Unemployment and underemployment, particularly among the youth, are serious concerns to governments across Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Fifteen years on from the World Conference on Education For All (EFA) in Jomtien, EFA policies have started to result in some of the largest cohorts of primary school leavers ever witnessed in many parts of SSA. This is occurring at a time when SSA’s formal sector is unable to generate sufficient formal employment and income opportunities. The great majority of all school leavers, therefore, are obliged to enter the informal, micro-enterprise economy, urban and rural, and receive informal training in traditional apprenticeships and/or through other on-the-job means. However the links between education, training and enterprise are still poorly understood. This study presents an investigation into how young people construct and are able to navigate these pathways to informal self-employment in rural Ghana by acquiring skills and schooling from multiple sources, and through seeking assistance from informal networks. It makes a contribution not only to understanding the transition from training to self-employment, but also to the nature of the rural informal sector in Ghana. This study examines three types of skills training provision; on-the-job apprenticeship training, short-term modular training and longer-term pre-employment training, examining both the delivery context of these different training modalities, as well as the graduates’ labour market outcomes. The analysis is based on 12 months fieldwork in rural Ghana in 2004 and 2005 during which time multiple approaches were used to uncover these skill-to-work pathways; tracer studies with 162 vocational training graduates, semi-structured interviews with 160 apprentices and a household survey capturing data on 147 youth. Furthermore, retrospective interviews with 114 enterprise owners were conducted to better understand pathways to informal self-employment and the multiple occupational realities, or occupational pluralism, of many of those in this rural African economy. This data suggests that the school-skill-enterprise relationship is highly dependent on the delivery context of training as well as the type of enabling or disabling environments within which the training is translated into employment outcomes. This study also includes an analysis of the long history of Ghana’s skills development policies and practice - up to 2006. This is integrated with a discussion on the wider environment within which skills are delivered, particularly the labour market, and how this impacts on the employment opportunities of technical and vocational education and training graduates in Ghana.

<p> This case study explores wellbeing and sustainable development in rural sub-Saharan Africa &ndash; a culturally and ecologically diverse and vibrant region devastated by colonial and postcolonial injustices that have created persistent and pervasive social, economic, and ecological crises. The growth-oriented capitalist economic model that has shaped the operative understanding of wellbeing and perpetuated the invented reality of underdevelopment also guides large-scale sustainable development efforts that persistently fail to significantly improve wellbeing among rural communities. Ecological economics may provide a paradigm for sustainable development that is culturally, ecologically, and economically more appropriate &ndash; and more effective &ndash; for both assessing and improving wellbeing. Twenty-seven participants from two rural, forest-dependent communities in Cameroon&rsquo;s Southwest Province were surveyed to assess perceptions of wellbeing and social-ecological resilience. These communities are heavily invested in a sustainable agriculture initiative that reflects an ecological economics worldview and key dimensions of community resilience. Results indicate that perceptions of wellbeing are influenced by both gender and occupation, and that the sustainable agriculture initiative positively impacts perceptions of wellbeing for farmers more than non-farmers, and female farmers more than male farmers. This suggests that participation in the program may positively influence perceptions of subjective and community wellbeing. Further study in these communities, and across similar communities may shed light on how ecological economics might provide a practical basis for broadening an understanding of wellbeing and for informing the approach, design, and implementation of sustainable development initiatives.</p>

<p> The purpose of this qualitative, grounded theory study was to explore and describe the perceptions and experiences of African-born and educated nurses (ABEN) in order to understand how the nurses influenced systems of professional practice in healthcare systems of Maricopa County of Arizona. The overarching research question for the study directly reflected the purpose statement. Four sub-questions were also used in the study. These centered on was how care experiences shaped ABEN perceptions of the healthcare delivery system, how ABEN informed and shaped their social interactions when caring for patients and residents, the barriers to providing care and to fulfilling work practices and processes that ABEN described and the components of a model to adjust or remove experienced barriers. The sample consisted of 17 registered nurses, 16 females and one male, from five African countries, who participated in individual interviews. Lee's push-pull theory formed the theoretical framework of the study. Responses from interviews and researcher field notes were coded and thematically analyzed to determine answers to research questions. Six categories emerged from conceptual data analysis: optimism, self-development, confronting barriers, discovering, assimilation drive, and adaptability. A four-stage model of acclimation was developed from these six components. Results have implications for healthcare policy changes such that ABEN become fully assimilated and accepted as contributors to healthcare delivery in Maricopa County.</p>