The Skills Initiative for Africa (SIFA) is an initiative of the African Union Commission (AUC) supported by the German Government to strengthen occupational prospects of young people in Africa. Africa is growing and to fuel this growth it needs skilled labour that caters to the needs of the growth sectors of the economy. The importance of employable skills development in a broader sense is increasingly understood by African governments and significant efforts have been made. The Heads of State and Government of the African Union (AU),) have laid down the vision and ideals for the continent’s accelerated development and technological progress to serve as pillars for the continent in the foreseeable future. The African Union’s Agenda 2063 calls for a paradigm shift towards transformative education and training systems to meet the knowledge, competencies, skills, research, innovation and creativity required to nurture the future. To unleash the potential of skills development and technical and vocational education and training (TVET), the African Union has developed a “Continental TVET Strategy” that provides a comprehensive framework for skills development and youth employment. Nonetheless, a shortage of qualified teachers, scholarships and inadequate infrastructure as well as an absence of practical vocational curricula and missing or inadequate technical and didactical equipment still pose significant challenges to the successful implementation of the Strategy. SIFA Financing Facility Under the SIFA, a Financing Facility for Skills Development has been established. The Facility is implemented by the AU’s New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD Planning and Coordinating Agency - NPCA), with financing from Germany through KfW. The Financing Facility for Skills Development is designed to coherently address the common challenges in skills development by upscaling and/or disseminating local best practices and supporting innovative and sustainable approaches