Obtaining a comprehensive and detailed picture of the labour market outcomes of secondary school
leavers and university graduates is essential in order to enable governments, donor agencies and other
key stakeholders in civil society to develop well-designed education and employment policies. Anecdotal
evidence and generalisations abound concerning the employment outcomes of secondary school leavers
and university graduates, but there is very little solid, accurate information on what these groups in
African countries do after they have completed their education. The main objective of the research project
has been to fill this gap in Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe. Standard tracer survey methodology
has been used to generate comprehensive time-series information on the activity profiles of representative
samples of secondary school leavers and university graduates. This information provides an invaluable
source of data for monitoring and evaluating the impact of educational reforms.
The research project explores the types of employment activities secondary school leavers and
university graduates engage in currently and how these have changed over the last twenty years. In
addition, the research details the further education and training activities leavers and graduates undertake
to improve their labour market opportunities. The research also describes the major trends and patterns
of international migration and explores the extent to which the “brain drain” is an important and growing
problem for low-income African countries. The project explores the opinions of school leavers and
graduates about their education in the light of their employment experiences, and analyses the changes
they think would improve the links between education and employment.
This report presents the research conducted in Malawi and is part of a set of country case studies
that also includes Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe. In addition to the country reports a synthesis report
has also been produced which compares the experiences of secondary school leavers and university
graduates across the four countries.
The research project was managed and co-ordinated by Paul Bennell (Knowledge and Skills for
Development) and Samer Al-Samarrai (Institute of Development Studies). The research project has been
entirely funded by the Education Division of the UK Department for International Development. We
would like to thank DFID for their support for and funding of this research project.