Skills acquisition in Cameroon: How well does the secondary school curriculum equip school leavers for employment?

Abstract

The growing need for the secondary education system to produce school leavers with capabilities in terms of skills and attitudes useful for solving youth unemployment challenges has prompted education reforms in Cameroon. Many school leavers, especially those from the secondary general education sector in the country after completing various levels are not easily integrated into the job market due to their lack of employable skills that were not imbibed into them during their training (Esongo, 2017). Despite the government’s efforts at restructuring the educational system and redefine its goals to address youth unemployment and social development, recent evidence suggests that Cameroon has achieved little success (Ibid). The ways in which vocational education can be incorporated in the curriculum of schools have been under-researched in Cameroon and stands as the need for vocational education, rather than a constitutive part of the curriculum development process. My research aims to fill the gap by exploring the perceptions of stakeholders in education for developing a broad-based curriculum that incorporates employability skills at the secondary school level. A qualitative case study approach through interviews and questionnaires was applied in this study. The findings indicated that there is a significant relationship between curriculum development, employability skills acquisition, youth unemployment and the efficiency of the school system. It is thus recommended that the government and education authorities should further refine their focus on needed skills to strengthen and enhance youth unemployment; and thus, provide additional positive outcomes for students by enhancing future curriculum development grounded in practice.