One day while working for the UN in Switzerland years ago, I called a plumber to fix a broken toilet at home. He arrived, knocked on the door. I opened. Parked in my driveway was a BMW. “Is that your car”? I asked. “Oui”, he replied. Is this a plumber?, I wondered silently.

When he finished and gave me the bill, I gasped! The link between his labor costs and the life he could affford became clear. The cost of labor is high in advanced countries because vocational skills pay. In Africa everyone wants to be lawyer/doctor/banker.

We need to fix our educational system to focus more on vocational and technical skills that can have good economic value in the labor market. Until we do, our universities will remain pipelines into the long lines of the unemployed.