Panellists at the 2026 US-Africa Nuclear Energy Summit (USANES) in Accra have identified social stigma, weak career incentives, poor accountability and outdated curricula as major challenges limiting the development of Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) systems in Africa.

They said the challenges went beyond funding constraints and required reforms to improve how TVET was perceived, managed and aligned with labour-market needs, particularly as African countries develop complex infrastructure and nuclear energy programmes.

The observations were made during a strategic session on “Operationalising Technical and Vocational Systems for Strategic National Infrastructure Development”, held under the theme “Technical and Vocational Excellence”.

The session examined structural challenges facing TVET and the reforms required to reposition vocational training as a strategic component of national development.

Director of the Technical and Vocational Skills Training Department at Nigeria’s Industrial Training Fund, Nancy Ekong, said inadequate financing was only one part of the problem and called for stronger governance and institutional commitment.

“The major issue is that we look at finances, but then I believe that it is not just finances,” she said.

Ekong cited Nigeria’s career structure as one factor that could discourage young people from pursuing technical education.

She explained that while university graduates could progress to director-level positions in the civil service, polytechnic graduates could face lower career ceilings unless they obtained additional qualifications.

“You will agree with me that no parents will want the child to be stagnated,” she added.

Ekong also raised concerns about the management and use of training resources, citing an Industrial Training Fund programme that supplied equipment to training institutions.

She said a review conducted about a decade later found that much of the equipment had remained unused because instructors lacked the skills to operate it.

“We’re talking about a situation that the instructors did not know how to use this equipment,” she said.

She said the experience highlighted the need for clearer institutional responsibilities and stronger accountability across Nigeria’s formal and informal training systems.

In Ghana, the Director-General of the Ghana TVET Service, Ing Dr Eric Kofi Adzroe, said vocational education should be recognised as a direct pathway to employment, wealth creation and national development.

“TVET is the only key to jobs, wealth, and national development,” he said.

Adzroe outlined efforts to streamline Ghana’s TVET system following the enactment of the Pre-Tertiary Education Act, 2020, which he said brought together about 11 agencies previously implementing TVET programmes under nine ministries.

He said the Ghana TVET Service now supervised nearly all of the country’s 261 TVET institutions, while efforts were underway to establish a dedicated TVET Fund to strengthen the sector’s financial independence.

However, Adzroe identified the relevance of training as a more fundamental challenge than funding.

He said a review of Ghana’s training calendar after he assumed office showed that the system did not provide sufficient hands-on instruction.

“This calendar is grammar TVET,” he said, arguing that technical training must focus more on practical skills than classroom theory.

He said reforms had subsequently shifted the curriculum towards practical instruction, with practical training now accounting for close to 62 per cent of instruction.

Adzroe also advocated a stronger link between instructor performance and career progression, arguing that promotions should reflect demonstrable results in the classroom.

He said instructors should be able to demonstrate the skills they had imparted to students as evidence of their effectiveness and readiness for promotion.

The discussion underscored the need for African countries to treat TVET as a strategic component of national infrastructure development rather than as an alternative pathway for students who do not pursue university education.

The panellists called for curricula to be aligned with labour-market needs, instructors to be equipped with practical competencies, training resources to be properly managed and career structures to provide clear opportunities for technically trained professionals to progress.

They noted that countries developing complex infrastructure, including nuclear power programmes, would require technicians, artisans and other practically skilled personnel to complement scientists, engineers and other professionals.