth dying in Sierra Leone. She and Mary also explained that when they had some money, they bought cloth materials for Gara and made a profit.

The functionings gained by trainees at TVIM and appreciated by them were not limited to literacy and practical skills, but were also related to increased self-esteem. That is, their experiences at TVIM were helping them to rebuild confidence in themselves, overcoming the sense of inferiority and marginalisation they have been feeling. Paul, who was studying Masonry after schooling up to Form six (SSS3 in the present system) in Freetown, told the researcher:

[The instructors at TVIM] gave us courage of not being a dropout… They [People] always say we are failures in life, but I know no one is a failure in life as long as you decide to go for what you want to.

This comment should be understood in the context of the social stigma attached to being a dropout in Sierra Leonean society; an ‘educated person’ was considered to be someone who had qualifications from tertiary institutions, and anyone who did not obtain these was considered a dropout (Interview, President of the Sierra Leone Teachers Union, 25 October 2010). Whereas university degrees were associated with high social status, dropouts were stigmatised to the extent that they were seen as being linked to criminal activities, such as robbery (Director of Media and Public Relations of Sierra Leone Police, Interview, 15 December 2009). Classified as dropouts, the young people at TVIM were fighting social stigma and a sense of inferiority. Some TVET trainees and out-of-school youths commented that some of their friends with a higher level of education were not sympathetic towards them because they felt too ‘proud’. Paul elaborated on this in another interview:

Some feel proud. He doesn’t interrogate [converse] with non-educated friends. Some … don’t like to pay them visit or get accompanied or associated with. As soon as you have [he has] a degree, he will say ‘I am above you’.

Some of the trainees at TVIM were not only fighting social stigma as dropouts, but also as ex-combatants or (ex-)commercial sex workers, many of whom were said to be enrolled at TVIM (Dean of TVIM, Interview, 14 October 2009; Training Manager at TVIM, Interview, 1 December 2009). Although no trainee interviewed talked about their experiences during the war, including whether or not they had been a combatant, ⁶ some female trainees in Home Management confessed that they had been commercial sex workers. In particular, Josephine, who had dropped out of school in Form 5 (SSS2 in the present system) and had a son, told the researcher that she had quit ‘the dirty game’ of being a commercial sex worker when she received a scholarship to continue her training at TVIM. Later on, she also received another scholarship from an international agency to attend a workshop abroad and was the only girl selected.

As such, although many young people enrolled at the TVIM out of a lack of other options, they were nonetheless acquiring functionings that were valuable to them. These include literacy and practical skills, but equally importantly, improved self-esteem. The trainees’ expanded functionings were also helping them to develop their capacity to aspire, as I will show below.

TVET trainees’ capacity to aspire in comparison to other young people

The research findings suggest that training at the TVIM was helping the trainees to develop the capacity to aspire. The trainees commented on their plans to pursue careers in relation to the skills they were obtaining at TVIM. The majority of those who were in Masonry said they wanted to work as masons or contractors (Jacob, Isatu, John, Alpha, Ishaka). Some in Home Management wanted to run businesses themselves, for example, selling clothes (with Gara tie-dying) or soaps, or opening restaurants (Abibatu, Adama, Kadiatu, Hawa), while others on the course wanted to work somewhere such as a hotel (e.g. Memunatu, Lamrana, Josephine). These career aspirations appeared to be achievable for the trainees. The Training Manager told the researcher that graduates from TVIM often obtained work in the places where they completed the on-the-job training. The trainees were able to enter employment because the training at TVIM emphasised the acquiring of practical skills, unlike universities that focussed on theory. The Training Manager also described his perception that there was demand in Sierra Leone for ‘middle manpower’, which the TVET institute was supplying (Interview, 1 December 2009).

