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Ghana’s Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) sector has recorded notable gains in access and reform implementation, but continues to be constrained by serious infrastructure and financing challenges that threaten the quality and relevance of skills training.
The findings are contained in the third edition of the Ghana TVET Report, which was launched at a national symposium in Accra and is intended to guide policy, planning and reforms in the skills development sector.
The Minister of Education, Haruna Iddrisu, who launched the report, said the document reinforced the urgent need to reposition TVET as a central pillar of Ghana’s economic transformation agenda.
He announced that he was seeking Cabinet approval to establish a dedicated TVET fund to provide sustainable financing for the sector, particularly to address infrastructure deficits and improve training delivery.
He further disclosed proposals to allocate 10 to 15 per cent of the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) annually to TVET, as well as dedicate 2.5 per cent of oil revenue to human capital development, with a focus on skills training and entrepreneurship.
Mr Iddrisu identified inadequate infrastructure and limited funding as the most pressing challenges facing TVET institutions across the country.
He explained that many training centres operated without modern workshops, tools and equipment, making it difficult for learners to acquire the practical, hands-on competencies required by industry.
In some institutions, he said, students were forced to rely heavily on theoretical instruction due to the absence of functional training equipment, a situation he said undermined the core purpose of TVET.
Mr Iddrisu stressed that improving infrastructure must be a national priority, including investment in workshops, laboratories and modern equipment aligned with industry standards.
On financing, the minister said the sector had suffered from inconsistent and inadequate budgetary support over the years, affecting expansion, quality improvement and innovation.
He indicated that the proposed TVET Fund would provide a predictable and dedicated source of funding to support infrastructure development, equipment procurement, instructor training and overall system strengthening.
For his part, the Director-General of the Commission for TVET, Zakaria Sulemana, explained that the Ghana TVET Report served as a centralised national data source for tracking progress and informing policy decisions.
He said the report, produced annually under the Education Regulatory Bodies Act, 2020 (Act 1023), provided evidence on the state of skills development in the country.
Mr Sulemana said the latest edition placed stronger emphasis on the quality and relevance of training, particularly at the Higher National Diploma (HND) level.
He explained that the report examined how learners transition from training institutions into the world of work and evaluated the effectiveness of the National TVET Qualifications Framework.
The report, he said, also tracked progress in competency-based training, work-based learning, recognition of prior learning, certification systems and enrolment trends across formal and non-formal TVET sectors.
He said the country had made progress in expanding access to TVET, including increased enrolment across institutions and the implementation of the free TVET programme.
The report also highlighted the development of competency-based curricula and improvements in coordination and data systems within the sector.
The Head of Development Cooperation at the German Embassy, Daniel Böhme, speaking on behalf of the German government, commended Ghana for its continued commitment to evidence-based reforms in the TVET sector.
He said global trends such as digitalisation, artificial intelligence, climate change and shifting labour markets were transforming the nature of work.
Mr Böhme stressed that countries that invested in relevant skills development and workforce readiness would be better positioned to achieve economic resilience and competitiveness.
