TVET Can Be A Catalyst For Employment Creation In Ghana

Ahmed Akusie Osei, GNUTS President

The President of Ghana National Union of Technical Students (GNUTS), Mr Ahmed Akusie Osei has highlighted the need for Ghana to focus on Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) which provide people with technical and professional skills to ease the rate of unemployment.

He stressed that, training people for self-employment provides socio-economic and industrial development for the country.

Ahmed Akusie noted that there is a high rate of unemployment in Africa hence the demand for professionally and technically trained personnel by adopting policies and measures that encourage the growth of investments in human resource development and improvement of social infrastructure for vocational education and training to translate significantly into economic growth.

Read the statement below:

GHANA NATIONAL UNION OF TECHNICAL STUDENTS (OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT)

How Technical and Vocational Education Can Be a Catalyst for Employment Creation in Ghana

The objective of Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) is to provide people with the technical and professional skills necessary for the socio-economic and industrial development of the country. The emphasis is on training people for self-employment.

Unemployment and productivity are serious problems facing the younger generation of Ghana today. Statistics of the Ghana Statistical Service, collected in 2021 has shown that, the unemployment rate of youthful population (15-24 years) in Ghana are the hardest hit by the country’s unemployment situation, the unemployment rate among the female population is 15.5% higher than the rate for males, which is 11.6%.

The 2021 population and housing census indicate the overall Youth population in Ghana (15-35 age range approximately 11.7 million), with Youth Unemployment rate at 19.7% estimating 1,140,009 (Ghana Statistical Service, 2021 Population and Housing Census, World Bank).

In Africa today about 60% of young people are unemployed and the situation is mainly due to demographic changes and skills shortages (Mantar, 2013). It is important to appreciate however, this unemployment among the youth of Africans is attributable to lack of technical skills on that path of the African youth, and the inability of the government to explore and bring to light comprehensive actions that will expand the base of skill acquisition and the promotion of technical institutions. The establishment of TVET is one which is commendable, but the question here is how is it propelled, does it have the necessary resources for operationalization?

Considering the country Ghana with a-lot of resources in terms of it natural resources, the exploration of these resources are done by the use of equipment and highly skilled individuals for the operationalization and maintenance of such equipment. This means that with effective Consideration of the Technical education, our country will be able to train individuals in order to handle the exploration of these resources and hence eliminating or reducing the having to employ foreigners to handle this crucial sector of our economy this leads to reduced unemployment rates and increasing productivity which are essential to a nation's economic development.

Technical education undoubtedly can play an important role as far as development into the future is concern. However technical university as established are expected to help in the realization of this solemn dream of developing technical technocrats who will lead to the industrialization front of this country. Recent publication on the various newspapers and other news outlet have pointed out to the work that the technical universities are doing in that desirable direction. The recent invention of the Koforidua Technical University, Tamale Technical University, and the Cape Coast Technical University has shown the extent to which Technical Universities are working to promote the growth of technical education, and skilled oriented graduates. We cannot however in spite of the tremendous efforts by this universities to bring about this invention, fail to acknowledge the difficulty some of the University have to go through in order to come out with this invention. It important that if we are to improve and propel technical education with practical orientation, resources should be made available to finance some of this project. Also, the identification and training of individual that are trying to bring innovative ideas should be at the heart of the country if only we are talking about making technical skills the driver of our future economy.

It is important however that, the government and the private sector institutions should adopt policies and measures that encourage the growth of investments in human resource development and the improvement of social infrastructure so that vocational education and training translates significantly into economic growth. The demand for professionally and technically trained personnel increases with each step towards the industrialization and modernization of production units and workplaces.

Moreover, with the advent of globalization, there is an increase in capital inflows from developed countries to developing countries, which means that the capital production ratios in developing countries would also increase without the imports of technology, and the complementarity between capital and skills would increase the relative demand for qualified personnel. Workforce (Mustafa, et al., 2005), hence the need for a TVET set by the Human Resource Department.

In an article by Schmidtke and Chen (2012) titled "Philosophy of VET in China: A Historical Overview", Huang Yanpei, one of the proponents of pragmatism in China, was convinced that VET had three purposes: preparation of the individual to live on earned income, instilling in people a desire to serve society and fostering productivity.

Vocational education has been seen as a way for individuals to explore and discover their talents and hone them in order to serve society most effectively (Schmidtke & Chen, 2012). In 1951, the official goal of secondary vocational education in China was to develop a large number of lower and middle-level technical personnel, while emphasizing culture and science, advanced technology and form physical, and the desire to serve society wholeheartedly (Fang, Liu & Fu, 2009) in (Schmidtke & Chen, 2012).

In addition, the article indicates that the resolution on the reform of the education system, issued by the Central Committee of the Communist Party in 1985, declared that vocational education should be developed in order to create a technical workforce whose ability productive would contribute to strengthening social development.

In 1991, Minister of Education Li Tieying stressed that vocational education should be seen as "a means of forming a skilled labor force" for the purpose of national economic construction, but at the same time it had time a relationship with the well-being and happiness of the population. Life in France is one of the rare countries to have succeeded in integrating vocational training into higher education.

Giret (2011) cited that the professional streams developed in universities in France in the 20th century benefited from the rapid increase in student numbers, and in 1970 they represented only 4% of university students, in 1998 they represented 14.2%. In 2006, 43.1% of young people in France attended technical and vocational establishments (OECD, 2008).

More emphasis should be made on TVET related programs and project so that more attention can be channeled to such as been done by China, Germany and France just to mention a few; and this can be done with the commission and Services in charge of TVET. Another away of curtailing unemployment by using technical education is to be keen on Ghana Tertiary Education Commission and TVET services to regulate the Technical University in such way that humanity courses should be limited and more TVET courses should be enhanced with practicalities.

Though “MY TVET, MY SKILL, MY FUTURE” campaign launched by the Commission for TVET to change the negative perceptions about TVET in Ghana and to increase enrollment in Technical and Vocational Institutions in Ghana but the necessary attention hasn’t been given to it to harness the talent and growth it needs.

There are more opportunities in Technical and Vocational Education Training if more attention is given to it; skills training improves individuals to be technically and vocationally increased competitiveness at the global level with respect to job acquisition and reduction of unemployment mostly vulnerable minorities’ thereby alleviating poverty among the vulnerable in the societies. The necessary attention given to Technical and Vocational Education Training will help to transform and increase the country’s production, export and Gross Domestic Products rates (GDP) hence vocational education and training, allows students to gain practical experience in their chosen career path before they even graduate." Students who finish those rigorous programs, have the credentials and training they need to get started right away in their chosen career path. Vocational learning opportunities play a critical role in skill development and employability. The importance of vocational development can largely be summed up as the difference between theoretical knowledge vs. practical skills.

Taken into the direction the country is moving, one cannot expect less from the promotion of technical education, in helping to improve agriculture, banking, health care, and all in all the national economy.

Ahmed Akusie Osei

GNUTS NATIONAL PRESIDENT

(0547569922)

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