Ghana education regulatory bodies: Cause of graduates unemployment

Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) refers to all forms and levels of education and training which provides knowledge and skills related to occupations in various sectors of economic and social life through formal, non-formal and informal learning methods in both school-based and work-based learning contexts.

TVET focuses on the learning and mastery of specialised techniques and the scientific principles underlying those techniques, as well as general knowledge, skills and values.

TVET has proven to be essential in promoting economic growth and socio-economic development. TVET has long been considered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) as a key area in education, as it continuously faces challenges in preparing workers with dynamic knowledge (Maclean, 2010).

Why graduates are unemployed?

There are fewer job openings relative to the vast number of students who graduate from various tertiary institutions in the country. A cause of the current graduate unemployment problem is the mismatch between the supply by schools and the demand in the labour market.

Governments want to ensure the production of a well-educated, skilled and informed population. A population that is capable of utilising its knowledge and skills to transform the key sectors of the economy for wealth creation and poverty reduction is most desirable.

Some countries are implementing various interventions to improve the quality of their education, to achieve the rationale for good education, by instituting educational policies at the basic school level through to the tertiary level.

Individuals acquire knowledge and skills through basic and higher education, including Technical and Vocational Training, to become more competitive in the labour market and also have the chance of being gainfully employed.

Persistently high rate of unemployment has been a major problem facing the youth, with the 2020 Population and Housing Census indicating a youth population of 11.7 million (15-35 age range approximately), with the youth unemployment rate of 19.7 per cent.

Technical, traditional universities

African Education Watch, a think tank, asserts that out of about 110,000 students who graduate from university, only 10 per cent secure jobs after their national service.

TVET has proven to be essential in promoting economic growth and socio-economic development, which the government and the society should support by promoting Technical Universities to help individuals to be self-employed, with courses like Electrical Engineering, Fashion and Designing, Building Technology, Mechanical Engineering, etc.

With that, they can start establishing themselves in business after school.

Recommendation

The government must come out with policies to stop the Traditional Universities from expanding and opening campuses in regions where technical or vocational universities are located.

We want educational Regulatory Bodies to start regulating what goes to reduce the huge number of students opting to go for skill training and demand-driven programmes rather than the concentration on general education.

Also, the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC) and the Commission for TVET (CTVET) need to take direct interest in regulating the enrolment of students into studying programmes that do not actually train students to gain skills that are industry-led and demand-driven.

Skills training that prepare students to have entrepreneurship and hands-skills must be the cardinal focus of the regulatory bodies.

The writer is the PRO of the Ghana National Union of Technical Students (GNUTS). E-mail: bossohfoster@gmail.com