Countries in East Africa have prioritized setting up Industrial parks and export processing zones to accelerate industrial development. For instance Ethiopia has invested over US$1.5 billion investments in agro industrial parks expected to create 1.5 million job opportunities in the manufacturing sector by 2025.
While the manufacturing sector has created formal employment opportunities for youth and increased growth in exports, its contribution, in general terms, to the overall Gross Domestic Product (GDP) still lags behind the global average.
EASTRIP is designed to address challenges in skills shortage and mismatch, by providing technical, financial and industry partnership to increase access and improve the relevance and quality of training programs in the 16 selected regional TVET flagship institutes.
EASTRIP supports the development of highly specialized TVET programmes in key growth sectors including tool making, leather, textile technology and garments, and agro-processing for training of technicians and TVET faculty. The following institutes have been selected as Regional Flagship TVET Institutes for Skills Development in manufacturing sector.
Ethiopia
| Regional Flagship TVET Institute | Focus |
| TVET Institute | Tool making/leather |
| Hawassa TVET Polytechnic College | Textile/garment |
| Holeta TVET Polytechnic College | Agro-processing |
Kenya
| Regional Flagship TVET Institute | Focus |
| Kisumu National Polytechnic | Textile |
Tanzania
| Regional Flagship TVET Institute | Focus |
| DIT Mwanza Campus | Leather |