TVET: Employment portrait for a hopeful generation

Unemployment is an existential threat to the security of every nation. The case of unemployment is not a minor detail in any narrative in our society today.

The heightened level of joblessness forbids anyone from taking a public stance of neutrality. The recent migration by the youth to the Western world for greener pastures is attributable to fewer job opportunities in the country.

However, Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) has proved to be the game changer and enabler in providing employable skills to the youth in Ghana.

Interestingly, the Free Senior High School Policy has increased the number of second-cycle school graduates annually. These go through grammar education without acquiring employable skills. Thereby making the narrative of unemployment obvious. This demands a raft of measures to create sustainable employment schemes. 

Despised

Suffice it to say that Technical and Vocational Education and Training in the past was despised, and perceived as the avenue for the intellectually less endeavoured and financially disadvantaged. The lacklustre and unappealing nature led prospective students, and parents alike to avoid opting for any related programme under TVET.

Unfortunately, as these students look elsewhere in academics, they graduate and join the long queue of the unemployed.

Fortunately, the Ministry of Education has scaled up funding to raise awareness of the positive and transformative impact of TVET.

The recent efforts to prioritize programmes in this area of education have been deliberate to attract the youth to the sector because grammar education has held sway over TVET in the country’s education for a better part of our development.

Varied strategies

In addition, varied strategies have been initiated to change the perception widely held about TVET. These include retooling TVET institutions with state-of-the-art machines to replace hitherto outdated ones.

Despite TVET being included in the Free Senior High School Policy, a Commission for Technical and Vocational Education and Training has been established to regulate the space. Additionally, the Ghana Technical and Vocational Education and Training Service is enacted to oversee the operations of technical schools or institutions in the country.

The Ministry of Education has also dedicated funds to support TVET programmes. 

Despite the above measures to put forward the employment opportunities technical and vocational education, the Ministry of Education through the Commission for Technical and Vocational Education and Training has developed a five year development plan for TVET in Ghana.

These measures and provisions are meant to attract students and parents alike to TVET and stamp out or scale down youth unemployment in the country.

The above is indicative of the fact that the prioritization has been deliberate and the desired change has been emphatic and potent. It helps deflect the destructive force of unemployment seeping through the youth.

Nonetheless, the Commission for Technical and Vocational Education and Training and the Ghana Technical and Vocational Education and Training Service should embark on a massive public communication campaign to drive home the benefits of reading TVET programmes.

It will help erase the stereotypes around TVET and present it as a programme of choice. This will attract intelligent students to opt for Technical and Vocational programmes and not expect the less academically endowed to consider as their destiny. TVET can generate sustainable decent jobs through skills acquisition. 

Priority

The elevation of TVET should be the priority of every government to sustain the momentum to draw in the youth. It will be unfortunate for the nobility given to technical and vocational education to be rolled back.

This will harm the progress made and the quest to eradicate or cutback on youth unemployment. Again, our priorities cannot be altered anytime there is regime change as there is a ground swell of evidence of the employable skills and opportunities which lays in TVET.

There is the crucial need to win over parents and students to realize the employment bit of TVET.

It will be exaggerating to say, youth unemployment is alarming, however, I will sound clueless to say, it is not a national security threat. Therefore, every effort should be made to turn the tide of unemployment around through TVET programmes.  

The writer is Head, Corporate Affairs
Complementary Education Agency
E-mail: ayalolo4@gmail.com 050