Ghana is intensifying reforms in Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) aimed at making skills development more digital, inclusive and aligned with labour market needs, even as infrastructure and equity challenges persist across institutions.
The reforms focus on expanding digitalisation, strengthening dual training pathways, and increasing female participation in technical fields, alongside efforts to better match training programmes with industry demand.
This was disclosed by Wilma Titus-Glover, Principal Programmes Officer for Inclusive Education at the Ministry of Education, during a stakeholder forum in Accra on TVET delivery and inclusion at the pre-tertiary level.
The forum, organised by the Forum for African Women Educationalists with support from the Mastercard Foundation, focused on promoting Gender Responsive Pedagogy (GRP) as a core model for TVET transformation in Ghana.
Madam Titus-Glover said the government, through the TVET Directorate, oversees the sector, while regulation is handled by the Commission for Technical and Vocational Education and Training and implementation at the pre-tertiary level is managed by the TVET Service.
She noted that access to TVET has improved under the Free TVET Policy, with 231 public institutions now participating nationwide. Enrolment has also risen significantly, from 32,407 students in the 2020/21 academic year to 50,049 in 2022/23, reflecting growing interest in skills-based education.
Despite this progress, she acknowledged persistent gaps in infrastructure and inclusion, with about a quarter of institutions reporting poor learning facilities and more than 70 per cent lacking adequate support systems for learners with disabilities. Some schools, she added, still depend on external workshops for practical training.
To address these challenges, she said government is rolling out programmes such as the Ghana TVET Voucher Project and the Ghana Jobs and Skills Project to support apprentices and master craft persons, particularly in the informal sector.
From a regulatory perspective, Hannah Okyere highlighted ongoing gender disparities in the sector, noting that women make up about 36 per cent of TVET enrolment, with fewer than 20 per cent in technical trades.
She attributed the gap to cultural norms, weak policy enforcement, limited mentorship and inadequate gender-responsive infrastructure, including poor sanitation and safety concerns. She called for stronger policies, better data systems and increased participation of women in non-traditional trades.
Meanwhile, Dora Mochiah presented a digitised Gender Responsive Pedagogy tool designed to improve teaching practices and make learning more inclusive.
Developed by FAWE Ghana in collaboration with UNICEF and UNESCO’s International Institute for Capacity Building in Africa, the online training tool covers areas such as gender-based violence, learner-centred teaching, inclusive language, and classroom management.
Stakeholders from the Ministry of Education, the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission and partner organisations at the forum described gender-responsive TVET as central to Ghana’s human capital development and its commitment to Sustainable Development Goal 4 on quality education.
They reaffirmed their commitment to strengthening collaboration, improving learning outcomes and expanding access, particularly for young women, as part of broader efforts to reform Ghana’s TVET system.
