Ghana must revolutionize technical training – Afeti

Ghana must revolutionize technical and vocational skills training and education to be able to take a leap against youth unemployment and attain global competitiveness.

Dr George Mawusi Afeti, a former General Secretary of the Commonwealth Association of Polytechnics in Africa has recommended, saying, “…many of the high performance economies in the world have a sizeable proportion of their youth enrolled in Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) programmes.

“…the proportion of young people below 25 years enrolled in TVET is “77 percent in Austria, 70 percent in Finland, 51.5 percent in Germany, 50 percent in Korea, 44.6 percent in Spain and 8.7 percent in Brazil with only 1.8 percent in Ghana.

“For these desired outcomes to be achieved, it is imperative for government to create conducive policy environment that will promote effective industry collaboration and partnerships with training providers…” and an economic demand for young people with TVET skills.

“It is when an enabling environment is created for enterprises to grow and expand that opportunities arise for additional skills training and skilled jobs,” Dr Afeti asserted.

Addressing the opening ceremony of the 31 annual conference of Association of Principals of Technical Institutions (APTI) in Kpando on Monday, he said the demand for TVET skills is a function of the labour market.

An enabling environment must therefore be created for enterprises to grow and expand. “That is when the youth with TVET skills get employed, productivity is enhanced, the economy grows and poverty reduced.”

Dr Afeti, former Rector of Ho Polytechnic recommended marriage between the formal, often rigid, technical and vocational training approach and the dominant flexible informal vocational and technical training to modernize and enhance productivity in the informal economy.

He said the current structure of the Ghanaian economy does not engender demand for high level skills. The private sector is therefore neither keen nor obliged to enhance their operations by employing new technologies and better skilled workers.