Skills hold key to Ghana’s future — Stakeholders
Ghana’s future rests in the hands of its youth, but only if they are equipped with the right skills to drive innovation, create jobs and solve national challenges, a Deputy Director-General of the Commission for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (CTVET), Abdul Rahman Zakariah, has said.
He made this call at the 2025 World Youth Skills Day (WYSD) conference held in Accra last Tuesday, where CTVET and its partners rallied stakeholders to prioritise technical and vocational training as the pathway to national transformation.
The conference which was held on the theme “Empowering Youth for Sustainable Development: Bridging Skills Gaps for a Resilient Future”, brought together policymakers, educators, industry leaders, students and development partners to discuss practical ways of strengthening skills training to address unemployment and boost sustainable development.
Call to Action
Mr Zakariah said the country’s youthful population represented both an opportunity and a responsibility.
He warned that without the right training, the country risked leaving its future workforce behind.
“Our youth are eager and capable, but capability without opportunity is wasted potential. Skills development must not be reduced to an annual event; it is an everyday mission. We must ensure young people are equipped to sustain livelihoods, create jobs and contribute meaningfully to society,” he said.
Investment
The Board Chair of CTVET, Nii Doodo Dodoo, in his keynote address described investment in the youth as a strategic necessity, warning that if the country’s youthful population was not properly trained, it could become a liability rather than an asset.
He explained that young people had the energy, creativity and resilience to transform their communities when they were supported with the right tools and opportunities.
Mr Dodoo added that in every thriving economy, it was the youth who were at the forefront of innovation, entrepreneurship and social transformation.
Citing a story of a young lady, Adiza Hussein, an auto mechanic in Tamale who now owned a workshop and trained others, he said such examples showed how skills could move young people from vulnerability to empowerment.
“When our youth have the right skills, they are empowered not only to seek work but to create it. They become innovators, leaders and change-makers who strengthen communities and drive economic growth,” he said.
He stressed that the future of the country’s industries depended on this transformation.
“If industry wants to prosper, there is no alternative than to invest together with education in the young people we have today,” he added, noting that the private sector, in particular, had a crucial role to play in shaping a workforce that matched global standards.
Call for modern facilities
The President of GNUTS, Yahuza Gariba Alhassan, said the enthusiasm of students to learn and innovate was often dampened by outdated facilities and obsolete machines in technical institutions.
“How can we expect students to compete in a global economy when they are trained with tools of the past?”, he asked.
He urged the government to invest in modern workshops and retraining for instructors to meet the demands of automation, renewable energy and artificial intelligence.
Mr Gariba, however, commended the government’s initiatives such as the National Apprenticeship Programme, the One Million Coders Project and the You Start initiative, but stressed that quality infrastructure was essential for such policies to deliver results.
