A two-day National Workshop was organised in Ghana on 23 and 24 January under I-WORK project. The aim of the workshop was to highlight the work done in developing ‘Draft National Apprenticeship Policy’ for Ghana and to share some good practices learned through international partnerships with some selected commonwealth countries.
Our objective
To improve work opportunities for young people including those from disadvantaged backgrounds within the commonwealth by piloting and introducing new approaches to employer led skills development.
Our strategy
“The existence of a National Apprenticeship Policy is long overdue and now especially is the time to ensure we have one to move TVET forward in our country” – Gifty Ampofo Twum, Deputy Minister of Education, TVET
Upon assessing Ghana’s apprenticeship system using a unique Apprenticeship System Benchmarking tool developed by the British Council, it became clear that a unified apprenticeship policy is needed if Ghana is going to move forward and become globally competitive within the TVET ecosystem. The British Council in collaboration with the Council for Technical and Vocational Education Training (COTVET) has developed a ‘Draft National Apprenticeship Policy’ to bring harmony in the way apprenticeship is practiced in the country. There are currently about 9 different ministries within Ghana with each managing apprenticeship their own way. The draft policy when approved and operationalised will harmonise all activities within the ministries under one standard and bring about positive change.
To fortify our TVET training institutions, 6 training providers from Ghana were put into clusters with training providers from Malaysia, India, South Africa and UK to work on projects to promote mutual learning and good practices amongst commonwealth member states. Both leaders and practitioners from all the 6 TVET training providers had the opportunity of travelling outside Ghana to see, share and most importantly learn from other training providers.
Our impact
There is now in place a ‘Draft National Apprenticeship Policy’ already going through approval processes to becoming a working document. Almost 400 people attended the National Workshop on I-WORK project. This shows how important this policy and fostered partnerships are to Ghanaians. Through the partnerships, some of our training provides have already acquired industrial machines, acres of land etc. to improve teaching and learning within their schools. Some have formed Boards to help set up committees to create new and improve upon existing systems.
“For any country to develop, more than 50% of their young force should be in TVET” – Fred Kyei Asamoah, Executive Director - COTVET