In more general terms, TVIM was helping trainees to foster the aspiration of becoming ‘self-reliant’ (e.g. Paul, Fanta, and Alpha), and they saw this goal as attainable by pursuing the careers they chose. For instance, Alpha told the researcher: ‘After the [TVIM] I will be self-reliant… I will be able to work anywhere…Then I will be able to sponsor my family, even myself and my children’. As Alpha’s comment shows, the concept of self-reliance in sub-Saharan Africa entails not only making a sufficient living to sustain yourself, but also to form and nurture a family. This enables young people to rise above the status of ‘youth’ and become adults (e.g. Abbink, 2005). Therefore, the training at TVIM gives them the hope of becoming self-reliant and advancing their status in society, not only getting of jobs in the area of training.

Besides the relatively realistic option of obtaining jobs in their area of training, some – six out of 15 trainees interviewed – were also developing their aspirations for further education. Jamal, Ishaka and Paul in Masonry wished to further their skills in the area of training by attending Milton Margai College of Education and Technology in Freetown, while Isatu on the same course wished to return to school to ‘defend’ her certificate; if somebody else had the same qualification as well as a higher schooling qualification, that person would be employed over her. On the other hand, Alpha and Josephine stated that they wanted to return to academic education if they had a chance to do so.

As such, we can see that the TVET trainees were developing realistic and concrete aspirations of working in the areas of training, without abandoning their wishes to further their education. Furthermore, they were (re)developing their general hope of becoming self-reliant members of society through their specific careers. In comparison, the capacity to aspire was found to be apparently less developed among the out-of-school youths. Their aspirations appeared to be stuck on their wish to return to schooling, and they did not comment on alternative plans to make progress in their lives. All of them, except one, said that their biggest wish was to return to academic schooling and continue from the level at which they had left off. Like Mabinty and Musu, some shared their additional wish to continue on to university and achieve their lofty aspirations (see the Section of Enrolling at TVIM due to Limited Choices In Order ‘To Do Something’, above). The lack of an alternative was strongly expressed by Dauda, who had stopped at SSS3 before attempting to take the West African Senior School Certificate Examination because his brother who had been helping him to attend school after his parents passed away had stopped doing so. He said he wanted to return to formal schooling and study medicine at university. When I asked him if he could do anything else, he said he did not have any alternative: ‘I haven’t even think [thought] about what to do other than going back to school’.

Meanwhile, the SSS students who participated in the study were found to be developing lofty career aspirations related to their area of study, as well as having several back-up plans. All of them shared their wish to attend college first. Following this, their first choices of occupation were bank manager (Zainab, Abdul, Emmanuel, Henry, Jalikatu, in SSS2 in the Commercial Stream), nurse (Fatu and Binta in SSS2 Commercial), accountant (Mariama and James in SSS2 Commercial), lawyer (Samuel in SSS2 in Art Stream), doctor (Ali in SSS2 in Art) and non-governmental organisation worker (Mahmood in SSS2 in Commercial). Since the majority of the SSS participants were in the Commercial Stream, the careers aspired to were related to their area of study, that is, bank managing and accounting, among the various white-collar jobs available in Sierra Leone.

However, the aspirations to attend college and obtain white-collar work mentioned by the pupils were unachievable for the great majority of young people in Sierra Leone. The gross enrolment rate in tertiary education was just 2.1% in 2006 (Development Assistance Coordination Office (DACO), 2008). In terms of the employment situation, the youth unemployment rate was estimated to be as high as 65% in Sierra Leone (Humanitarian News and Analysis (IRIN), 2007), ⁷ and ‘educated’ young people, particularly those who enter the labour force for the first time after their college education, were considered particularly ‘at risk’ of unemployment (Braima et al., 2006). A number of adult interviewees also stated that unemployment or underemployment of the highly schooled and educated has not improved and may even be worsening (e.g. Professor of Education, Interview, 15 December 2009; Principal of a SSS, Interview, 2 December 2009; President of Teachers’ Union, Interview, 25 October 2009).

