Advancing decent work through TVET-based MSME training: Post-training outcomes

Owning a micro-, small, or medium-sized enterprise (MSME) offers a viable alternative to paid employment, enabling skilled individuals from vocational backgrounds to generate sustainable livelihoods. However, technical and vocational education and training (TVET) programs often focus narrowly on occupational skills, and there is a lack of understanding about how entrepreneurial training shapes entrepreneurial mindsets among vocational learners. This study thus examines posttraining outcomes from a structured entrepreneurship program embedded in TVET, designed to equip students in a developing economy to start and manage microenterprises, directly supporting Sustainable Development Goal 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth. Using a pretest–posttest design with 252 participants, we observed significant positive shifts in entrepreneurial attitudes, risk tolerance, innovativeness, and intentions posttraining, highlighting the effectiveness of targeted training in fostering entrepreneurial capacity among nonacademic learners. By focusing on a traditionally underrepresented population, this study provides timely evidence for policy makers and educators to enhance MSME ecosystems through inclusive, skills-based interventions, with implications for scaling in other developing contexts. Notably, some participants’ scores remained unchanged for all six constructs. Additionally, for the entrepreneurial attitudes and intentions variables, some respondents reported lower posttraining scores. The general positive trend—particularly the strong gains in perceived behavioral control and innovativeness—when viewed against findings from other developing settings (for example, South Africa), underscores the context-sensitive nature of entrepreneurship training interventions and their potential to support desired outcomes. Given that the study draws on a single TVET institution, the findings may not be applicable to other vocational training environments within the same national context.