Accra, Oct. 11, GNA - An estimated 95 million youths in sub-Saharan Africa are illiterate, unemployed or employed in low-paid jobs due to the absence of relevant skills for productive employment. A Garcia and Fares 2008 Survey indicated that this has increased crime and indiscipline as well as putting pressure on governments to ensure job creation for the youth.

Dr George Afeti, Chief Inspector of Schools, Ministry of Education, announced this at the opening session of a two-day Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) Policy Review Workshop in Accra on Tuesday.

The workshop organised by Council for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (COTVET) was to review the 2004 TVET Policy as well as identify concrete options and strategies for improving TVET policies and TVET system in the country. In addition, the participants would deliberate on how to bridge the gap between policy formulation and implementation of TVET to help the youth contribute to sustainable development for a better future. Topics to be discussed in groups include: policy formulation, main challenges and issues, governance, quality and quality assurance, relevance and employability, assessment and certification, skills development in the formal and informal sectors. Dr Afeti pointed out that TVET was established for the acquisition of employable skills and development of competent and global competitive workforce for economic growth. He attributed the poor public perception on technical and vocational education that it was for the less endowed or those from poor backgrounds to its less attractiveness for human resource management.

Dr Afeti called on government to make Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in all TVET institutions compulsory to enable the trainees become abreast of the modern trend of technology to meet the job market demand.

He called for national TVET policy to be tailored to the country's ability to manage the policy as well as its labour market, education and training system. Dr Afeti said rapid growth created the demand for skilled labour and resources for training therefore, TVET policies had to be integrated into a broad based national strategy for economic growth, employment creation as well as poverty reduction.

Mr Asamoah Duodu, a retired Director of Ghana Education Service (GES), said Ghana was challenged with economic, social and demographic problems that called for a thorough review of TVET to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

He said the long-term objectives, embodied in the Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy (GPRS) also provided the impetus for reshaping the TVET system in order to generate the human capacity required for sustained industrialisation.

Mr Duodu said the Ghanaian TVET system was institutionally based under different Ministries, Agencies, and Private Sectors with each developing and offering its own supply driven programmes with only little or no input from the industries. He called on the Government and industries to introduce training centres in all industries to help the youth acquire more skills on the job market.

"Ghana's education and training opportunities must be diversified to serve the needs of all sectors of the economy," he added. The Retired Director called on companies to partner the Government to employ more of youths to curb the unemployment rate in the country.

He called on the Government to allocate a percentage of its budget to TVET in addition to the allocation of 10 per cent of GETFUND to TVET to enable the management of these institutions discharge their duties effectively.

Mr Duodu urged stakeholders to establish a Ghana TVET Fund to mobilise foreign revenue to support skill training in the country. Mr Daniel Baffuor-Awuah, Executive Director, COTVET, who touched on the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) guidelines for TVET policy review, said UNESCO at its previous session expressed the need to scale up access to quality TVET and agreed to support TVET over the period 2010-2015 to reduce poverty.

He said the TVET Policy was to focus on mechanisms to prepare individuals for the world market but lack of logistics rendered the programme unattainable.

Mr Baffuor-Awuah said the workshop would also help to address issues confronting students in TVET and put in place strategies that could help attract more youths to offer Technical and Vocational training.

He said vocational training was one that had not been successful and that there was the need for the Government to invest in it. Mr Baffuor-Awuah said the aim of Ghana's TVET system was to improve the productivity and competitiveness of skilled workforce as well as raise the income-earning capacities of people especially women and low-income groups through the provision of quality oriented industry-focused and competency-based training services. In addition, it would provide an open access to education and training without prejudice to gender or socio-economic background of an individual.