• Focus on vocational training for jobs, growth, sustainability

• Event targets youth, women amid high job insecurity rates
  

The African Union (AU) will host the second Africa Skills Week (ASW) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, from October 13–17, 2025, following its debut in Accra in 2024. The event, themed “Powering Africa's Industrial Future: Skills for Innovation, Growth, and Sustainability,” will focus on technical and vocational training as a driver of productivity, job creation and economic transformation.

Ministerial sessions and industry panels will cover priority sectors including agribusiness, manufacturing, construction, digital technologies and green energy. The conference will feature an exhibition and skills platform where young people and women entrepreneurs can showcase projects, connect with investors and receive mentorship. Several sessions will be streamed online, while in-person participants will take part in field visits to industrial parks and innovation centers.

“Africa Skills Week 2025 represents our collective resolve to transform Africa’s demographic dividend into a dynamic workforce that powers industrial growth, sustainability, and innovation across the continent,” said Ali Youssouf Mohammed, Chairman of the African Union Commission.

According to the AU, the event will bring together policymakers, business leaders, educators, youth and development partners to push for concrete solutions in skills development linked to industrialization, sustainability and the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).

The meeting comes amid tough labor market conditions. In 2023, about 71.7% of young Africans aged 25–29 were in insecure jobs, with women accounting for 60% of youth not in employment, education or training (NEET) in Sub-Saharan Africa. Job insecurity and weak social protection remain major hurdles, underlining the urgent need for effective training and integration policies.

The AU initiative follows Industrial Skills Week Africa (ISWA 2025), co-organized by AUDA-NEPAD and the Zambian government in Lusaka in September. That meeting focused on industrial skills and innovation, highlighting emerging technologies, best practices in vocational training, and new partnerships between schools, businesses and governments.

Félicien Houindo Lokossou