This is the second of two articles on World Bank support for technical and vocational education and training in sub-Saharan Africa. The first article reviewed the World Bank's latest policy document on TVET in SSA. This article takes a broader historical perspective by examining the evolution of World Bank policy and practice in this key area of education provision during the last 30 years. The Bank took the lead during the early 1990s in actively promoting a comprehensive reform strategy for TVET in SSA which sought to reduce the role of the state in direct training provision and to make training systems more demand-driven. The serious implementation shortcomings of this strategy eventually led to the emergence of a new approach to skills development in SSA in the late 2000s which places considerably more emphasis on the centrality of skills development for national development.