By and large, the SSS pupils did seem to have a sensible grasp of the reality that they faced. The majority acknowledged that job availability for college graduates was limited, and some pointed out the poor economic context of their country as an important factor explaining this situation (Mariama and Isata, in SSS2 Commercial). They also had alternative plans in case they could not continue on to university or get the jobs they preferred. A common alternative strategy mentioned was teaching in primary schools (Samuel, Zainab, Fatu, Isata, Binta). The pupils said that teaching jobs were easily found, and they viewed this as a temporary measure (or ‘as a waiting room’ in their words) before attending college or finding a more preferable job later on (Zainab and Binta). Other options mentioned were farming (Ali and Jalikatu), Gara tie-dyeing (Abdul and Emmanuel), and attending polytechnic college (Fatmata and James).

Discussion and conclusions

The findings discussed above, using the capabilities approach as a framework, demonstrate that the TVIM trainees were developing different functionings that they valued: these ranged from basic literacy, practical skills enhancing their employability, and increased self-esteem. The findings also demonstrate the development of a ‘capacity to aspire’ among the trainees, including career aspirations in the area of training, despite the fact that many enrolled at the institution due to a lack of other options.

On the basis of these findings, the study supports the claim made by other recent research that TVET has a positive influence on the development of young people’s aspirations, casting new light on one of the contentious questions in the literature (Kikechi et al., 2013; King and Martin, 2002; Powell, 2012; see also the Section of Foster’s Vocational Fallacy Theory and TVET Students’ Experiences and Career Aspirations, above). What the study would add is that the aspirations promoted by TVET are not merely general or career aspirations, but instead the capacity to aspire, as defined by Appadurai (2004), and a sense of realism rooted within this. Every group of young people interviewed demonstrated that they did have aspirations. This included out-of-school youths. However, there was a difference in the ‘capacity to aspire’ developed by TVET trainees, which contrasted especially starkly with that held by out-of-school youths. The capacity of TVET trainees encompassed different possibilities and layers of aspirations, or in Appadurai (2004)’s words, ‘nodes and pathways’; the trainees possessed a general aspiration to become ‘self-reliant members of society’ and they planned to reach this goal by working in the area of training. At the same time, some aspired to continue their education. In comparison, out-of-school youths held lofty aspirations yet the only pathway they conceived of to achieve their goals was to return to school and continue on to university. They appeared not to consider alternative paths. In other words, their capacity epitomises Appadurai (2004)’s explanation of the less developed capacity of the poor, with ‘more rigid, less supple, and less strategically valuable’ pathways to achieve their aspirations (p.69).

The capacity developed by the TVET trainees not only had more nodes and pathways, but it was also characterised by a certain sense of realism. The types of occupations that the trainees aspired to appeared to be achievable in the context of their training, and even their wish to enter tertiary education represents a realistic continuity in the pathway they sought to take the opportunity to enhance their chances of (better or more advanced) employment in the area of training. The finding that TVET was promoting realistic aspirations is an important point to be recognised, in the context of ‘fragile states’ including Sierra Leone. If TVET were promoting aspirations that could not be met in reality, it could provoke a sense of disappointment and frustration because of a gap between what young people believe they deserve to achieve and what they actually achieve, or a sense of relative deprivation, to use Gurr (1970)’s term. This can be a risk factor in the stability of ‘fragile states’. Indeed, in the case of Sierra Leone, the origin of the conflict can be traced back to students at FBC who were frustrated that they would not receive the expected government posts upon graduation. They are thought to have formed a revolutionary group, which ultimately evolved into the Revolutionary United Front, the rebel army that gave rise to the decade-long conflict (Abdullah, 1998).

