A former Finance Minister under the erstwhile President John Evans Mills administration, Dr Kwabena Duffuor has admonished the government to focus on Technical and Vocational Training (TVET) as it is the only effective solution to rising youth unemployment in Ghana.
“The neglect of technical and vocational training over the years might have contributed to the high unemployment and rising poverty among the youth. Many of them lack basic job skills.”
“High youth unemployment and prevalent skills gaps within the labour force, underlines the necessity for vocational and technical education. Ghana must place TVET education in the centre of job creation strategy to successfully address the high youth unemployment,” the former Governor of Ghana’s Central Bank said during a dubbed ‘The Ghanaian Dream; Transforming the economy through job creation and opportunities for all” on Monday, November 29, 2021, at the Tang Palace.
Dr Duffuor also stated that as much as 20% of the employed population have had no formal education while 54% have basic education and just 16% have higher education.
Dr. Duffuor said Ghana’s labor market shows an urgent need for decent high-quality jobs for the growing population in the country.
“Not only does unemployment cause poverty but higher crime rates. Children with unemployed parents don’t do well academically. The inability to create good jobs and gain sustainable jobs for the young people will foster the problem of inequality. It’s also an issue of gross economic inefficiency.
“Although the officially measured rate of unemployment is about 8.4% as of 2017, and there’s a concern for young people’s access to decent employment. Without a transformation of the current economic structure, employment opportunities will remain limited,” he added.
He, therefore, called for the training and an educational system that should be geared towards making the trainees innovative, critical thinkers and technologically adaptable.
