MONROVIA, Liberia — The Director General of the Agricultural and Industrial Training Bureau (AITB), Abraham Billy, is looking to African counterparts for practical approaches to improving Liberia’s technical and vocational education and training (TVET) sector.
Billy’s recent engagements in Botswana, Uganda and Rwanda focused on how other African countries are organizing vocational training, regulating institutions, measuring skills and connecting graduates with industry.
The exchanges come as Liberia seeks to improve the effectiveness of its skills-training system and ensure that vocational programmes produce workers equipped for actual labor-market demands.
In Rwanda, discussions with Rwanda Cooperation explored possibilities for deeper institutional collaboration, including technical support, staff exchanges, professional development and knowledge sharing.
Rwanda’s engagement with the Rwanda TVET Board (RTB) and Nigeria’s National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) offered examples of how African institutions can collaborate across borders to address similar challenges in skills development.
One of the key lessons from Billy’s engagements is that a functional TVET system does not necessarily depend on placing every responsibility within one agency. Several institutions can play different roles when their mandates are clearly separated and supported by shared standards, coordination and accountability.
For Liberia, that raises a fundamental regulatory question: which institution is responsible for each function, what standards apply, and who is accountable for results?
AITB is consequently working toward a regulatory framework that links the major stages of vocational training—from institutional registration and licensing to programme accreditation, quality control, assessment and certification—while creating greater space for industry participation and digital systems.
The African engagements are also expected to provide a basis for future technical partnerships and institutional exchanges between Liberia and counterparts across the continent.
Rather than importing an entire foreign model, Billy’s approach is to examine successful practices, assess their relevance and adjust them to Liberia’s own institutional, economic and workforce realities.
The broader goal is to ensure that vocational education produces measurable skills that can translate into jobs, entrepreneurship and productive participation in Liberia’s economy.
