Microcosms of the Skills Ecosystem: Building Communities of Practice (CoPs) to Tackle Food Insecurity and Youth Unemployment in Northern Mozambique

Paulo Guilherme, Ndjate Kinyamba Junior and Ana Carolina Rodrigues ()
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Paulo Guilherme: Faculty of Agricultural Sciences Campus Unango, Lurio University, Unango P.O. Box 3003, Mozambique
Ndjate Kinyamba Junior: Faculty of Agricultural Sciences Campus Unango, Lurio University, Unango P.O. Box 3003, Mozambique
Ana Carolina Rodrigues: School of Global Studies, University of Gothenburg, 413 14 Göteborg, Sweden

Social Sciences, 2025, vol. 14, issue 7, 1-16

Abstract: This article reflects on a capacity-building project co-designed with two universities in northern Mozambique to strengthen partnerships in the educational sector in addressing local issues of youth unemployment and food insecurity. The project focused on building communities of practice (CoPs) around the three secondary-level schools delivering agricultural education and training with the participation of universities’ lecturers from agricultural universities as well as students and rural communities. These three CoPs became collaborative networks foregrounded in participatory action research that allowed for a joint production of knowledge. Because of this, we propose to frame these CoPs as microcosms of an expanded skills ecosystem that exists on a territorial level and encompasses diverse forms of knowledge. Despite the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, CoPs created opportunities for students to do practical work that is often lacking in training and, especially, to encounter entrepreneurship possibilities that can facilitate education–work transitions. With this experience in mind, we ask ourselves, how can CoPs harness skills development towards the education–work transition for youth in agriculture? Our insights into this question are based on three years of project implementation (2021–2023) and, hopefully, will contribute to better understand the role of vocationally trained youth for Mozambique’s agricultural development.

Keywords: communities of practice; agricultural training; entrepreneurship; participatory action research; skills ecosystem; joint knowledge production (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A B N P Y80 Z00 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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