**15. Government and policymakers**

Government and policymakers play a vital role in creating an enabling environment for innovation and competency development in TVET. They are responsible for setting the vision, policies, and regulatory framework that guide the TVET sector. Key responsibilities of government and policymakers include:

The twenty-first century presents a range of challenges and opportunities for TVET institutions, as they strive to remain relevant and effective in the face of rapid technological advancements, evolving labor market demands, and a growing emphasis on lifelong learning.

The following final section summarizes the key findings from this chapter and offers recommendations for future TVET policies and practices, as well as the prospects for TVET in the twenty-first century.

To ensure the on-going success and relevance of TVET programs, it is essential for institutions to embrace a culture of continuous improvement and innovation. This chapter provides recommendations for enhancing TVET programs, focusing on fostering a culture of innovation and creativity, continuous improvement and program evaluation, integrating soft skills and employability skills into curricula, and encouraging lifelong learning and continuous skill development.


*Article* **A Comparative Analysis of the Diets of a Genus of Freshwater Turtles across Africa**

**Luca Luiselli 1,2,3,\*, Gift Simon Demaya 4, John Sebit Benansio 4,5, Fabio Petrozzi 6, Godfrey C. Akani 1,2, Edem A. Eniang 1,7, Stephanie N. Ajong 1,8, Massimiliano Di Vittorio 9, NioKing Amadi 2 and Daniele Dendi 1,2,3**

**Abstract:** *Pelusios* (Testudines: Pleurodira) is an Afrotropical endemic genus of freshwater turtles that have adapted to a variety of habitats, with savannahs and forests being their two main habitat types. Although considered generally carnivorous, these turtles have rarely been subjected to detailed field surveys for determining their quantitative diet. In this paper, by using both the literature and original data, we analyze the diet of several *Pelusios* populations: three *P. adansonii* populations from South Sudan, one *P. nanus* from Zambia, seven *P. castaneus* from Nigeria, Benin and Togo, and four *P. niger* from Nigeria. All species were omnivorous but with a clear preponderance of the prey items being of animal origin (e.g., amphibians, fish, arthropods and annelids). Saturation curves revealed that the diet composition of all the surveyed populations was adequately assessed, and the diversity profiles indicated that all the populations were relatively similar in terms of overall dietary diversity. General Linear Models (GLM) showed a negative effect of vegetation cover on Anura adult consumption by turtles, and showed that the frequencies of Anura tadpoles, fish, reptiles and birds on *Pelusios* diets increased with the increase in vegetation cover. The GLM model also showed positive effects of individual body size on algae, Bivalvia, reptiles, birds and small mammal consumption by turtles, and underlined that the predation on Arachnida decreased with the increase in turtle body size. In all species, there were no significant intersexual dietary differences, whereas there were substantial ontogenetic dietary changes in three out of four species. Small-sized individuals of *P. castaneus*, *P. niger* and *P. adansonii* tended to feed mainly upon insects, with the adults also taking many fish and adult frogs, and in the case of P. niger, also birds and small mammals. Conversely, in *P. nanus*, the diet composition did not vary substantially from the juvenile to the adult age. All species appeared substantially generalist in terms of their diet composition, although the effects of season (wet versus dry) were not adequately assessed by our study.

**Keywords:** chelonians; pelomedusidae; foraging ecology