Uganda trains young people for work. Does anyone know if they get it?
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Ninety percent of graduates from the National Instructors College Abilonino moved into work, according to a 2021 tracer study by VVOB covering the 2016/17 and 2017/18 cohorts. Yet just over half of them entered the BTVET workforce. The result is encouraging, and it also shows how little we know about what happens to Uganda’s TVET graduates once they leave the classroom.
Since the Business, Technical, Vocational Education and Training (BTVET) Act of 2008 and the Skilling Uganda Strategic Plan of 2012, the country has recognised practical skills as essential to industrialisation, entrepreneurship and employment. The challenge now is to make sure that training becomes sustainable livelihoods.
The urgency is clear. The 2024 National Population and Housing Census by the Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS) recorded about 45.9 million people. It put unemployment among those aged 14 to 64 at 12.6%, and among young people aged 15 to 24 at 16.7%. These figures describe the whole country, not TVET graduates specifically, and that gap in our knowledge is the heart of the problem.
Track graduates, then publish the results
The Abilonino study shows what targeted technical and instructor training can achieve. It is also a single institution’s result, and it is the exception rather than the rule. Uganda has no national system for tracking graduates.
Rwanda offers a useful comparison. Its 2024 Graduate Tracer Survey found employment among 46.5% of 472 respondents from selected programmes under the Priority Skills for Growth initiative. Rwanda Polytechnic recorded 59% among respondents, against 40% for Rwanda TVET Board institutions. This is a small sample, and its method differs from the Ugandan study, so the numbers cannot be compared directly. Even so, tracking let Rwanda see which institutions deliver stronger employment outcomes. Uganda cannot do the same today.
The Ministry of Education and Sports should therefore require every training institution to publish its outcomes each year: how many graduates found employment, how many went into self employment, what they earn, and whether their skills matched what employers needed. Regular labour market surveys should sit alongside this reporting. Parents, learners and funders would then choose institutions on evidence rather than reputation, and weaker programmes would face pressure to improve.
Build training around employers
Kenya’s competency based training reforms and institutional accreditation efforts offer lessons in quality assurance and employer engagement. Uganda should strengthen industrial attachment, apprenticeships and partnerships with employers, so that curricula reflect demand in construction, manufacturing, agribusiness, tourism and digital services.
This depends on money. Institutions need modern equipment, competent instructors and reliable operating budgets. Graduates who go into self employment need affordable credit, mentorship and access to markets. They also need a cost environment they can survive. The Uganda Revenue Authority’s presumptive tax framework covers eligible small businesses with annual turnover above UGX 10 million and up to UGX 150 million, and simplified taxation can support compliance. Government should still keep assessing the combined effect of taxes, registration fees, licensing and financing costs on young enterprises, because a new business that cannot carry those costs will not become a livelihood.
Close the digital gap
Digital exclusion makes all of this harder. DataReportal estimated internet penetration in Uganda at 28% at the start of 2025. Affordable connectivity, reliable electricity, digital literacy and offline learning resources would help rural learners reach training and job opportunities that are now beyond them.
The real measure
Uganda’s TVET system has laid an important foundation. Its next chapter must put quality, accessibility and accountability first. The true measure of success is not the number of certificates issued, but the number of people equipped to build productive, dignified and sustainable livelihoods.
The Writer is a Story Teller and a Strategic Communication Practitioner