At the same time, it is beyond the scope of this article to provide a definite answer as to whether or not the aspirations of academic students are unrealistic, the second contentious question in the literature (see Foster’s Vocational Fallacy Theory and TVET Students’ Experiences and Career Aspirations). I do not claim that the SSS participants lacked a sense of realism or had a lower capacity to aspire compared to TVET trainees; although they held lofty aspirations for white-collar jobs as their primary choice, many did have more achievable alternative plans, including in the area of manual labour. Some also recognised the limited economic opportunities for university graduates. Moreover, the sense of realism has been discussed so far only in terms of achievable aspirations and pathways. Although it may be easier to obtain technical jobs than white-collar jobs, it is another matter whether or not young people can earn enough money with these jobs to feed themselves and their families. This is an important point, especially when the level of qualifications and skills gained from TVET institutions like TVIM is as basic as it is, and high incomes are likely to be inaccessible. It is thus difficult to judge whether it is more realistic to aspire to the largely impossible – aiming to obtain a white-collar job – or to be satisfied with obtainable technical jobs that may not provide enough income for survival. Unfortunately, I do not possess longitudinal data on the participants’ lives and cannot tell whether their aspirations have been achieved or what kind of lives they have been able to lead afterwards. Such data would have allowed the issue to be assessed more thoroughly.

Contrary to claims made by researchers in other contexts (Foster, 1965a, 1965b; Powell, 2012) the article demonstrates the continued ‘disdain’ for manual labour and for TVET in Sierra Leone. It also reveals the poor conditions in which TVET institutions ran, lacking the capacity to produce highly skilled technicians able to transform societal perceptions of the profession. Following the end of the fieldwork, the country experienced a mining boom (from 2011 to 2014) caused by the extraction of iron ore by British firms, and this phenomenon appears to have helped to draw attention to the importance of TVET and manual labour (TVET Coalition of Sierra Leone, n.d.). Furthermore, skills development is stated by the government as one of its key priorities (see Pillar 5) in the ’Agenda for Prosperity’ (2013–2018) (Government of Sierra Leone, 2013). Nevertheless, a recent study undertaken by Batmanglich and Enria (2014) reports similar findings to this article: the dire conditions that continue to plague TVET institutions and the continued lack of social recognition of this type of training.

The conditions faced by TVET institutions reveal the excessively optimistic and simplistic nature of the expectations placed upon them by the international community (see also Allais, 2012; Lewis, 2009; McGrath, 2011; 2012; Powell, 2012). Although TVET did seem to be helping marginalised youths to obtain employment in semi-skilled work, they were not prepared to work in emerging sectors or equipped with advanced skills or technologies. Furthermore, I concur with Foster’s argument that we cannot expect TVET to be a prime driver of a country’s economic development. The economic issues faced by African post-conflict countries are complex, and in some cases even basic infrastructure is lacking; for instance, in Sierra Leone, electricity reaches less than 10% of population and the service is unreliable in the places it does reach (World Bank, 2013). Countries such as these require holistic intervention across the political, economic, and, equally importantly, social arenas; the social stigma attached to TVET and the technical professions revealed in this article should be taken into account when designing interventions.

The study also demonstrates the clear limitations of the dominant productivist approach in capturing the broader benefits of TVET to young people in sub-Saharan Africa (see also Hilal, 2012; McGrath, 2012; Powell, 2012). The capabilities approach employed in the article has been useful in elucidating this, capturing the broader benefits as functionings (see also Powell, 2012). A particular contribution of the article lies in its conceptualisation of aspirations as a capacity and a functioning, applying Appadurai (2004) as an analytical lens in order to examine the subject more systematically. This lens has also allowed comparison of aspirations as a capacity between three different groups of young people with different educational backgrounds.

At the same time, the application of the capabilities approach should be seen as – in Powell’s (2012) words – ‘a tentative walk into complex territory’ (p.651). This article limits itself to illuminating the potential of the approach in understanding TVET’s merits for beneficiaries, beyond employability and including aspirations. However, more research is clearly needed to develop this approach more fully as an evaluative or analytical tool for research on TVET (see also Powell and McGrath, 2014). Moreover, longitudinal studies are necessary in order to assess the benefits of the training in the long term, including whether and how the careers in the area of training aspired to by the trainees indeed expand their functionings and capabilities in their lives, and the degree to which holding lofty aspirations, as academic students did in the study, is realistic and beneficial to their lives.